Back to Zero!

I am back!

Sadly, I'm bringing in bad news...

I have never been this broke before! Haha.

Well, count me in on the statistic of many Filipinos who have very high propensities to splurge as long as there is money to spend. :}

So, gone are my mutual fund in BPI, the vast majority of my stocks, and time deposits, and my liquid savings. :(

Let's just say I'm back to zero, as they say, there's no other way but up!

LOL.

-Oh what misery-

Track the PSEi through a Mutual Fund

If you have Php50k worth of savings, and you're thinking of investing it, I suggest you put it on a mutual fund that tracks the performance of the Philippine Stock Exchange index. Savings accounts will only give you so much, less than 1% per annum. A mutual fund that tracks the performance of the PSEi, such as BPI's Philippine Stock Index Fund, will most definitely give you a higher return, especially now that the PSEi is expected to reach Php6,000.00 (it's now at ~Php5,700.00). :D Just my two cents, and I would have done the same thing if I have excess savings to invest :D

-thoughts-

Loving the (R) on my Payslip

I look around and all I see is green. :D $_$

After a year of working tirelessly in IBM, I got my first raise! Yay! It was always a pleasure to see an (R) beside my basic allowance/language premium. It usually meant an annual increase, a modest amount for a humble corporate servant like me. But I heard our colleagues in IBM GPS North America didn't even get a penny increase, so any increase here not too shabby for Kenny...

My stocks are doing good as well. All my issues are green and up, but something happened to my portfolio though. I originally purchased stocks of Republic Cement (RCM), which was trading at an uptrend until yesterday. This morning, I went back to my portfolio, and suddenly, my RCM stocks are gone! In its place are stocks of Lafarge Republic, Inc. (LRI)! What happened to RCM? LRI ate RCM?

In any case, no need to fret much because LRI's up 3.27% from my original purchase of the cement stocks. Maybe they're sister companies and RCM is in trading suspension... Dunno, will have to check that.

-Anomalous Pfolio-

All System's Up and Ready to Go

Things are looking great for the Philippines!

Amid the looming European implosion comes great news. European investors are retracting investments from the crisis-struck southern EU axis after 5 bailouts (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain, and Cyprus) and finds haven on the stronger northern European bloc. Capital money is expected to trickle off to the ASEAN and Latin America as the capital flight continues on talks of bailing out a 6th country, Slovenia, and the rest of EU's peripheral countries.

The peso sits at 41.68 to the dollar, its highest in 4 years. Local news feeds are abuzz with talks about the Philippines' overall credit rating being raised to BB+ by Standard&Poor's. That means the Philippines will have lower borrowing costs and a more attractive investment standing. Add to that the projected 3Q quantitative easing from the US, which will positively impact our commodity markets as the foreign currency dips to competitive levels.

As such, almost everything in the local stock market is up. Each and every one of my favorite stocks is green, and I'm personally having trouble putting my money on the stock market right now :\.

After a long suspenseful battle with BDO, I sold the stock at Php64.00, at a loss of course. I felt sad, because for the first time I did not succeed in averaging down on the price to get a marginal profit (averaging down is when you buy an already bought stock at an even lower price to reduce the cost of buying). But the price line is highly unpredictable, I just decided to sell it - MWIDE and SCC were more favorable at that time.

To my surprise, however, BDO issued me a stock rights offer for 10 stocks worth Php48.60 each. I opened my portfolio the next day, and suddenly I'm in the green with BDO, at 31.28%. A great lesson learned - some stocks issue stock rights that can help compensate any loss you incurred from previous trading mishaps.

Later on I sold my positions in MWIDE (Megawide - who partnered with SM in constructing the Grass Residences) and SCC (Semirara Mining - who is currently waiting for the president to sign the EO on mining, like everybody else). to recover my Php800.00 loss on ACE.

Right now, I'm invested in BDO at a very light and short position, and RCM (Republic Cement), which is up +5.0% at early morning trade today. Both are small positions because I need free money while waiting for MEG to dip below it's support level of Php2.26. ;). Once it does, it's a buying spree :p .

 

Hopefully next week opens up better opportunities for me. *Interview later with a potential employer.

-hopeful-

What to Buy, What to Buy...? CHIPS!

The PSE index is beating all time highs at +5,300. At this point, I don't really know which stocks to buy :\ . 

And Thomson Reuters Charts is not helping - I couldn't access the beta platform from my desktop here in Batangas (now where's my Adobe Applet installer?? :| ).

Can't wait to go back to the office. 

