Follow the Greatest Investor - A Christmas Special Post =))

Because Christmas is such a special occasion dearest to me, this blog won’t be complete without a Christmas special post.

So today I’ll try to squeeze my brain and filter all the alcohol that penetrated it these past few weeks days.

Let’s begin.

Do you still remember the highlight post of this blog? 
Yup, it’s the Peso Cost Averaging technique.

With the method, we simply set aside a small fixed portion of our money and invest it in our companies consistently for a long period of time.

And do you know the painful part of it?

It’s the phrase “consistently for a long period of time”.

It’s the fact that we keep investing in our companies… even when they are down.

While many will go away from stocks with declining price, we’re like bargain shoppers in times when market is down - we stick with our chosen strong stocks and pick-up their scattered pieces at cheap prices through time. 

We believe that it’s when we buy, and not when we sell, that we actually make money.

We invest in it despite its bad picture at the present because we still hold and  believe its greatest value remaining to be unleashed.

We believe that in the long run, these companies whose shares are being played around and avoided by other players will serve as our holy cow in the future.

We focus not on their history but keep our eyes on their future value.

Stock Prices in Stock Market

If you’re into music, you surely know the Pricetag song.  
If you don’t, find life! HAHA. But I recommend the very cool version of the super pretty Julie Anne San Jose. 

While I agree to its compelling and timely message that it’s really not about the money, I guess a better line would be “It’s not about the money, money, money, ALONE”.  HAHA

Of course it’s about the money. 
Let's all make the world dance!

Investing in Ten Little Steps

In this blog, let's answer this common question on investing:  So how do I start?

As mentioned in my previous blog, the first step is to have the money to invest, which requires the step of investing in yourself.

My latest blog also tells you that you can never do it alone, and thus you would need to look for your stock broker.

image from http://designmind.frogdesign.com

How to Choose Your Stock Broker?

Here is the greatest irony of investing - You need to have a broker to be whole.  

Okay, it’s corny, I know.

But kidding aside, you need the service of a broker for you to invest in our stock market.

Sad to say, you can’t make your million alone. You’ll need their presence.

These brokers place orders in the stock exchange in your behalf. In exchange, they receive some commission for every buy or sell transaction they match for you.

Two Types of Brokers

Before, there were only people brokers.

This is the chaotic scene you’ve seen in the Wall Street movie.

If you have parents or grandparents who have invested in stocks, most probably they have done it through live brokers.

They would contact their broker buddy thru a phone call, and instruct them audibly their desired transactions.

And these people depend on newspapers business page to know the market results the previous day.

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Thanks to internet!

Don’t tell this to my employer...

Few updates first!

The PSE will have longer hours of trading starting October 3 2011!

From its usual 9-12 trading hours, it will extend until 1PM.

Pre-Open	9:00 am
Continuous Trading	9:30 am
Pre-Close	12:47 pm
Run-Off/ Trading at last	12:50 pm
Close	1:00 pm

Then come next year, it will extend more until 3PM. Yipppee!

That only means you can now manage your investments even during your lunch time, and not only during your official working hours, as in the case of a working employee.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

For investors following the Easy Investment Program strategy, that should not be a big deal for you. Remember that fifteen minutes a month – that's just what you need to place your orders and make your millions through time.

But for traders and short-termers, I think it sounds more as good news in terms of having more time on monitoring one’s portfolio within the day.

Happy investing!

The Easy Way of Investing - Peso Cost Averaging

Many say that the stock market is dangerous.

And you know what, I agree.

Statistics says that an average of more than 80% of all the stock market players lose money.

Geesh..

Mark Twain once said, “October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”

An officemate once shared to me his first impression on investing in stocks. He said he couldn’t see the returns being worth of the time, energy and brain cells being poured into it.

And I also think he’s somewhat correct. With the many things that need to be factored in when evaluating entry to and exit from the stock market, it’s really very hard to discern when to start and actually plunge into it.

