I Thinketh! - The Power of Words

Some people drift through their entire lives. They do it one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time. It happens so gradually they are unaware of how their lives are slipping away until it's too late. 

~ Mary Kay Ash

There are only two ways to live your live. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. 

~ Albert Einstein

Raymond. You gotta love him. Great guy, good heart. But what an idiot. You gotta love him.

So I was watching reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond on a rented DVD from VideoEZ after a long day of spring cleaning (which reminds me, why do they call it spring cleaning when it's like winter in most places that celebrate Christmas?), and in this episode Raymond and Robert's mother, Maria, causes Robert's wedding day to be a disaster despite her good intentions. Fortunately, Raymond dissipates the gloom of the groom, bride and room with a humourous yet touching speech that suddenly all the bad didn't matter anymore...And they lived happily ever after. Or so I hope. Gotta borrow season eight to see what happens next.

However, that speech got me thinking about the power words have on us. Words inspire or demoralize, create or destroy, cause wars or bring peace, forge friendships or make bitter enemies.  It's amazing how simple words which we take for granted and even abuse sometimes have this ability to shape our thoughts and actions for better or for worst. The great speeches of history for example have changed humanity because of these well-strung and well-delivered or spoken words that touched a great many.

And this led me to decide to post four speeches that I love and that I'd love to share with all of you reading.

I Have A Dream

The famous African American civil rights speech given by Martin Luthur King Jr. in 1963 most famous for its line "I have a dream" shall remain in the history books for a long time to come. The first time I listened to the recording of it, it became one of my favourite speeches of all time. I've listened to it three times since. I'm too free, what can I say?

What strikes me is the use of pause, intonation, crescendos, melody, and variation of speed, which when blended with substance charismatic yet influential and deep creates such a heartfelt and inspiring speech that the words reverberates long after the concluding line is over - "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty we are free at last!". Listen to and read the transcript here to feel the energy and magic.

Do Not Work

More recently, famed Teenage Textbook author Adrian Tan gave a speech to the law graduates at the 2008 NTU convocation. Entitled Do Not Work, this speech snowballed into a chain mail of sorts, setting bloggers posting and facebookers facebooking. It seemed that no matter who posted it or where I dug it up on the web, there were always comments - comments from people who were uplifted or touched by it. I'm betting that even some of the grumps and grouches of the web had something good to say about it. I sure did. And I'm a grouch by definition according to my girlfriend. Bah! Humbug!

That said, I wish there was an audio recording of it online (for free of course) though. Would love to listen to that being read. But in any case, you can read the transcript of it here for consolation.

How To Live Before You Die

In 2005, Steve Jobs' convocation speech to the graduates of Stanford University also caught on like wildfire and had people talking about it. It's a beautiful speech. One with beautiful morals similar to the speech given by Adrian Tan. But what's even more beautiful is that you can watch and listen to it live on YouTube. God bless the person who posted it. I've posted the video below for your viewing pleasure.

The Last Lecture - Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

As I saved the best for last, this 1 hour and 16 min video (yes, I also saved the longest for last but don't you just love savouring the best for as long as possible?), is not so much a lecture but rather a prolonged speech in a lecture format (if that makes sense) by Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Professor Randy Pausch who suffered coincidentally from pancreatic cancer like Steve Jobs previously but unfortunately wasn't as lucky to survive it. But like the convocation speech given by Mr. Jobs, the video is readily online thanks to YouTube. God bless both YouTube and the person who uploaded it.

A real tear jerker, Prof Pausch is a person I admire and his words and lessons I hope to always remember and live by.

In the spirit of Christmas, a toast to you Professor. Rest in peace.

Wishing you all find your meaning in life too and to always have fun doing it.

~K

Ascott's Bounce Unsuccessful

Last Friday, I commented that the spike in the share price of Ascott REIT seemed weak and that "Ascott's leap today did so on a rather small volume. Futhermore, you can notice the volume making lower highs. Such divergence in volume and price movement must be viewed with caution. Don't be an "ass caught" (pun intended) as prices may be sent downwards hereafter." See Ascott Reit Making A Weak Leap for details.

We can see from the chart that prices failed in its attempt to break through resistance at $1.28. However, as noted too that, "support seems to be strong from the collision of the 14day moving average with the 50dma at $1.22.", prices did indeed drop back to support levels ending the day at the predicted price.

But will the support hold?

Unfortunately, in the near term, the charts are rather unclear. There is no obvious trend from the indicators other than a slight dip in the MFI, a seeming plateauing of the OBV and a recent crossover in the Stochastics. These suggest selling and that prices could possibly dip for a couple more days but there is no strong trend from the ADX. MACD however looks set to cross, furthermore into negative territory which could drive prices down further.

However, as today's closing price coincides at the 14 day moving average, this may provide some stability in the price. The 50 dma too, trails at $1.21. As such, we might very well see prices hovering around its current support at $1.21 to $1.23 for the next few days.