CHIPS on my basket, I just hope COL Financial enters my buy order in time. I see the price going up...

-COL enter my buy!-

What Overexcitement Did to My Portfolio - Post Greek Elections

I'm feeling risky today.

Even though stock market news pages abound with good tidings about the Greek government, I believe the markets will continue to be volatile. The new government does not mean total salvation for Greece and Europe, but a stepping stone up the hard austerity ladder.

Garnering only ~30% of the votes, the New Democratic party will most probably be the new Greek government. But with a very slim advantage, the party should expect a rough road ahead. A request for a recount or civil violence may be on the list of things to lookout for. In any case, the world's eyes are on Greece, and while Greece's story unfolds, we standby guessing what the next possible scenario will look like.

I'm feeling risky today (because I had a very lively weekend ;) and I need to experience what it's like to trade post-elections). Early this morning, I bought MEG at Php1.97 - a property stock. I will have to drink calming milk later because the property sector in the Phils is the most volatile, and MEG is one of the most actively traded stocks listed. I probably got over excited and may pay for the repercussions of my overexcitement.

If I lose money later on I'll probably just say, "hey, I was high on Greek that's why."

-I hope somebody out there buys a new condominium unit.-

The Best Things in Life are Free! Nicki Minaj Concert

I got a free Nicki Minaj concert ticket from Globe!

 

I didn't know I get a free ticket if I get a BB plan. Just my luck I guess. That's savings on fun, good job Globe!

The thing is, there's only 1 free ticket, but since I'm a subscriber, I can bring friends and their tickets will be sold to them at a discount (Php2,000.00 per pax). Who wants to come?

I wanna hear her sing Super Bass, Beautiful Sinner, and Marilyn Monroe. ;)

-Boom booroomboom boom booroomboom baby-

URC Sold! What Next?

So where do we start from here?

Thank God COL entered my Sell order on URC. It's been red for the past few weeks (yeah yeah, I bought it at an awful high price, I had very high hopes for the biscuit, I totally misread the price-line). I won't tell you how much I purchased it (coz I'm a loser), but I sold it at ~Php65.00. It closed at Php66.00 yesterday (sayang!!). My profit was pretty slim :|



Go figure.


Henyways, now I only have BDO to ponder upon. It's still red, albeit me getting this Rights Offer thing yesterday. Here's what my broker told me:



I totally do not understand what it meant... I think it's just a promo that let's you buy extra stocks at a cheaper price... but I'm not sure. I did purchase 10 more stocks on top of my existing 30, just to average down on the cost, but I checked the stock this morning and it's still under. :(

So what's the next move? I checked the boards yesterday and they were all green like the fields of Sagada. That's because of the news about the Spanish bailout - it being the 4th largest economy in the Euro zone, how could you let it falter and crash? To date, Spain will be the 4th country to seek bailout after Portugal, Ireland, and Greece - and the bailout's gonna be big because Spain's economy is twice the size of the first three bailout countries' combined. What does that mean for us?

I'm not sure, I'll consult with my economist/consultant friend Tin Ablaza... :p My guess is higher taxes for Spaniards, lower disposable income, lower demand on goods, lower import demand to Spain, lower exports from export countries, less business locally, local economy contracts, investors here worry, stock market goes crashing down again due to lack of confidence...

I think. Again this will need confirmation. :|

-guessing... what's my next move then?-



CALahati

And the horror continues. If you are one of them late comers who believed in hearsay (from misled traders and intentional pranksters), you would have succumbed to the bloodbath that was Calata Corporation.

 

The stock's price soared to Php23.95/sh before plunging down to almost half of it's value in the same day. Good thing I divested the stock at ~Php19.46. The volume was weird and if you look at the bidders' and askers' panels you'll see that the price valuation was driven up by just one stock broker - Metro Pacific Investments, Inc. So they were just buying on one hand and selling on the other, probably to increase price valuation.

Anyway, at Php12.88, are you planning to buy this stock again? Still a great company, I would buy if not for the looming "Grexit" (modern term used by economists about Greece's inevitable exit from the Euro zone). The market is volatile, as you see from above. I'm not sure when the PSEi will climb back up to the 5,200 support line.

Would it be wise to just put my money in time? My mutual funds in BPI are not doing any better... : /

-musing...-

CAL Stocks Sold!

CAL shares = SOLD! at Php16.94 form Php7.5... I believe ~125% positive change on a stock is enough for now. :D I wanted to wait out till at least next week, because I have a belief that basic commodities such as agricultural products are always active - in my dreams I was waiting for a 200% increase, but that's highly unlikely because of the looming European crisis. Plus, my officemate here at IBM says, "Not to greedy Kimoy, not too greedy."

