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Thinking…. to be gracious or not?

fordy — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:54:01 +0000

Lately there were lots of people questioning the graciousness of Singaporeans. One of the areas/topics most discussed about is the issue with regards to MRT seats. It concluded that Singaporeans are less gracious as lesser and lesser commuters are willing to give up their seats to the either the Elderly or Pregnant ladies.

This post is neither supporting the proposition nor debating against it. I just want to relate 2 experiences which i encountered.

Experience number 1

I seldom sit in MRT trains (usually stand) because of my size and I know that once I sit down, no one will sit beside me – conclusion, I take up 2 seats. But this day I was lucky as there was not many people in the train. So I sat on the Elderly/Pregnant lady seat.

So we reached Orchard and many people boarded the train. It became so crowded and within a moment, every seat was taken up. Being on the Elderly/Pregnant seat, I tend to look out for people who matches the seat’s description (I am very altruistic one okie!). So I saw this foreign lady who had a belly standing in front of me. So without any delay, I gave my seat to her.

After seating for 1 minute, she stood up and in turn gave her seat to her husband standing in front of her.

I felt stupid. Beer Belly!

Experience number 2

I boarded an empty train (the newer model with larger seats). Once again I sat on the Elderly/Pregnant seat. As usual, because it was peak hour, the train was packed by the time we reached Orchard and every seat has been taken up. Again came a lady with a bit of a belly (not very big, but neither is it small) So I thought to myself, “is this lady pregnant a not. Is it because of the way she dressed, resulting in a larger tummy? Hmm…. should I give my seat to her?” Anyway she managed to squeeze her way to the center of the train and took out a book. She began to read it without holding on to anything. “Wah!” I thought, “She is good! Have the agility to balance herself reading a book in a moving train.”

So i was in a dilemma-

If she is pregnant, I don’t give up the seat, people say I act sleeping.

If i give up the seat (given that fact that she has the agility to stand reading the book, which highly suggest that she is not pregnant), and if she is not pregnant but happened to have a big belly, then I will feel bad embarrassing her, suggesting that her belly is big. (of course, I never realized until now that it does not matter because no other passenger will know whether or not she is pregnant.) If you understand this paragraph, I think you are very good with if statements.

So I think think think and before I could come to a decision, the person sitting beside me got out of the train and the big bellied lady rushed to the seat almost immediately.

So…………. people think I act sleeping.

Perhaps we think too much!

Posted by: Fordy Lai 2008

I am such a good investor!

fordy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:57:22 +0000

I always thought that I am some investment guru- whatever I invest in, I will surely make money. I soon realized that I am such an amateur after starting to trade 2 weeks ago.

Maybe let me explain what are warrants before I summarized what I stupidly did. Warrants are somewhat similar to options and there are basically 2 types of warrants. A call warrant and a put warrant. A call warrant gives you the right but not the obligation to purchase the underlying security at a given price (strike) at maturity. A put warrant on the other hand gives you the right but not the obligation to sell the underlying security at a given price (strike) at maturity. Even though that there are much theoretical teachings such as delta, gamma, etc hedging, I seriously think that for amateurs like you and me, we only need to know some of the factor affecting the prices and some fundamentals of warrants investing:

(1) Call warrants – Generally, the price of a call warrant of a specific underlying asset will increase when the share price of the underlying asset goes up. (Of course at this time, the professionals will then talk about whether the warrant is in-the-money, out-of-the-money or at-the-money crap. Seriously, unless you want to exercise your warrant, you do not need to care about these things) – of course, the call warrant price goes down when the share price of the underlying asset goes down.

(2) Put warrants – Works inversely the other way: Share price of underlying asset goes down; the price of the put warrant goes up.

(3) Time value, as warrants do have an exercise/maturity/expiry date, the value of the warrant goes down as that date is nearer.

Okay, these are some fundamentals la. Correct me if I am wrong.

SO BEING A SMART ALEC,

Day 1 (Wed 20/02)

I decided to purchase a STI 3100 PW expiring on the 280308. In short, I was betting against the STI to remain below 3100 points. During the day of the purchase, the STI was down. The price of this warrant is $0.25 per warrant. Since I thought that I could make a quick profit, I decided to purchase 10 lots = 10000 warrants, so that I can do intra day contra and make like a few hundred dollars in just a few hours.

I entered my order into the system. My order was executed almost immediately since I bought as the market rate. I don’t seem to enjoy any beginners luck as the moment my order was done, the price of the warrant went down.

Day 1 loss = $300 + commission

Day 2 (Thurs 21/02)

Observe the market for the whole day. Dow Jones Industry Average (DJIA) went up = STI went up. Cannot sell.

