Forex in Malaysia

Forex market, aka foreign exchange market is a very popular way of trading. But not until recently that I understand how it works. And more recently only I know that it is illegal for Malaysian to trade forex. Here's the faq by Bank Negara Malaysia on forex trading:


Is trading of foreign currency through the internet allowed?

No. Residents are not allowed to trade currency through internet.

Residents are only allowed to buy or sell currencies in Malaysia with authorised dealers and those entities permitted by Bank Negara. Please refer to website at http://www.bnm.gov.my under "Foreign Exchange Administration" for further details.

Full stop.

Success Transformer Corporation Berhad (KLSE: 7207)

Success Transformer Corporation Berhad was established in the 1980 and is the first Malaysian manufacturer of low voltage transformers and industrial lighting products to be listed on the mainboard of KLSE. It was initially listed on the second board of Bursa on 19 January 2005, and later was transferred to the main board on 26 MArch 2007.

The company is principally involved in the manufacturing and trading of electrical apparatus and industrial lighting. Some of the brand names that they carry are Nikkon, SES, QPS and SUPERLITE. Almost one third of Success' turnover are from West Asia, SEA, East Asia, Africa and OCEANIA. During the economy downturn in 2009, the revenue and profit of Success are not affected. In fact, it has managed to maintain the same result as in 2008. To date (up to their 3rd quarter financial announcement), their revenue stands at 145 million ringgit compared to 143 million ringgit during the same period in 2008. The profit for the same period in 2009 is 19 million ringgit compared to 18.4 million ringgit for Q3 in 2008. This can be regarded as a magnificent achievement for the group as it managed to perform so well when other companies were struggling to keep their business. Of course, we can relate the consistent revenue and profit were partly contributed from its process equipment unit, Seremban Engineering (More on this later). The group is also always trying to expand beyond its current capacity, as we can see from the purchase of a factory in Sungai Buloh for RM5.9m. The purchase is for the consideration of improving the efficiency (and cost down: consolidation of their several factories to one location) of its transformers and lighting division. In the long run, we can see the effect from this factory purchase.

With its current price of RM1.2 and EPS of 16.06 sen, it made the PE at 7.5x. A single digit PE for such a good company! If we were to annualize the EPS (16.06sen x 4/3), it'll be at 21.4sen per share for the FY2009. That will further lower the PE to 5.6x! Truly a hidden gem.

Its process equipment unit, Seremban Engineering (SEB) will be spun-off in 2010 (most likely by March). So far, everthing has gone well with the proposal of the floatation in KLSE. As to date, it has received the approval from SC with the proposed floation of Seremban Engineering (with some listing conformations). The listing will most likely benefit the current shareholder, as there are rumours flying around that there'll be free share (dividend in specie?) from the listing of SEB.

Buy now? For me, I'll definitely load in some of Success shares now. Besides the low PE and possible free shares from SEB, there are some shares buy back activities by the company recently. From my perception, something good is brewing for this company. And with KLCI retreating for so many sessions, the price of Success is steadyly hovering around RM1.20. With a PE target of 8x, I hope I can make some profit from Success when it's trading at RM1.70, maybe within 2-3 months. Hopefully. :D

Barack Obama: State of the Union Speech

Stunning! Simply stunning! That's what I can comment on Barack Obama's state of the union speech. He has never failed to deliver his message to his fellow Americans and to the rest of the world. And this time he did it again.

Just a week after his fellow Democrats lost to Senator-elect, Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special election, concerns are brewing that Obama is losing the support of Americans. Many are in doubts that he has succeed to fulfill his presidential campaign message, "Change, we can believe in". People are saying that he focused too much on the health-care overhaul and has neglected the United States economy recovery. Rumours are also flying around that there has been a cover up in the bail out of AIG last year. At this moment, everything seems so wrong for the first black American president.

But once President Obama is on stage, the gloomy Democrats camp turned rosy. Just like at his presidential campaign, the ever charismathic Obama has never failed to deliver. He managed to relate all the concerns and anxieties of struggling Americans in his speech. From banks in Wall Street to small business in Phoenix, Obama's able to pin point to the current challenges that the Americans face. For each and every challenge, he, Obama has came out with a plan which is very likely to be the solution of the problem. Simply marvellous!

To cut it short, here are the key points of President Barack Obama's speech:

1. Calling for a job bill: to create more jobs in the United States.

2. Stressing on the importance of the health care reform.

3. To cut the United States' budget deficit, by freezing government spending for 3 years, starting from 2011.

4. Appeal both Democrats and Republican to work together.

5. To slowly retreat from both Iraq and Afghanistan.

You can read the complete text of the speech here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-a-Joint-Session-of-Congress-on-Health-Care/

Quick Recap 27th January 2010

Not much time to post today, so just a quick recap for today:

1. Stocks market around the region extended their falls on Wednesday, Jan 27, as investors remained worried over the impact of China's recent credit tightening moves. Shares on Bursa Malaysia fell sharply today, falling for the fourth consecutive day. It was also the second day of double-digit declines for the key FBM KLCI index. The index slumped 17.3 points to end at 1265.8. source: http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/business-news/158533-markets-continue-to-slump-on-china-worries.html

2. Pig heads left at mosques. source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/50981-pig-heads-left-at-mosque

3. Koreas exchanged fire near sea border, markets drop. source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/world/50961-south-korea-returns-fire-from-north--

Well, those are among the headlines that you'll see in tomorrow newspapers.

Double Dip?

Market is really bad today! Almost every indice in Asia are in RED. Shanghai led Asia's drop by dropping 2.42% to 3019.39pts. Our local bourse, KLSE was at the lowest 1278.1 before recovering at 1283.02 (-13.77, -1.06%). This is the worst day so far this year for KLSE. Many will be asking what's wrong with market? Is this the long overdue market correction? Or is it due to the short term reaction over tightening of lending in China and Uncle Sam's 3 years freeze on domestic spending?

