The US Fed has been increasing the funds rate since March 2022 at a blistering pace. Within a year, the rates raised from zero to over 4.5%. Right now, in April 2023, it is around to 4.8%. However, there now seems to be an end in sight for the rate hikes. Since February 2023, the… Continue reading Slowing of the US Fed Funds Rate Hike
2022, It’s A Wrap
Today is the last day of 2022, a year that most in the investing community would treat with humility. After years of runaway gains and heady valuations in stocks, bonds, properties and digital coin prices, we've now been brought back to reality. As Warren Buffet famously said, "it's when the tide goes out that you… Continue reading 2022, It’s A Wrap
The Negative 10-Year Return of the KLCI
Source: Yahoo Finance The goal of investing is to generate long term returns that beats your personal inflation rate and achieve your financial goals in life. If you've put all your investments in the Malaysian stock market for the past 10 years, you would have soundly failed your goal. As of today November 26th 2022,… Continue reading The Negative 10-Year Return of the KLCI
Strategy for Slow Decline in Stock Prices
When facing recessions, stock prices can take a long a long time to decline to its lowest point. When the dot-com bubble burst in mid 2000, it took about 2 and a half years before the S&P 500 bottomed out. Similarly when the housing bubble burst at the end of 2007, it took a year… Continue reading Strategy for Slow Decline in Stock Prices
Lessons From Bad Stock Investments
There are countless books and articles in the internet recommending ways to assess if a stock is worthy to be invested or not. In most cases, those sources talk about the stocks that do well and use them in their analysis to uncover the metrics that reveal a successful stock. I will do the opposite… Continue reading Lessons From Bad Stock Investments
Inflation and Retirement
It has been a while since my last post. I remind myself that I started this blog as a personal journal of my thoughts but have been too busy to write. Now I am in the holiday period at the end of 2021 and I finally found the time to write again about some interesting… Continue reading Inflation and Retirement
2020 Stocks Review
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash 2020 proved that you can never really predict what's going to happen in the stock market or the economy. As we all remember, there was a flash of panic in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic but things quickly recovered as central banks around the world printed trillions in… Continue reading 2020 Stocks Review
2020 – Lessons to be Learnt on Property Investment
2020 has been a particularly tough teacher in the Property 101 class. The Covid-19 pandemic absolutely wrecked everything in the short term rental space as tourists stopped visiting Kuala Lumpur and many business owners were affected by the movement control orders (MCO) in Malaysia. The first sign of trouble for me was a tenant suddenly… Continue reading 2020 – Lessons to be Learnt on Property Investment
The Illusionary US Market Recovery
A lot has been written about the disconnect between Main Street (the economy and businesses) and Wall Street (the stock market) in the US. With record unemployment in the US, reduction in consumer spending and closures of businesses, it was surprising to see the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices record a 'V' shaped recovery… Continue reading The Illusionary US Market Recovery
An Important Moment In Investing
This post is a follow up from my post 2 weeks ago about trying to time the market in the days of the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, the S&P 500 was down 10% from its peak while the KLCI had dropped to where it was 9 years ago in 2011. In just 14 days,… Continue reading An Important Moment In Investing