Day 2 loss = $300 + commission

Day 3 (Fri 22/02)

DJIA went up, STI went up.

Day 3 = same loss

Day 6 (Mon 25/02 due date)

DJIA went up again; STI went up up and away.

Price of PW = $0.20

Due date loss = $500 + commission (definite loss)

I have no choice but to sell it off at a loss.

BUT BEING A SMART ALEC again, I decided that since the price of the PW is so low now ($0.205 at market), I will purchase another 10 lots so that I can recover my loss.

Similar to the same trade, the order was executed immediately and as the usual fashion, the price went down a bit.

Day 7 (Tues 26/02)

DJ went up, STI went up

Nothing much to say

Day 8 (Wed 27/02)

DJ went up, STI went up

Haiz!

Day 9 (Thurs 28/02)

DJ went up, STI went up – since I picked up the warrants this time, I can sell it off anytime I want.

Sianz!

Day 10 (Fri 29/02)

DJ went down! Wohoooo! STI also went down.

My warrant’s price finally went up. I reminded myself that I have to sell off these 10 lots of PW by today (last day of Feb) because the expiry date is in a month’s time and there are more risks involved. Anyway I did sold off that day, at the price I bought the warrants – 0.205, losing the commission to the company. Warrant’s high was 0.215 which I didn’t sell it then. Stupid me.

So after my virgin trading experience, I am $540+ poorer. So much for an investing guru I thought I was.

Lessons learned:

(1) Don’t be kan cheong, wait for the best price to sell or buy

(2) Warrants are very volatile, quick profits are very possible but it goes for the other way as well

(3) Hold your warrant for a slightly longer time as it takes time for the price of the warrant to reach your target price. Pick up the warrants.

(4) Don’t put your eggs in one baskets

(5) Trade within your means; don’t buy 100 lots if you can’t afford to pay for the contra loss

SO I DECIDED TO PUT EVERYTHING BEHIND ME, and treat what happened as an valuable experience -

Price of the STI 3100PW on 030308 (today) – $0.295 (highest)

What else can I say?

Posted by: Fordy 赖 2008

Ahhhh

fordy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:43:05 +0000

I miss you! a lot a lot a lot!!

Fordy 2008

fordy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:07:53 +0000

Last seen: 25 Nov 2006

Period of absence: 460 days 15 hours and 50 minutes

Previous job: Singapore Armed forces

Present company: UOB KH

Present Job: Dealer (equity)

Current Location: UOB Plaza Tower 1

Hi everyone,

it has been so long i blogged that i do not remember my password, luckily i was smart enough to save it in an email. So much things have happened over the past year. As you can see the last entry was made whilst i was still in Netherlands. After one year, i still miss Netherlands so much other than the fact that i was spending too much money.

So this is what i did since then:

December 2006

Continued my class with Computing. In the end i failed my exams but the prof still passed me because he thought that i put in enough effort. YAY! After school term ended, i went traveling with the NTU people. Kinda weird because i used to hate NTU so much? But i really had tons of fun with them!

January – April 2007

Took the following courses, Strategy, Analysis of Derivatives, IE and CR. Wah, nearly died but i cant be bothered to type anything with regards to academic matters. I graduated with a cummulative GPA of 3.2, a huge difference from the 3.7+ which i had in year 1. But i do not care.

April – August 2007

I did an internship at DBS Vickers Securities (S) Pte Ltd. I interned as a client services officer at its contact centre. I answer calls as well as getting scolded everyday by customers who lost money trading. But i gain a really good insight of what is happening in the financial industry and cultivated an interest trading. Stress! everyday because i have to answer a lot queries and screams liked, “HOW MUCH IS MY CONTRA LOSS!!! TELL ME NOW!”

Special mention in July

Went to commencement and organized the Graduation Night – Nostalgia 2007. Had a great time at both events.

August – December 2007

Go back to army. Nothing much. Waste time as usual. Duty here and there. After that start finding work to do. Helped out with family business before starting to work.

January – present

Working as a lowly paid dealer who kinda got bored at work today and decided to blog. Haha.. I like my job a lot cause i get to see screens of numbers.