Well, both reason can be the excuses for the market to correct itself. Since March 2009 till now, the market has been in bull run (though there're a few minor consolidation in between). This type of rally normally occurs after the recession (I believe to date, we're still in recession, in fact we've not recovered from the previous recessionsssss) and will last 6 to 9 months. During this 6 to 9 months, market is very sensitive to good news and has very little reaction over bad news. Every single news which are less bad or slightly better will be treated as a positive sign for the economy and market. For an example, banks in US. Many banks in US (Citigroup, BAC, etc..) were still suffering losses during that period, but the reporting of the losses were treated as good news for the market. How can this possibly be good news when the company is making billion dollar of losses? Is it because of the lower PE (if you follow the formula, share price/earning, earning is now more negative, thus PE is lower). The reason is simple, the losses that these companies made were less than expected. So the investors think that these companies are on the right track of recovery. But ask yourself, why would you invest in a company that made losses? Ain't that stupid? Back to the fundamental, the reason for you to invest in a company is to make money. Simple as that, but people tends to forget the fundamental during that 6 to 9 months period.

After that 9 months, people or should we call them investors are more intelligent and smarter. Now they know how to evaluate better and have a better judgement. Good news is good news and bad news is bad news. Bad news is no longer good news. Now this is how the market should react. So, the recent dip in market is normal, as there are too many negative elements for the past few weeks. What we can hope now is there are genuine good news coming in for next few months. The next few months will be crucial for the world ecocomic recovery, either a 'V' recovery or 'W' recovery. Be 'V' or be 'W', we want to see genuine and solid economy. Be it!

Commitments

When I was a kid, I used to think that the only way to get rich is to start working. I always ask myself why do we have to spend so much time in school when we can use the time to earn money. As I get older, I found that we need education to earn big. Big as in few thousand dollars a month. I told myself during my uni days that I'm gonna get myself the things that I've been longing for once I started to work. I'm gonna get myself a new super fast computer, I'm gonna get myself this and that. However, when I started to work, I noticed that I'm still unable to get whatever I have wanted all this while. It's not that the things are no longer available or obsolete, but I have learned something new, commitment. Yes, commitment!

I believe every single adults have commitments, whether consciously knowing its existence or sub-consciously hiding behind it. This is the word that prevent you from buying Gucci, LV and Ferrari. This is the word that ties you from 9 to 5 daily. This is the word that keeps you longing for payday. According to wikipedia, Commitment means to show loyalty, duty or pledge to something or someone, and can refer to: read yourself .

So how do we define commitment in our life? Commitment basically depends on the involvement of ourselves in that particular commitment. The more that you're involved, the more significant the commitment is. For an example, you involve yourself heavily on your children's A-Z. You'll basically take care of everything that comes around your kids. But be careful not to involve too much in something which is shitty, else you'll be in deep shit.

So, what is my commitment? Basically a lot, but if you ask me to name a few, I'll have a tough time telling you one. I do not own a house, I do not own a car, and I do not own the keyboard that I'm using right now. But hey, where did my money go? Yes, every month the money just comes in to my account (the money that I got from being loyal sitting in the office from 9-5) and there you go, gone in 60 seconds. That is the commitment that I'm talking about. I do not know where my money goes, but I have to commit to myself so that I have money to flow out from my account.

Well sigh, I know many of you are bored with my rants, but believe me that's what happening to an average joe. And I believe there are many of you that share the same thought as me.

My Very First Post

Yes, my very first post.. in this blog. In fact I've been blogging since many years back. That was the time when I was still in the university, where I have plenty of time to kill. However my blogging activity was short live, as I did not have the passion to blog on every single details that happened to my live. Come'on, who cares about your daily routines? (anyway, the old blog is still around and I couldn't recall what I've blogged in the past.. like i care..).

Now, surely some of you must be wandering what the heck is this guy doing here when he said that he's stopped blogging. Frankly speaking, I don't know why i'm doing this. Maybe i'm just being emo to blog after reading couples of interesting blogs. Yes, there are darn a lot of interesting bloggers out there and, they've never failed to deliver. Nevertheless, I hope that this is not my first and the last post (I don't wish to create another cyber junk, like the one i did previously). Seriously, I don't have the equal amount of time like I used to have during my uni time. I'm a working adult and I have the responsibility to feed my tummy and never ending desire of having new belongings. I wan't good food, I wan't nice cars, I wan't a house which is made of glasses that has nice view by the beach and will never be affected tsunami when 2012 is here. I lol-ed. How I wish..

Well, I'm gonna share with you good people out there (who i think that have too much time and got nothing better to do) interesting things that happen to my life. But hey, why did you name your blog which has nothing to do with the things that you're gonna blog. OK fine, I admit that I borrow "some" of my employer's time to contribute to our local economy. The Malaysian government wants more liquidity in our local bourse , so I'm just doing them a favor by injecting some of my hard earned money to KLSE. So far, I've been trading for almost 1 year and the result is... well, I'm not gonna reveal it, as there's no point telling people how's the market perform when the market has been rallying since March last year. Simply close one eye and pick one stock since the beginning of March last year, and you can stand proud and tell your relatives this Chinese new year that you've earned RMxxx from the stock market. But of course, if you lost some money to the market, you can just shut up and pretend that you've kept all your money in FD (earning 2% a year is better than losing 10sen in the market) for the past 1 year.

Back to reality, it's late now and tomorrow is Monday. I love Monday!!! yay!!! Work work work.. Hope to post again very soon. Maybe some of my trading activities, and some of the latest news/ tips/ rumors from our very own local bourse, KLSE. Bye for now. Ciao~~