That said, my personal opinion from all the clues and options is that I expect prices to drop a bit more before picking up, possibly even breeching $1.21 to its previous support at $1.20. As volume is still weak I doubt there'll be any testing of the $1.28 resistance any time soon.

Not vested,

~K

I Thinketh! - Christmas Spring Cleaning Reflection

Christmas is not a date. It's a state of mind.

~ Mary Ellen Chase

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.

~ Roy L. Smith

It's one week to Christmas and my back's killing me. I'm stiff all over. I've spent the last week cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, mainly because my family's invited for lunch on the 26th. About 5 hrs a day throwing unwanted junk out, performing the most amazing wipedown of my life and using superhuman strength to do a one-person shifting of my room - cupboards, bookcases and all. The record being working for 8 hrs straight. I'm gifted I tell ya. Not bad for a skinny fella.

As my girlfriend puts it, they should call Christmas, Cleanmas or Cookmas, as that's what we all seem to spend the majority of our days leading up to Christmas doing. It is our day of celebration after all. Of course someone else commented that we could even call Christmas, Drunkmas or Eatmas because that's what we end up doing on the day itself.

On the occassional break from my superheroic cleaning duties however, it's on to more exciting stuff called Christmas shopping. Now as you can imagine, shopping with aching knees from constant kneeling on the floor to wipe down the books and statues in my library is no easy feat. Heck! Being a guy and going Christmas shopping is no easy feat, so you can imagine the amount of superheroic strength and determination this calls for. And I still have yet to buy the presents. My strength faileth me.

As with all people with great destinies, difficulty and strife must be overcome - in order for the hero to get the girl, for Jack to get the hen that lays the golden eggs from the giant up the beanstalk, for the world to keep on turning, for Obama to get his tax cuts passed, yadayadayada. So now looking at it, my room is looking tons better. Oh it's not perfect yet and there's still a mess on my table but I've yet to figure out what I want to do with them. See how difficult life can be for us people with great destinies? We encounter one problem after another.

However as all superhero stories go, there's always an epiphanic triumphant moment and the hero become a better person because of it. I found mine this season. Whether I become a better person however, remains to be seen. But the thought that came to mind and stuck with me as I scrubbed, wiped, lifted and grunted was if we spent so much effort making our exterior look better for Christmas, why don't the majority of us spend at least a fraction of that making our interior look better too?

As someone once said to me, "in order for good things to enter, you must first throw out the bad." Or as paraphrased from a popular story, "how can anything enter when a cup is filled to the brim?"

And with that realization, I think this Christmas is going to be more meaningful this year for me. My superhero triumph and feat.

So said Charles Dickens, "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

With that I leave you with that popular story I read ages ago entitled "The Cup".

Wishing you and your family a meaningful Christmas and festive season,

~K

The Cup

Once there was a university professor who decided that he wanted to study zen. He travelled to a local monastery. He was shown in to the abbot’s study. The abbot was about to pour himself some tea. The professor stood before the abbot who looked up. The professor explained that he had been studying and teaching in the univeristy for many years and that now he wished to add to his knowledge and learning by studying zen.

The abbot nodded and began to our himself some tea. The professor watched as the teacup filled to the brim and, apparently failing to notice the full cup, the abbot continued to pour. The cup overflowed and still the abbot poured. The professor was reluctant to embarrass the abbot but finally said, "Master, your cup is full and overflowing. It can hold no more tea."

"Yes," said the abbot. "And how do you who come here with your cup so full expect to fill it with the teachings of zen?"

The professor nodded and smiled and bowed before the abbot.

Ascott REIT Making A Weak Leap

In my previous post entitled Two Extremes: Starhub - Falling Star, Singpost - Blasting Off!, I noted the giant movement in prices in both Starhub and Singpost.

Today, Ascott Residence Trust, a subsidiary owned by Temasek Holdings (48.1% stake), is also another stock which made a nice leap upwards, trashing its resistance at $1.23 and headed to its next resistance of $1.28 where it closed. However a closer look at the chart below shows some uncertainty to this move.

Unlike Starhub and Singpost in the previous post, Ascott's leap today did so on a rather small volume. Futhermore, you can notice the volume making lower highs. Such divergence in volume and price movement must be viewed with caution. Don't be an "ass caught" (pun intended) as prices may be sent downwards hereafter.

Does this mean that prices won't head higher? No it does not. Prices may still breech resistance. However as the volume supporting this rise is low, the rise in price may only be temporary which may result in another pull back in the short term. 

On the other hand, support seems to be strong from the collision of the 14day moving average with the 50dma at $1.22. Furthermore with prices making higher lows, prices may rise higher thereafter. But once again, volume shrinking doesn't support this. So caution.

That said, personally with uncertainty lurking, yield at 5.8% and Price to Book at a premium of 1.04, I wouldn't invest at the moment as Ascott REIT is rather unattractive at current prices. 

Not vested.

~K