Okie i shall go back to work le!

bye

regards, fordy lai 2008

fordy — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 20:41:30 +0000

i burnt my hand, my laptop down, my new camera fell into a toilet bowl. and now i dont know how to do my programming homework.

look at this question:

Write an algorithm that computes all prime numbers smaller than or equal to 1000 by the help of the Algorithm of Eratosthenes and writes them into a file named primes smaller than thousand.Eratosthenes was a Greek scientist and poet who lived from 276 BC to 194BC. See http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/sieve.html for the algorithm.

so far i learnt the basic use of array, if else statements ; loops functions and more thing with C++.

but i somehow dont know how to do.

looking forward to going home.

so i am hanging on on my life now.

ford

What if i am borned in 1987?

fordy — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:02:29 +0000

If i was borned 5 years later:

(1) I would be enjoying my primary school in its new school campus

(2) I would be enjoying my secondary school in its new school campus

(3) I would be enjoying my JC in its new school campus

(4) I would not have memories of my old campuses and lament at the fact that it is impossible to go back and see what and where i had been through before

(5) I would serve the SAF for only 2 years instead of 2.5 years

(6) I would be able to take up Quantitative Finance in SMU

(7) I would be able to take a double degree in SMU with Business (quantitative finance) and Law and be a lawyer and businessman at the same time

(8) I could have taken the new discipline on commodaties trading and become a trader

(9) I could be even well off with the prospects of the degrees that i might be taking rather than my Business Management degree majoring in marketing and finance

(10) I might study harder and plan better so that i can be the Valedictorian

everything is too late now…….

but i am glad,

because if i am borned 5 years later, i would’t have met you.

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/1247565/view]

posted by: Fordy lai

How to find me!

fordy — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:35:29 +0000

Not Goededag! Ik ben uitstekend! Hoe gaat het?

hellooooo! how’s everyone doing? I hope you are doing as well as me. i must really apologies for not posting so often – I had been lazing around!

For the past month, I had been traveling and sleeping and eating. Not to far far away countries, but in Netherlands plus some trips to Belgium! It was great fun! You should really come for an exchange.

me outside the Schiphol airport

So if you happen to come to Netherlands, you can come and find me!!!! It’s fairly simple! What you need to do is to arrive at the Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport. From there, it is really simple already. I will go through with you a step by step illustration on how to find me. This is because I will not go to the airport to pick you up. Below is the route which I came to Maastricht with.

if you want, you can walk to Maastricht. Follow the train tracks

Step 1: Before you leave from anywhere, please go to http://www.ns.nl and look for a travel planner, please pick the English language one. Then you type in from airport to Maastricht and pick a time after your arrival time. Let us assume that you are arriving at 0730am.

Time	Station	Platform	Direction
08:31	Schiphol	1	Amsterdam Centraal
08:50	Amsterdam Centraal	14a
08:58	Amsterdam Centraal	5	Utrecht Centraal
11:36	Heerlen	5a
11:56	Heerlen	1	Maastricht
12:18	Maastricht	6

This above is an example of what you should get from the travel planner. Take this information down because it is quite important because it tells you where you would be required to change your train etc. If you are afraid of missing the train, do print other timings of the train. Different timings of departure require you to change at different train stations.

Step 2: Once you reached Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport, please turn left from the departure gates/hall. You should be able to find big signs telling you where the train station is. (The train station is below the airport). Next, you would be require to buy your train ticket. There are 2 ways of buying a train ticket; one way is to purchase them from the yellow machines as shown. The other easier way would be to purchase them from the tickets kiosk/office (which is quite visible). I would recommend you to buy it from the kiosk/office because it is easier and faster. However, if you buy from a kiosk/office, you would be required to pay an additional 50cents Euro. Don’t worry about communication because their English is fairly well. If you die die want to experience buying tickets from the machines, you can do so as well. It is simple too! They give English instructions which are easy to follow. Please select the following, (1) singles (if you plan to stay with me for a few days), returns (if you plan to see me for 3 hours), (2) 2nd Class (if you want first class, it cost 44.50 Euros), (3) full-fare (because you do not have a discount card), (4) on the day (the ticket is valid for the day) and of course the destination. I seriously do not know how I bought the ticket when I first came here because. So I anyhow press and wala!, a ticket drop out, which I thought that I paid by my credit card. If you do not have a credit card or debit card, please prepare 27.30 Euros worth of coins. Importantly, do not be alarm when you see the yellow rectangle small piece of ticket. The ticket does not show the train timings. It will only show (1) Dutch which you do not understand, (2) From where to where, (3) The amount which you paid.

look out for these machines!

