Many students attend courses on financial analysis, but they do not have the chance to put the knowledge into practice.
Pro-investor has been developed to give this practice. How do you pick the right stocks based on trends in the country, industry and market segment? Do the earnings per share (EPS) or price earning ratio (PER) give you an indication about the growth and overpriced stocks? What about the price trends in recent years?
Go to Pro-Investor and put your knowledge into practice. Register an account. Read the Guide. And Play the game. Practice many times, until your reach Level 9 and register to be a Champion.
Friday, January 29, 2010
High housing price in Singapore
Dear Mr. Tan,
Singapore's current leaders, instead of owning up to a bad performance, attempts to do their job using the cheapest instrument - words.
They insist repeatedly that housing is affordable on one hand, against everyone's common sense,
and yet they also claim that the rapid climb in Singapore's housing prices is a positive and purposeful result of PAP's good work in growing our economy and that is where your wealth and your kids' future wealth will come from.
And to top it off, Lee Kuan Yew put forth the assumption that should Mah Bow Tan be ousted from Tampines GRC, everyone should sell their flats because it will become worthless?
http://whomovedmysingaporecheese.blogspot.com/2010/01/let-truth-be-told.html
Singapore's current leaders, instead of owning up to a bad performance, attempts to do their job using the cheapest instrument - words.
They insist repeatedly that housing is affordable on one hand, against everyone's common sense,
and yet they also claim that the rapid climb in Singapore's housing prices is a positive and purposeful result of PAP's good work in growing our economy and that is where your wealth and your kids' future wealth will come from.
And to top it off, Lee Kuan Yew put forth the assumption that should Mah Bow Tan be ousted from Tampines GRC, everyone should sell their flats because it will become worthless?
http://whomovedmysingaporecheese.blogspot.com/2010/01/let-truth-be-told.html
Abolish the Financial Advisors Act?
Comment posted in TKL Blog
I have a radical suggestion and that would be to scrap the FAA. The FAA is one hell of a bible that I can bet that not a single financial adviser rep has read and understood it from cover to cover. What it does is raise entry barriers to new FAs. I'm not exactly well-versed with the FAA but I believe one such instance is that FAs must have a capital of a certain minimum sum. This prevents FAs with an "ethical" culture from thriving as they won't have that kind of capital in the first place. It is a known fact the "unethical" reps "earn" more than "ethical" reps for their principal.
Another problem in the FAA is under training and competency. Anyone and everyone should be allowed to hold a license. This way, where's the "information assymetry" now? These "part time" brokers can act as the "direct channel" that has been dreamed of for such a long time. They have full time jobs and just act as "form fillers" who knows the drill and won't stuff any products down your throat since they don't live on that anyway. The FAA restricts such "neutral" brokers as the FA has to spend resources to train them to satisfy CPD hours. Without the FAA breathing down FAs to train their brokers, FAs will be more than happy to have "inactive" brokers who do nothing but help friends and relatives fill forms. They know what's going on behind the scene, the commission, the exclusions etc and won't lose too much dough sharing with his "prospect" for the lack of a better word. Honestly, the training for CPD hours is nonsense. How does holding a party at Expo or Suntec count as 5 hours of skills or knowledge?
The professional consultants who do real financial planning can still carry on with their usual rounds, but as many have pointed out, "the probability of finding an ethical and upright financial sales staff is 0.01%."
People always draw analogies between financial "consultants" and doctors. There is a stark difference here. Financial planning is voluntary, and can be managed by yourself provided you read TKL's good book and do research. In fact, you would make the most objective decisions this way as there is 0 conflict of interest. Medicine however requires years of study and training and medical services demand a high price due to this exclusivity to only the brightest and most determined of the population. If fiancial services were to become such (given even higher entry barriers), people will avoid them altogether due to the high charges and simply read TKL's book instead.
wjsim
I have a radical suggestion and that would be to scrap the FAA. The FAA is one hell of a bible that I can bet that not a single financial adviser rep has read and understood it from cover to cover. What it does is raise entry barriers to new FAs. I'm not exactly well-versed with the FAA but I believe one such instance is that FAs must have a capital of a certain minimum sum. This prevents FAs with an "ethical" culture from thriving as they won't have that kind of capital in the first place. It is a known fact the "unethical" reps "earn" more than "ethical" reps for their principal.
Another problem in the FAA is under training and competency. Anyone and everyone should be allowed to hold a license. This way, where's the "information assymetry" now? These "part time" brokers can act as the "direct channel" that has been dreamed of for such a long time. They have full time jobs and just act as "form fillers" who knows the drill and won't stuff any products down your throat since they don't live on that anyway. The FAA restricts such "neutral" brokers as the FA has to spend resources to train them to satisfy CPD hours. Without the FAA breathing down FAs to train their brokers, FAs will be more than happy to have "inactive" brokers who do nothing but help friends and relatives fill forms. They know what's going on behind the scene, the commission, the exclusions etc and won't lose too much dough sharing with his "prospect" for the lack of a better word. Honestly, the training for CPD hours is nonsense. How does holding a party at Expo or Suntec count as 5 hours of skills or knowledge?