So.. Cashing in.. Cashing in.

May pambili na ko ng bike!! :D

EDIT:

How cool is this? Is the crisis over? Haha:

- $_$ -

Oh My God Calata Corporation

Need I say more? $_$

- Go Agrochemicals!! -

How's your Portfolio Doing after CJontrial?

I'm back! Gahd I missed my station. (not)

These past few days I was on leave to celebrate my birthday. I was in Batangas with my mom, and we spent days following the trial on the then chief justice of the Philippines Renato Corona. After a long session at court and a lengthy tv coverage, he was eventually impeached and won't be allowed to take any office in the government.

I had to engage my mom into a debate because the feeds in Twitter couldn't be ignored. My original position was Convict, only because I care about the taxes I pay - they should be used in purposes of the government and not personal investments. I also believed the law is absolutist, and like Loren Legarda said, the interpretations of the law should not blur the actual misstep committed by the prosecuted against the country. On the other hand, my mom says the non-declaration of some assets in the SALN are clearly honest mistakes and that is not compelling enough to remove the chief justice from his office. Later on I was just confused, and I can't stand my stand anymore so we just went somewhere and ate dinner. : \

Anyway, I only cared about this judiciary palooza because I know, in some way or another, it will affect the Philippine stock market. I've been reading a lot of releases on the internet and apparently, the impeachment's overall sentiment was good, not because somebody was impeached again in the Philippines, but because the whole process was carried out comprehensively sans violence, and it was completed lawfully. This resounded well among social weather agencies, saying this will strengthen the democracy in the country.

On a side note, I also read Gilbert Remulla's tweet saying, "Sooner or later, [we] will regret giving that much power to Malacanang..." (to that effect).

Anyway, so I looked back to the PSEi index, and true enough, the stock market reacted well on the trial. The PSE index closed above the 5,000 resistance mark (5,023 up by 1.34%).

On my end of the spectrum, things are looking even better. Check this out:

The price of my IPO subscription to the agrochemical company Calata Corp (symbol CAL) ballooned by 52.27% !! I mean, my original Php750.00 is now Php1,142.00! If this is how all IPO's turn out, I'm gonna have Thomson Reuters create me a watchlist of upcoming IPO announcements. :p

 

See, I originally asked COL Financial (my broker), to subscribe 800 shares for me. By the end of the day, the stock was oversubscribed (meaning a lot of people wanted the stock), so the broker had to raffle off the stocks instead (to be fair to everyone). I ended up receiving only a 100 shares for Php750.00. Disappointing since if I were accorded 800 shares, I would have paid Php6,000.00, and would have earned $9136.20 by this time (that's Php3,136.2 earned in a week! Or a pair of nice tassle shoes from Zara :p).

Well, that's how life goes in the stock market. Today I'm just glad that most of my assets are up. URC is also up by a meager 0.44%, enough to pay off the commisions I paid buying the stock.

Europe may be in crisis, but whoever said that's the only market to look out for?

On another note, we better watch out for possibilities of creating a free economic zone between China, Japan, and South Korea. Together, they will create one of the largest markets in the world, contributing to about 20% of the world's GDP.

As for the trial on chief justice Corona, I think we should just look back to that as a lawfully handled process. In the words of political scientist that I know (Eljay Bernardo), "Kung convict ka o acquit, basta ang intensyon mo ay sa ikabubuti ng bansa, nasa tama ka." (to that effect).

-I should start taking down my notes in verbatim-

My First Cash Dividend Earnings from ICT

Foinally... Passively earned extra income:


I know you're underwhelmed, but I'm approaching this whole passive income thing Calata style. Joseph Calata, the leader of agri-business corporation Calata, also started out small. You might wish to read this interesting article about him, dubbed the youngest billionaire to list his business on the market:

http://pinoy-business.com/quotes-speeches/joseph-calata-trial-and-error-billionaire

FYI, Calata supplies agrichemical products to companies such as BMEG and Bayer.

Speaking of Calata, I tried to buy 800 stocks of Calata Corp's initial public offering, but the stock later turned out to be overbought, so they raffled the stocks instead in board lots of 100 to be fair to everyone. I now have 100 Calata Corp stocks waiting to be listed and reflected on my COL Financial account :D.

For further info about Calata, you may visit their website at: http://calatacorp.com/

Markets up today:



-tiny relief-

Painting the Town Red... Greek Red.