Step 3: Follow your NS planner information which you printed out from this point onwards. How do you interpret that information? Time shows what time your train leaves. The platform is where the train will be. In this case, it is platform one. Please check the direction. In this case, please check that it goes to Amsterdam Central. Then board the train before 831 am. The timing of the train is very very accurate. If you reach the airport at 730am, come out of the hall at 745am, eat your breakfast until 815am and then 829am then finish buying your ticket, good luck to you! You have 2 minute to get inside your train before it starts moving. You will reach Amsterdam Central platform 14A at 850am. Once your train stop, you have 8 minutes to get from platform 14A to platform 5, which leaves for Heerlen platform 5A and reach at 1136am. Then go to platform 1 which leaves for Maastricht at 1156am and you will reach
Maastricht at 1218am. The whole train journey should take 3hours plus. If you feel that you would be bored, buy some magazines or newspapers. Buy some food too if you think you would be hungry.

Vertrek means Departure, Spoor means Platform, Bottom left corner is the destination

Step 4: Once you reach Maastricht, come out and you would see a bus stop. Look for buses 1,2,3,4,8,22 (actually I don’t know whether I am correct a not, just in case, take numbers 1,9 and 22 which I normally take). Get up the bus and tell him you want to go brusselsport (pronunciation: Brussels – port) or you can tell him that you want to go to the court house. Then he will alert you where to get off. The bus fee should be 1.60 Euros.

Maastricht Station

Step 5: Call me at +6598****** (friends you should have my number right?) if you have auto roaming. Tell me that you are here and I will go pick you up from the bus stop.

See! So easy right?. You only need 15+ hours to see me! Come Come! I will cook you a hot meal!

Posted by: Fordy Lai

Maastricht

fordy — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 21:49:47 +0000

Maastricht is a very uncommon place as compared to Madrid, Paris, Brussels and of course Amsterdam. Even Eindhoven i heard before, but i have never heard of Maastricht. To be honest, i was kind of worried, and these questions came into mind: would i be able to make it safely there, how do i get there, is Unversiteit Maastricht really that nice, etc etc.

When i first arrived, there were someone who came and fetch me. I sat in the van and look around and thought to myself, “chey, nothing much.” Little did i know that we are only passing through the road and there is more than it meets the eye.

The second day, i took a walk myself and went to the city where the university is located. Universiteit Maastricht’s architecture concept is the same at SMU’s. It is located in the city center. the only differences are (1) The difference schools are located far (okie not that far) from each other, at least you wont see the other when you are in one of them. (2) The term city may not be appropriate. If you want me to use a term to describe their city, it would be China town. It is because of the buildings situated all around the city. They are like shophouses. Exterior look like shophouses, but interior is quite modern.

Maastricht is really a very nice place because it is like the embodiment of the europe. haha a bit “overstatement”. But really, when you are here, you feel like you can see what kind of buildings there are in Europe because they were really built in that way. Es ist Shoen!

In maastricht you can find churches and fortress that were built in the 1200s and they are well preserved. My friends from Singapore, Jerry and vincent even went for a service or mass (i dont know the spelling) in one of the catholic churches. They felt that it was really beautiful.

Till now i really never regreted coming here!

Universeteit Maastricht is definitely a good university to come for exchange. Firstly, the level of english usage is comparable to what we have in Singapore. At least for a Taiwanese, i can understand haha. They have the unique way of teaching, which is problem based teaching. Problem based teaching is similar to how Harvard teaches. Harvard teaches theories and then make students apply them to the cases, but Maastricht gives problems and cases first and make us think what solutions then install the theories into us, and we solve the case again. They have a smaller class size as compare to SMU, with 14-16 students to a tutor. They have tutorials with this class size and also expectes students to speak up in class. Damn, i thought that i can skip talking in class!!!!

However, the PBL pedegody is quite difficult as many seniors told me. You really have to prepare for class in order to get a decent grade. For exchange students, unless you are prepared to mug, dont come here. haha. I am a mugger! Anyway they do fail exchange students. The class that i enrolled in, is Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management. The passing rate for exchange students is 46% and the average grade is 5.5/10 (just pass) haha. DIE! Anyway, the dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Adminstration proclaimed that Universiteit Maastricht’s FEBA is the top business School in Europe. Dont know how true is that?

some photos:

(up) My building, The ARC A building. Nice and cosy but not as happening. haha

(up) My cosy room at night

(up) On my way to school: their so called houses (not HDB though)

(up) another shot on the houses

(up) 2 Churches side by side, On the left is a protestant church and on the right is a Catholic church

(up) Door of the Protestant Church

(up) One of the Windows of the Catholic Church

(up) Some shop houses in the city

(up) Another church taken at night

(up) Another church (dont ask me what they are called, cause i dont know)

(up) The entrance to my Faculty, Faculty of Economics and Business

(up) The lecture hall

(up) The number of exchange students who came to the faculty: 500 from worldwide, only 16 students from Singapore, 2 from SMU.

