Two Extremes: Starhub - Falling Star, Singpost - Blasting Off!

Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.
~ Bertrand Russell

Despite no official announcement or news release, at least not that I could find, today saw extreme opposing movements for two stocks I'm vested in. Starhub, our second largest mobile service provider, fell drastically, while Singpost rocketed upwards.

It seems that the bulls have decided to finally turn up at Singpost leaving Starhub at the mercy of the bears.

For days now, it seemed that both Starhub and Singpost were downtrending and that there were expectations for them to go even lower (Refer to Singpost Rebounding Strong, Singpost - Downtrend to Continue?, and ASSI's Starhub, CapitaMalls Asia and CitySpring for previous discussions).

To get a more recent picture, lets turn to our charts.

Starhub

We can see clearly that Starhub is downtrending. Its two previous support of $2.60 and $2.53 which I was hoping for them to hold have been smashed through. Today's long black candle as well as the negative sentiments of all the indicators doesn't bode well for Starhub. Worse yet, ADX looks like the trend is starting to strengthen. To top this off, it has even broke through it's downtrend channel to form what looks like the beginning of an even steeper fall. Not good. Not good at all. I expect to see more selling come Monday. Next support is at $2.48 and then at $2.41 which happens to also be the 200 day moving average. It is possible that prices will hit the 200dma seeing that the correction has sent a couple of other stocks down to its 200dma, Singpost included.

Personally, I'm not selling my stake as I bought into Starhub to add to my income portfolio (not for capital gains). Also, I entered at the last correction of a price of $2.23. Plus I've collected two dividends which brings my price down to $2.13 so I think I'm pretty safe for now at least. Will be keeping an eye out for any new negative developments that may cause me to rethink holding on to this. 

However those looking to buy into Starhub for dividends, can use this selloff as a chance to get vested into a stock with a relatively high yield. Not just yet though. A word of caution, please wait for evidence of a rebound or stabilization in price before doing so. Catching a falling knife is no fun, no fun at all.

Singpost

Anyone who had followed the charts on the previous days following the start of the correction would have noticed that the prices bounced off the 200dma twice, one at $1.12 and at $1.13, forming a double bottom indicating that there was demand for the stock and likely to push prices back up. Today was that day. 

Singpost broke out of its downtrend today with an amazing leap upwards, crashing through two resistance at $1.19 and $1.20, heading straight to test the next resistance at $1.23 where it closed today. With today's high buying volume and all indicators favouring price heading higher, it most likely will break above this to test the last major resistance at $1.24. 

To anyone who bought the stock at the support prices or for the last couple of days before today's blast off, well done!

Cheers,

~K

The Happiness Index

Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect. It means you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.

~ Unknown

In the November issue of Pioneer magazine an interesting article entitled “The Happiness Index” caught my attention. This index, specifically known as the Happy Planet Index or HPI, is used to measure, in the words direct from their official website, “the well-being of people in the nations of the world while taking into account their environmental impact”. In layman terms, the index measures the life expectancy, life satisfaction and carbon footprint of each country.

Singapore was ranked 49 out of 143 countries. So we’re slightly more than halfway to happiness it seems. However, what I found surprising was that the top 10 ranked countries were not the major developed countries. Other than Vietnam which was ranked 5^th, the rest were situated around the rather obscure Latin America region.

In order of happiness:

1. Costa Rica

2. Dominican Republic

3. Jamaica

4. Guatemala

5. Vietnam

6. Columbia

7. Cuba

8. El Savador

9. Brazil

10. Honduras

Searching around for the major cities, we find Germany and Switzerland at 51 and 52 respectively, the first two major European countries in the list. Next comes Italy at 69, followed by France at 71, UK at 74 and Japan at 75. Australia lags behind at 102. But the biggest surprise is America, ranked at 114 and last of the major countries. (You can check out the report for the complete list here.)

Now while it should be a reason to celebrate that we’re a lot happier as a nation than these other major cities, what’s obvious from the list is that our neighbours are doing much much better than we are. Check this out.

Rank             Country            HPI Score

5                   Vietnam            66.5

14                 Philippines        59

16                 Indonesia          58.9

19                 Laos                  57.3

20                China                 57.1

33                Malaysia            54

39                Burma               51.2

41                Thailand            50.9

80                Cambodia          42.3

And what did Singapore score? 48.2! 6 points short of Cambodia.

So this list is quite an eye opener to me. For starters, it does not mean the more developed your country is, the happier the citizens are going to be and therefore have a longer life. These other higher ranked countries must be doing something right to achieve this much sought after happiness. But the question is what? Perhaps it’s that they aren’t so GDP-centric. While GDP may stimulate the economy, this shouldn’t be used as the measure of the quality of life in Singapore. As the age old saying goes “money can’t buy happiness”.

Furthermore, after looking deeper into the ranking, it shocked me to realize that for a small country we live in, our carbon footprint scoring a 4.2 is tied with Germany while a country as big as India is only scoring 0.9! Obviously more needs to be done to improve this area. Conservation anyone?

Anyway, in conclusion, perhaps it’s time we aim to be happier people, to start being grateful for what we have, complain less and also more importantly, to conserve more.

Food for thought everyone. Have a good night.

Cheers,

~K

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