What's Your Brand?

Who has confidence in himself will gain the confidence of others.

~ Leib Lazarow 

At the start of a typical day, a housewife contemplates Maggi and Heinz at the neighbourhood supermarket while another picks up a Dove ignoring the Heads and Shoulders beside it. 

Students after school adjourn to the MacDonald's for lunch by-passing the Long John Silver on their way in deep discussion on which new phone to get, the iPhone by Apple or the Samsung Galaxy. 

Yuppies after dinner, congregate at a pub pondering over a Budweiser, Heineken or Tiger flashing their Mont Blanc or Braun Buffel listening to the live band onstage who swears by the Gibson.

Yes, we all have our favourite brands when it comes to our spending habits. These preferred brands stay in a special place in our brains speeding up the process of decision making. Brands influence us by causing us to have a preconceived notion of familiarity of the item, and thereby a sense of trust and loyalty is built to the brand.

But despite all the exposure, how many of us bother about branding ourselves? 

Personal branding can help in various settings, such as relationship building and career advancement. Some desirable traits include being sincere and genuine, hardworking, well-groomed and kind. These are formed by an individual's self-worth and self-confidence together with their values, perception and attitude.

Here are 5 tips you can use to start positively branding yourself to allow better opportunities to come your way.

1) Be Aware

Increase your self-awareness. Be aware of your strengths and areas of personal growth while being mindful of your weaknesses. Work on both.

2) Be Prepared

When you have a task to complete,  rehearse what you need to do. This prepares you for all the different possibilities that may crop up so that you are ready to handle it with more confidence.

3) Be Optimistic

Don't let tough breaks drag you down. Visualize a positive result and focus on it. 

4) Be Confident

Body language can leave a strong impression. Believe in yourself and channel that confidence into the way you walk, talk, stand and smile.

5) Keep Practising

Constant practice of tips 1 to 4 will help you improve the impression others will get from you and thereby open more doors to where you want to go.

To your branding,

~K

Jim Rogers Speaks on 2011 Outlook

Happy Friday everyone. =)

Couple of videos of Jim Rogers doing an interview with editor-at-large Chrystia Freeland on Reuters on the 7th of Dec as part of the 2011 Reuters Investment Outlook Summit which I found very interesting and wished to share.

Enjoy!
~K


Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

Gold Double Top in Sight, Silver Uptrend Intact?

Gold and silver are mingled with dirt, till avarice parted them.

~ Proverb

In a previous post, I talked about the correction of gold & silver being quite short and that the rebound was only a lame one, and that I was expecting a further correction to occur. (See Gold a Better Buy for the Short Term, Silver for the Long Haul for further discussion.) As you can see, the correction did indeed last a little longer but from the charts, the correction is over and the new move is underway.

From the chart below, you can clearly see that a double top looks to be in the making for gold. Resistance is at $139, support at the rising 14dma (also a previous resistance), then 50dma and next at $132, in that order. A break below $130.30 may signal a start of a downtrend.

Silver on the other hand, seems to have a clear uptrend intact with the metal making higher highs and lower lows. However, as gold and silver normally rise and fall in tandem, should gold drop, silver will most likely be taken for the ride so it's important to keep an eye on both precious metals. Silver also may have a more volatile reaction as is characteristic of the metal, dropping or rising suddenly and drastically. 

Resistance for silver is at $29.47, while support is at 14dma, then $27.16 (a previous resistance) and next at $25.87. A break below this may signal a break in the uptrend and that prices may turn southwards. 

Would I buy? 

Well RSI has dipped down for both metals but is not low enough to consider adding to my holdings. However, if you feel strongly that the 14dma will hold support, perhaps nibbling is an option. Just my two cents. 

Cheers,

~K

Goodbye to Pulses Magazine

Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.
~ Henry Anatole Grunwald

The past three years saw a good many articles published by Pulses. Unfortunately, I never knew about this magazine until ~4 months ago, late- September, reading reviews of it on someone else’s blog. I forget whose. The favourable reviews convinced me to check it out at Kinokuniya but I wasn’t convinced about the quality of the articles and the magazine as a whole. Was it worth its $5.50 price tag? Didn’t wanna waste money unnecessarily you see. So that got me borrowing a stack of 6 from the library, reading it over a month. That was how I spent my October.

November was my first issue. The article on the banks caught my attention. Been eyeing OCBC since the crisis so it was only natural to want an update on the banking sector. I remember thinking that unlike the Edge, which writes mostly on the micro issues, by that I mean zooming in directly on the companies itself and the news of the week, Pulses seemed to focus on the broader view, focusing on market trends, sector trends, the latest buzz, etc. I liked that. Both publications complemented each other, I felt. But the best part of Pulses? Very little ads, compact and fitted in an edition that allowed easy fitting into a bag (unlike the Edge heh).

Today as I read the Editor’s letter of the December issue, I was disappointed to learn that the publication will cease come January ’11. And here I was ready to subscribe, flipping the pages to find the subscription form!

Kudos to SGX, SPH & The Business Times for a worthy publication. Kudos too, to the Pulses team. You’ve done great work in business journalism. It was a pleasure reading the articles. I especially like the monthly column from the Commonsense Investor and wonder if he has a blog I could continue to follow. Does anybody know?

But from next month onwards, guess I’ll have to look for another affordable read that’s macro-focused.

Recommendations anybody?

~K