But the last time I checked, ignorance remains to be not an excuse in trying out something. Most of the times, you only need to know the very basics of anything to make it sense for you.

Your First Step to Investing -Saving!

INVESTING, as others say, is the secret of the rich.

The sad thing is that in the Philippines, only a fraction of 1% of our entire population are actively involved in our own stock exchange, compared to higher figures in our neighbor countries.

And while many are enticed, few are only able to manage and make the first crucial steps to move on, oftentimes justifying their stagnant motion with a thousand lame excuses.

Thus this reminder.

What exactly do you need to do to make the ball rolling for you?

Here it is: SAVE.

Unless you inherited a big chunk of cash from your rich parents, one needs to save money to start investing.

It’s very straightforward why - investing involves buying of stocks, and one needs money to buy anything.

The main difference though is that in investing, you buy an ASSET that can work for you, unlike in just buying anything that easily deteriorates through time in terms of value. 

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PAY YOURSELF FIRST

Surprsing Bonus - Investing may bring me to heaven!

In few day’s I’ll be celebrating my first year anniversary investing in the Philippine stock market. From just an unsolicited invitation, I never thought that I would seriously put some time into it.

I love investing partly because it gives me money! (Do I hear some yeah?!?)

 But more than that, I have toy reasons why I continue playing with it.

In fact, I think it may even help me go to heaven.  Haha (Lord, forgive my sins).

Here’s why

My First Purchase in the Stock Market

This blog is a little more special for me.

Because this tells the very first purchase I had in the stock market.

Yes, that was the time when I was just a little kid wandering in a wide vast field.

Just like starting anew in anything, my clueless personality made all the moves for me.

All I had to hold on was my mustard dream of financial freedom and the belief that stock investing can be a path for that dream. I managed to cut the chase, and applied for an account.

Philstocks was my first online broker, precisely because they required only 5000 initial deposit to actually start trading. (But now I discovered that you can start opening your trading account just by opening a bank account, like in the case of brokers BPI Trade and FirstMetroSec).

Minimum investment required was 5000, but I put down 10k just to put a front that I have more than that. The lady in charge gracefully accepted it after examining my forms, then handed me a receipt, which was also the highest-valued receipt I received ever since.

With my humble 10k initial investment, I was too excited to buy a company share and brand myself a part-owner of a giant company. Hard-core traders would laugh on me for that, but I was already more than happy just giving it a try.

The moment I received my account details, I made my first order.

And my first stock purchase:  2000 shares of Megaworld Corporation (stock symbol MEG) at 1.87 per share.  Wheee!

Make that MONEY!

In my previous blog Look for the MONEY,  I showed a way to find where the MONEY is.

Time to reap what you planted! Yahoo!

Here comes the reason why anyone would spend time exploring the stock market!

In the first place, you invest in something because you hope it would do something good to you in return. It’s all about seeing potential of a company to make your money work hard for you.

So let’s now discuss how one exactly makes money in the stock market.

Time to open wide your pocket now. J

Welcome to the world of sharing!

Here’s the bottom-line: You earn when your company earns.

It’s that straightforward. It’s also flexible.

You lose when your company loses.

It’s pretty obvious. For a company to have something to share with its shareholders, it must be able to generate the money first by itself in the form of company profits.

So assuming your company is successful in achieving their target earnings, there are primarily two basic ways of blessing their shareholders, either through price appreciation and/or giving dividends.

Look for the MONEY in the Philippine Stock Market

PONDERING ON WHAT STOCKS TO BUY?

One of the biggest and common natural trend for starter investors is to ask for the perfect stocks to buy at a particular time.

Well, to be honest, I don’t know.

And I think no one knows!

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Surely you would see scattered recommendations and hot tips around (sometimes contradicting) from almost anyone who claims to have the experience and expertise to make such predictions, but those are all presumptions to some extent.

Why?

Because the stock market, while may have some trends, is still unpredictable. If it were not, many would have been millionaires in days.

So a more secure way for your investing is to go back to the core of the matter, examining closely what stocks you’re going to buy (or avoid!).