Not a very good week for trade, I say.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index is down again to 5083.62 by 1.44% at close yesterday. News of uncertainty in Europe is affecting our own bourse, and I find myself withdrawing most of my stocks back to my account at COL financial. Today, I only have two active issues: BDO and ICT:

I'm only holding on to both stocks because both are paying dividends by the end of May (BDO to pay stock dividends at Php68.70 each while ICT pays out Php0.65/sh)

(From COL Financial website https://www.citiseconline.com/final2/xml/CompanyNews_nw.asp?varStock=BDO&varNewsLink=309944

 From Thomson Reuters:

 )

Sad. I lost 8.21% on BDO already. Looking back, I never really was lucky in banking stocks. I've invested on BPI and MBT before and even if they're the largest banks, they have never given me enough earnings to cover the losses from my initial investments and commissions payments. I remember I sold MBT at a loss too, of ~5.0%, while BPI, I was able to sell on a positive note, but I had to wait for a long long time before the stock yielded an earning. The first day it went positive, I sold.

Maybe, moving forward, I'll invest my money on more active stocks, like issues on Property or Holdings.

Which btw are both down yesterday, too.

 

First time seeing an all-red chart brings about bile in my mouth :((((. I can't blame Greece though if they don't want an austerity campaign to correct their economy. If you're a restaurateur in that country, you'll probably absorb all the austerity measures and see your menu inflate to accomodate the higher tax rates. It's normal that they wouldn't want these strict policies enforced. But would they risk not following the austerity measures from EU's German chancellor in exchange for being kicked out of the Union?

I wonder how reactive the Greeks are to front-loading...

Here in the Philippines, they say the market's walking a rocky road till July.

- huff -

Dividend Announcements 101

One good way to earn passive income is to invest your money in dividend yielding stocks. There are plenty of stocks out in the market that issue dividends. On the top of my mind are banks, such as BPI, which has consistently issued dividends to its stock owners.

We are informed of a company's dividend announcement via different channels - in my case, I go to the individual company websites in multiple research domains until I stumble on one. At first glance, these announcements do not look too important, but here are the things that you need to know about dividend announcements:

1. The Company - need I say more?

2. The Ex-Date - this is the date before which you should hold the stock. Only the stock owners who have purchased the company's stock before this date is eligible for the dividends.

3. Amount - the amount to be issued as dividend per stock.

4. Payment Date - this is the date when the dividends will be reflected on your account, but I guess it depends on your broker's turn around time on things.

5. Others - sometimes there are more dates listed on the announcement, but try to tune out the noise if you can, because basically, all you need are the four items above... Plus your fundamentals. :p

So, to review, the things you need when looking at dividend announcements are: The Company, Ex-Date, Amount, and Payment Date. Let's apply what we learned today on the example below:

Here's a dividend announcement for Jollibee Foods Corp which I stumbled upon on Thomson Reuters' website (a very good reference, if I may add, try it! :D). To interpret, JFC is issuing 0.58 cents on every stock owned before May 04, 2012. If you bought 50 stocks before May 4, you'll end up earning dividends worth P29 by May 31, 2012. The more stocks you own, of course, the more dividends you earn.

I go about multiple websites looking for these dividend announcements because it's one of the easiest ways to earn money. As a rule, I buy short positions on these stocks only if the dividend offer is significant, if I have time to put up some money to buy the stocks, and if the company is fundamentally doing good (ie. the Rate of Equity is double digits and increasing, there's the ROI/A is above 5%, price trend is safe or upward, etc.).

So, upon doing further research, which one should I choose between the two:

SM Investments

Semirara Mining

Here are their 6 months price charts (in case you're leaning to the technical side of things):

SM

 

SCC

Happy trading!

-that's yuuuuge-

Recovering Losses via Condominiums and Terminals

My portfolio's looking gorgeous!

I started this week with new purchases of DMCI stocks to complete my basket of Property/Service/Bank money generators. I've been reading extensively on property stocks lately because they're pulling in on the market, with a lot of foreign investments coming in. Of course, they've been volatile the first quarter of the year, but the earnings surprises are really enticing. Ayala Corp and DMCI, for example, are projected to benefit a lot from the Private-Public-Partnership plans (PPP) of the government. Property stocks are climbing to impressive levels so I thought why not join the bandwagon?

