My own stock investment experience

Just reviewed my investment records since my 1st day entered into KLSE. For the past two years, my investment result is back to break even.

After vet through my past transactions, I learned one thing, which is a few doom investments (~ 7 counters) has write off more than multiple tens of my winning bouts.

Now, I got to ask myself, what's the right strategy?

1) Should i seriously consider an exit strategy?

2) Or, my strategy is actually right, if i were not holding to some of the lose counters, I will not have chance to actually come back and make money when they rebound.

That's an interesting question beyond my average IQ to answer. May be some pundits will able to answer that.

A sleepless night

Unable to fall into sleep, and decide to write something ... just something, and don't even have an idea what I should write about.

Looking back to the past and compare to what a person am I now, I think it must be quite different. My social circle is getting smaller, and never been a time I feel so unmotivated to meet new people. I still truly cherish the real friendship, but most the time just prefer to retreat to my own safe haven.

I probably have verdict my own achievement, that is, man, this is that far you can reach. Was doing well in the school, and after work for many years, suddenly find out how an average Joe I am. I am just no more than an ordinary man that you can find on the street everyday. I'm not complaining, it's never my wish to be a great person. I'm just, without knowing it, becoming someone corrupted, a materialistic guy.

Our man talk is always revolving how to make more money, dirty jokes, and the glorious past. The only thing that connect me to the younger time is the weekend badminton session. That's the time I feel like a boy, may be that's the reason I am so passionate about the game, my adrenalin run high is one thing, that's also the bridge to my distant past.

No doubt my family mean a lot of thing to myself. Becoming a man is about responsibility. I will be more and more familiar about this midlife crisis. The fear of losing job, losing hair, losing health grow everyday... :) No, I'm not complaining, I'm just too pampered in the past, who feel a bit nervous when need to shoulder this responsibility. I guess my best friend's death in a way also wake me up that I realize this is real life, this is not a dream. The life is never been so real.

You know, sometimes you will just feel like asking yourself the meaning behind all this. And this is the night. I remember this conversation with this interesting old man. He is considering to embrace Christianity, he is very frank that facing death without knowing what's laying ahead is quite dreadful. He doubt the existence of the god, and it's not his character to believe in the religion in our convention world. However, when someone grow older, religion is like the wood for you while in you were floating in the middle of ocean. I'm very click with his view, and surprisingly know someone is having the same line of thought as me. I am not come to the stage yet, but I guess what I may walk his path one day :)

It's late in night now, tomorrow is another day.

KISS

KISS - Be it "Keep it simple, stupid" or "Keep it short and simple", that's something I'm quite agree in my career philosophy.

However in the world of business, it may not always be the case. Just yesterday, my colleague is talking to me, how is he suppose to answer to his customers on one peculiar question. He was working on a project for the customer which require 1TB SAN storage space. That storage will cost the customer ~50k ringgit. Reason from the IT department is that they do not have anymore free SAN space, and the customer got to bear the cost of the SAN extension. However on yesterday newspaper, there is an advertisement that 1TB external hard disk just sell for < RM500. You can imagine how that will shock a non-IT savvy customer, RM500 vs. RM50k, which is 100x difference. Yes, we know the difference between SAN storage and normal SATA disk, but how shall you going to educate your business users, which must be some uphill task.

In another situation, the IT policy at a client site dictates the server in data center must be installed with a DB monitoring software which causes multiple grands, however, there are times business users just want a system which is non business critical but cost of higher priority. But in the complex fabric of this client organization, nobody is questioning the policy, and it stay status quo for a long time.

I still remember the days when I first learn EJB 1.0, was overwhelmed by the complicated XML syntax and configuration. So when I come across POJO (Plain Old Java Object), without studying in depth about it, I already fall in love with it because of its name. I probably just a lazy IT guys who like the idea of simplicity which allow us to spend more time drinking coffee rather than writing code, especially code involves new syntax, new decoration, new class model... However, outside there are so many experts / architects from time to time come out so grand idea who make sure an IT workers never fall short of sleepless nights. And thus I become the consultant today, who talk more than do. And the sad thing in this part of the world, which company will really reward a heroic programmer at par with a sales manager who bring millions of contract?

Was a bit bored last week, and had rented some comics from a nearby shop. The translated Chinese Title is 傻大个, was a very very old publication. I am so enjoyed by it, and can't help to search for the author, and learn he is 千葉徹弥, and the comics title in japanese is のたり松太郎

I love the story because it's so natural and unpolished. The characters are very unique too. The graphic is nice to look at, the background is very detail, considering then there is no assistance of the computer graphic. Also the story bring very positive message, though may seems naive compare to today's taste. I just like it and wish to recommend to anyone who has need something simple and motivated to spend their time.

Want to go for shopping spree?

This is a web site for the upcoming promotion and sales events in malaysia.

Promotion and Sales in Malaysia

Santa Claus is coming to town

Is this an ordinary crash? the picture will tell

Looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average graph for the past 10 years, I can tell how badly the market is hit. The damage is just too fast too furious. Is this the lifetime chance for you to accumulate low priced gems? or the lifetime chance for you to commit suicide? Only the future can tell you are a moron or a hero. Of course you can also choose as a bystander. The common sense will tell it's not yet bottom, dude, not yet. But does market makes any sense at all in past?

Quote from cnn: Since peaking at an all-time closing high of 1,565.15 on Oct. 9, 2007, the S&P 500 has lost 52%. The Dow has lost nearly 47% since closing at an all-time high of 14,164.53 on the same day. Since hitting a bull market high of 2,859.12 on Oct. 31, 2007, the Nasdaq has lost 54%.