The professional consultants who do real financial planning can still carry on with their usual rounds, but as many have pointed out, "the probability of finding an ethical and upright financial sales staff is 0.01%."
People always draw analogies between financial "consultants" and doctors. There is a stark difference here. Financial planning is voluntary, and can be managed by yourself provided you read TKL's good book and do research. In fact, you would make the most objective decisions this way as there is 0 conflict of interest. Medicine however requires years of study and training and medical services demand a high price due to this exclusivity to only the brightest and most determined of the population. If fiancial services were to become such (given even higher entry barriers), people will avoid them altogether due to the high charges and simply read TKL's book instead.
wjsim
Wages and purchasing power
According to this article, Singapore has the lowest wages and domestic purchasing power among the Asian Tigers.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Improved version of Pro-Investor
An improved version of Pro-Investor has been uploaded. The summary and stocks are sorted in descending sequence based on the latest year's yield. The investor can identify the categories (i.e. country, industry sector and market segment) that performed best during the past year. It is likely that these categories will continue to perform better than average during the following year. The sorted figures make it easier for the investor to pick the stocks based on this strategy.
Practice makes perfect. Try this simulation game many times and learn how the prices are affected by the trends in the country, industry sector and market segment. This is suitable for students learning fund management to practice their stock picking skills, and get a feel of the practical environment.
Although this simulation game is based on its internal model, it still give the challenge to the player to identify the strategy to pick the right stocks. The strategy will have to be changed in the real world environment, but the skill remains the same. Try this simulation now. Read the Guide. Register an account and Play.
Tan Kin Lian
Practice makes perfect. Try this simulation game many times and learn how the prices are affected by the trends in the country, industry sector and market segment. This is suitable for students learning fund management to practice their stock picking skills, and get a feel of the practical environment.
Although this simulation game is based on its internal model, it still give the challenge to the player to identify the strategy to pick the right stocks. The strategy will have to be changed in the real world environment, but the skill remains the same. Try this simulation now. Read the Guide. Register an account and Play.
Tan Kin Lian
Housing prices and cost of living
If a family lives in a rented home and there is an increase in the rental charge, it results in a higher cost of living.
The purchase price of a home is the discounted value of the future rental. If the purchase price increases, the monthly installment to pay the loan also increases. This is almost the same as paying a higher rental.
If housing prices continue to increase, the owner will benefit as the cost is already fixed at the time of purchase. This was the case in the past, where the cost of property represents a low percentage of the average income, i.e. when housing was inexpensive..
In recent years, the housing prices has increased to a high proportion of the average earnings. It is not possible for housing price to continue to escalate, as the people cannot afford to these prices, when their earnings have stagnated.
The high housing price will be a burden for the future generation. They pay a high price and has to service the loan using a higher proportion of their earnings. The prices will not continue to escalate, after it has passed the "affordability" mark.
It is better to have a system where the housing prices is not left to speculation in the market. The housing prices to be controlled, and kept within a reasonable proportion to the average income. .
Tan Kin Lian
The purchase price of a home is the discounted value of the future rental. If the purchase price increases, the monthly installment to pay the loan also increases. This is almost the same as paying a higher rental.
If housing prices continue to increase, the owner will benefit as the cost is already fixed at the time of purchase. This was the case in the past, where the cost of property represents a low percentage of the average income, i.e. when housing was inexpensive..
In recent years, the housing prices has increased to a high proportion of the average earnings. It is not possible for housing price to continue to escalate, as the people cannot afford to these prices, when their earnings have stagnated.
The high housing price will be a burden for the future generation. They pay a high price and has to service the loan using a higher proportion of their earnings. The prices will not continue to escalate, after it has passed the "affordability" mark.
It is better to have a system where the housing prices is not left to speculation in the market. The housing prices to be controlled, and kept within a reasonable proportion to the average income. .
Tan Kin Lian
Stabilize the price of new HDB flats
I suggest that the Government should set the prices of new HDB flats based on a multiple of the average earnings, rather than on the prices of resale flats. The prices for new flats could serve as a benchmark for the prices of resale flats, rather than the other way round.
If the HDB publishes the prices of new flats and is ready to build more flats to meet demand, it would help to create a stable market for the new and resale flats. This would be better for the economy and for the people who need a place to live in.
A person's home should not be subject to speculation or for asset enhancement. The prices of the home should be kept at an affordable level, relative to the average earnings.
If the HDB publishes the prices of new flats and is ready to build more flats to meet demand, it would help to create a stable market for the new and resale flats. This would be better for the economy and for the people who need a place to live in.
A person's home should not be subject to speculation or for asset enhancement. The prices of the home should be kept at an affordable level, relative to the average earnings.
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