I bought DMC since it's way cheaper than AC (Php59.70/stock vs. Php430.00 - 04/30/2012 figures) and started out the week with a ~3% loss on DMC and and ~7% loss on BDO (!). Good thing my property stock did not fail to impress and it's now at a 3.6% gain. BDO's still stuck under but at least the loss is hardly recognizable now.

So here's how it looks like in my portfolio:

Not bad eh?

11.10% on ICT, you'll never get anywhere near that if you invest your money on Time Deposits, what more on your usual Savings Accounts!

Also, if you look at the bigger picture, the whole PSEi has surpassed it's time highs over and over again. That's why I'm having second thoughts on my mutual fund in BPI, which is invested on peso securities which are less reactive to the stock market. I should have opted for a balanced fund!

(Note: by balanced fund, it means part of the money you deposited will be invested on "safe" securities like government bonds, and the rest to more aggressive vehicles like the stock market).

Anyway, we'll just see what happens next week.

Henyway, tomorrow morning I'm having breakfast with my very good friends Pia and Tin at Johnny Rockets. Not so sure of the selection, as I think food there is severely overpriced, but we'll see.

-burger and fries for breakfast :/ -

The Avengers

Just watched The Avengers and it rocked! I'm stoked... I'll probably go to the mall later and browse the comics section. :D

See I can't really feel for the real comic fans who've been living these fiction stories since they were young - maybe there really some parts of the story left out, or that the characters could have looked and acted more comically, but I just wasn't from that end of the web. I loved the classic world compromised theme, and the deus-ex-machina cuts like when Captain America wolfs in to stop Stark and the Mighty Thor from fighting. It's all good to me, although I know it may have disappointed the more discriminating palates.

I still could not wrap my mind though as to how these films are being produced. They are of course very expensive, what with the special effects, and set design, and the professionals, most especially, who carry the business. Are they paid up front, or do they get paid after they collect the earnings from cinemas? How rich are the producers, or are they buried in debt loans, too, every time a movie is launched?

Hmm... Makes me think.

I'm off to the bookstore now. :D

-stoked, love Thor-

You Know that Glassy Feel?

I got my new desktop today! IBM deployed a new Lenovo model for me to work on and it's equipped with Windows 7! Wooot.

It stupefied me at first, but Ken is a curious magpie, and no complexity can beat the power of curiosity ;).

Inside story: I asked my IT partner what happens to the old workstations after they were replaced - Does IBM recycle them, or resell them to any willing buyer who harvests second hand parts? IT partner says they were scrapped.. "What do you mean by scrapped?" "Sir, they're brought to a disposing facility where the hard disks are charged with some sort of static electricity to erase the memory, tapos padadaanan sa pison para madurog (then they will be rolled over by a steam-roller to destroy the components).

I guess that way, IBM protects itself and its stakeholders from any information leak and data privacy breeches. In short, your data is safe with IBM.

In the meantime, I can do this:


-Window flipping in Windows 7-

Multi-tasking Utensils

To me, companies show signs of increasing profitability when they get to afford higher grade instruments to carry out their business.

We were at Jollibee this morning and I noticed that their usual stirring sticks now double as mini straws! It looks like the usual straw but pinched longitudinally to form two cyllinders. Afar, it looks flat like a stirrer, but if you look closer, you'll see that you can sip at the other end and use it as a straw. Handy!

I wonder how much JFC spends for these utensils... Then again, comparing the stock's price from last year, the figures are just off the roof; that may explain why their hot chocolate is more chocolate-y now...

-cool stuff-

To Sell or Not to Sell... ICT?

That is the question. Thank god one of my very trusty resources answered this for me. The answer: Not to Sell.

Or in our parlance, Hold.

Actually, my impression is that the company got a Hold rating overall (this I got from reading news online, discriminating concencus estimates, and the scrutinizing the stock price curve itself). I was itching to sell it these past few days because I can't afford to lose the earnings, specially now that I just invested my money on MPI and PGOLD, and I'm therefore at a loss on both because of the commissions I paid when I entered the orders. I dunno, all around analysts are saying they're both Strong Buys, so I bought. Let's see where the rumor brings us on the next quarter.

Back to ICT, the company declared an ex-dividend date on April 30, 2012. This means that the company will pay out dividends if you bought the stock prior to this date. The payment date is on May 18, 2012... So I guess I'll be invested on terminals until that date. :D



That's it for now, I'm headed to Trinoma to meet my mom who's celebrating her 60th birthday today. Happy birthday motha! Good news, you may now enjoy free movie passes at SM malls every Tuesday... :p

-when faced with dilemmas, there's always a tipping point somewhere-