Whilst I feel sorry for my loss, at least I can console myself, at least I am still fare better than those figure. What a good way to deceive my own self :) As a friend of mine always loathe this is a way of self denial when somebody mention the term "paper loss"...

only time can tell, only time can tell...

After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box

I am intrigued by this phrase and added it to my laptop desktop screen. For me, it means believe in yourself, your life belong to yourself and not other people. This phrase will be useful every time you feel belittled by setback in the life.

Viewing in browser

One thing i do like about Firefox is the full screen viewing with the "F11" shortcut. It's really save a lot of precious screen space by removing the space-cluttering toolbar and menu.




Furthermore, coupling with the zoom in and zoom out features with Ctrl + Middle Mouse Wheel, it really makes browsing a breeze experience. For some IT folks like me spending hours in front of the monitor every day, I found these are the two techniques i use quite frequent.



Enough said, I still feel staring so long on the monitor is really spoil my eyesight. Anyone with the similar plight want to share their experience?

Cameron Highland Trip

We had traveled back to Tanah Merah, Kelantan for the long weekend. On our way home, we detour to Cemeron Highland for a day trip. It had been many years since I last visited the place. I am very in fond of this place, if not because of the bumper-to-bumper traffics due to the heavy tourists season. The Highway linking Gua Musang and Cameron Highland is quite wide, it's also a feast to the eye, for the blue sky and greenery along the way. Too bad I'm driving and do not have the chance to take the photo.

There is this farm which plant all the organics vegetables. I had taken some photo of them. I remembered a old school friend, whom was told already settled in Cameron Highland. I think it must be very nice staying there and lead a simple life.

It's also an exciting route descending the hill at night time. The route is pretty winding, and I am lucky to able to follow the back of some fast driving cars, which I feel is the easiest way to drive in dark.

Paypal is finally "work" in Malaysia

I am recently approached by a Singapore company, WuTravel.com to join their advertising affiliate program. In return, they paid me a small amount as token for the sign-up. I'm quite happy with that as this is something quite unexpected for myself. At least someone do enjoy reading my trivia blog.

Anyway, this is not the main point. The point is they are paying in Paypal. And as far as i recalled, Paypal seems not money-withdrawable for the Malaysian (how sad!). Then i do a quick Google and notice it seems no longer the way. Malaysian now has a way to withdraw money from Paypal. This link is as follows:
Paypal withdrawal for Malaysian

Just some funny additional notes, I even found someone from internet try selling the method of "How Malaysian withdraw money from Paypal" (which cost around USD18)... I really wonder how much did he make... :)

Intel SSD revolutionize storage landscape

This following post shown Intel had did a good job in launching X25-M SSD:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403

I am someone always never feel satisfied by the application performance in my laptop. After using the laptop for awhile, it always felt like took ages to load an application, especially for people like me who regularly opened multiple application at the same time. I really hope I can get hold one of those SSD a day.

I am particularly amazed by the below:

Sheer Poverty

Tonight, I follow my auntie to her tenants' flat to collect the rent. The tenant had owe her two month's of the rental, thus she was thinking to stop renting the house. It's a low cost flat unit, the rent was only RM 350+.

After we reach the place, the door gate is closed and the light is off. We thought the tenant might not be at home, anyway we knocked the door to try our luck. A woman answered our call and opened the door. The woman was carrying a baby, we found out that she is his wife. The husband had not yet come back from work. So my wife called his phone to find out when he would be back, he responded should be within 20 minutes.

So, we decided to go in the house and waits for him. Apparently the light was turned off previously to save utility bill. Inside the house, we have a casual chat with his wife, meanwhile scanning around the house. The dining room doesn't have even one single piece of furniture, this is best described by the Chinese proverb - 家徒四壁 (The house with only 4 walls). My auntie and my mother entered their bedroom too, and notice there is no bed, only a sofa, and yes, no mattress too. Only the cradle for the baby.

A short while later, the husband reached home. He gave this month rental to my auntie and ask for more grace period for the remaining debt. He said he just changed job (working as a crane operator), and can't earn more overtime because of the raining season. The couple are bumiputera came from Sabah state. He told us that his grandma is ailing sick, and only "tunggu hari saja" (waiting for the days only). He is now also fretting over how to get the money to buy the air ticket back.

As you can expect, nothing much we can do, and my auntie just urged him try his best to pay punctually next time. Well, it's not as if my auntie is so unsympathetic, but she herself was amputated because of cancer last time, not leading an abundant life too.

It's quite sad to know all this. Our country is really sick after 51 years of independence due to corruption, wastefulness and squandering. While I saw some people are being filthy rich, spending RM100K+ on a watch without blinking an eye, some are worrying their infant's next meal (As my wife told me, she didn't see any milk powder in the tenant's house). This has nothing to do with race, as I myself was once become the tuition teachers to the kids of a wealthy Malay banker. And I also know some Bumiputera Datuk, who are very well-to-do.

I urge the politician be honest to your own conscience, do something right for the people, and not only filling up your own greediness. Really, you can and you should make a difference in the history, and if you are religious, the mighty one will judge you at the other world too.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea 崖の上のポニョ

I had watched the DVD 2 days ago.



This is the Hayao Miyazaki's version of "The Little Mermaid", with a happy ending. I'm quite entertained with the simple thematic elements and its visual scheme. Something good to spend your time over the weekend afternoon.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a handy utility to find out how you fare in the Google ranking. However, it's not clear how to verify you are the webmaster if you are using Blogger site. Below is great link for you to verify your site and how to add your sitemap:

http://linuxlore.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-webmaster-tools-and-howto.html