Anyway, all these buildings that i took are what i see when i go to school. I have 2 classes a week, tuesday and fridays! yay!! haha..but i guessed i will have to work harder so that i fall in the range of the 46% who passed.!

i am clever, i am hardworking, i am super, i am good, i am smart, i am strong, i am brainy, i am a financial expert, i dont need financial calculator, i know the formulae of WAcc and can caluculate the present value of a 10 year 5% coupon bond, i know whos the CEO of SGX, and i know that i am not going to fail!

haha, sometimes a bit of self psycho-ing can work!

best from Maastricht, The Netherlands,

Posted by: Fordy Lai

Arrived at the land of Orange!

fordy — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:10:33 +0000

I never knew sitting in an airplane can be so tiring. Peharps it is because i do not have any experience sitting in flights as long as 13 hours. Sianz. I sit until my butt hurts. Before the trip, i thought to myself, ” Wah i hope sitting beside me is a Japanese Girl going to the same Univ for exchange, then i can make friends already!” haha. My wish came true. Really, there was a Jap gal sitting beside me! But she is the Shy shy type, the only converse that we have are,” excuse me, i need to go to the toilet,” and “sorry (because of the limited area of movement there)” haha. I dont think she is going to any university, just transiting there. (she not very chio also)

Okie , talk so long, my point of the story is, don’t sit in an economy class (even if it is SIA) if you are fat. Damn uncomfortable! Sit at least in business class (but its damn exp). If need to, my next trip to anywhere that is long haul, i will take business class. (if i am rich)

I am going to set up a budget airline only with business class seats. Haha.

Once I reached Schipol (Amsterdam) airport, I was amazed by a couple of things.

(1) I see smoking points in air-con areas.

(2) People bringing dogs into the airport.

So next time u see these things, don’t be like me mountain tortoise Okie? So after reaching, I went to the train station underneath the airport. Had some difficulties buying the tickets because when you buy, they tell you in English, the tickets they issued were all in Dutch, so I don’t understand a single thing of what I bought. Later I show you all photos.

The trains quite cool la, but quite dirty. Anyway, my trip to
Maastricht requires me to take change trains. So I have to take one train to Utrecht Central and then take from there to Maastricht. The first part of the train was no problem because it was damn straightforward. The second part when I change trains was a headache. I was nearly fined 62 euros for sitting in a first class area (which I have no idea really) When the conductor came, he asked me to show him the ticket. I did, and show him the one that I did not even know what it was. Then he said I bought a 2^nd class ticket and should not be in the first class. Then he said he will send me the bill. Actually I can’t be bothered because I was too tired to explain. Then I ask him how should I pay? After a long conversation which involved using the words like, “No excuses!” I said “can I pay by VISA?” he laughed and said,” Okie we have an agreement here, you sit back and relax.” And he walked away without asking me to pay. Damn heng!

EVERYTHING IN EUROs IS EXP!

I bought a cup of cappuccino at 1.70 euros, and a snicker bar at 1 euro, 1 pepsi @ 1 euro and I had a 12 euro dinner. Damn. Today I think I spent SGD 100+. Sianz

Some photos:

2nd Class Train Seats:

1st Class Train Seats:

One Beautiful scene of Netherlands when taking a second class train seat:

Some Church in Maastricht (City tour by ESN):

My 12 Euro Dinner:

My Cosy ROOM!!!! :

haha, Thats all for the first day in the Netherlands! I miss all of you already! 4months very fast to get over! I will be back very soon!

Posted by: fordy Lai (30 August 12 midnight (euro time))

Thank you friends!!!

fordy — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 21:41:51 +0000

Thank you Justin, Thank you Lian, Thank you Karen, Thank you Geraldine, Thank you Kitson, Thank you Michelle, Thank you Hai Long, Thank you Min, Thank you Gerard, Thank you Gilbert, Thank you Wildon, Thank you Xuan Ming, Thank you Fortuna, Thank you Jasmine, Thank you Addy, Thank you David, Thank you Fangwei, Thank you Jayne, Thank you Kerchoon, Thank you Josh, Thank you Ade, Thank you Melvin! Thank you father, thank you mother, thank you Dajie, thank you erjie, thank you jie fu! Thank you all! for sending me off!

I was shocked when all of you came, i didnt expected it, Although there is poppyes there as the first agenda, i felt really good that at least you all shun bian come and send me off.

Thank you Convoc team + addy + Ade + Min + Melvin + Kitson + Family! I love all of you!

Thank you people! i will miss you all!