And since you're looking for additional money,  then why not search for the companies with the actual MONEY?!

Nobody can predict interest rates, the future direction of the economy, or the stock market. Dismiss all such forecasts and concentrate on what’s actually happening to the companies in which you’ve invested. - Peter Lynch

Let's dig this MONEY deeper! 

How Does Stock Market Really Really Work???

[a fictional story]

Once upon a time there was a generous kind old man named Lolo living in the mountain of Alps.

He’s with his four grandchildren - Lulu, Mimi, Pepe and Wawa.

Lolo loves telling stories very much ever since, but one day, for a change, he decided   to share to his grandchildren the story of Warren Buffet, the guy who made the greatest wealth in the history of stock investing. Everyone was amazed in what the stock market could do after hearing the story, except for Wawa.

Fortunately, these children had been holding 10 peysows inheritance each left by their parents.

So the next day, Lulu, Mimi and Pepe went down the mountain to apply for an online stockbroker account. Wawa, who realized there were no other kids in the mountain to play with, also went down with the three. They all waved their hands as they bid goodbye to  Lolo.

Very timely, a  strong company OMG had placed an IPO – Initial Public Offering, which only means the management was taking their company public, to gather funds for expansion and development. They were offering 5 outstanding shares.

Lulu, Mimi and Popo eyed to buy OMG which was priced 5 peysows per share.  Wawa, on the other hand, still doubtful, decided to put his whole money in the bank.

Is it Possible? How to Earn Even with Falling Stocks?!

When stocks are going up, almost everyone is making money.

People throw parties, fly balloons and eat lotsa cake. That’s great, and that should always be the case.

image from http://free-extras.com

(If you still don’t earn money with rising stocks, then there must be really something wrong in what you’re doing)

How about making money even with falling stocks?

Sounds great right?!

But is it really attainable? Is it really possible to earn even with stocks falling down?

The short answer is an all-caps lock bold font-18 YES. HAHA
How?

What else, but with the power of PESO-COST AVERAGING. 

TGIA: Thank God I’m Alive (NOW)

Last month I had my regular stock update from the Truly Rich Club (TRC).

But the April batch I received contains info which I believe would be more useful for anyone still outside and oblivious of the stock market world.

I tried to translate it to make it more practical for a clueless public but it seemed I could no longer condense it to a more simplified practical version. And so I just showed below some snapshots of the article. (I hope Bro Bo wouldn’t mind me posting a portion of it here. Well, I know him as a very generous man, so I’m quite confident he won’t rebuke my membership one he knew my giving this icing on the cake.  Yummmmy!) Read first before going on.

How to learn about stock market WITHOUT losing money

In my last blog, I shared my first-hand experience investing in the Philippine stock market and showed all my baby activities last year.

It was not totally flawless of course, what can you expect from a newbie who had no any business and financial background. But the rewards are good enough for an investor infant like me.

And the more I engage playing in the market, the more I see myself doing it in the long run.

Ten or twenty years from now, I picture myself doing trades and investments every weekday morning  when the market opens,  entering orders, watching the market movements and sentiments, and making wise (and hopefully right) decisions.  That’s the kind of battle I would have to conquer every few hours of the day.

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After that I’ll proceed playing with my kids, managing “cute” businesses, strengthening my family, building my friendships,  enjoying my own farm, jogging with my pets,  doing my other advocacies and (possibly) teaching  all my life learning and realizations to the generations after me.

Waaaaaahhhhh!

My First Days in the Stock Market =) and Why I Liked it!

I have noticed my previous blogs all revolve around encouraging people to try entering the stock market.

I expressed statements like “money working harder for you”, “do not be slave of money” and “create your money machines”.

But I realize that experience is not only the best teacher.

I have recognized that it’s also the most credible salesperson.

Aside from it speaks by itself without those false marketing tactics,its results also set the records straight, putting everything in black and white,  leaving no gray areas.

So let me disclose here a snapshot of what I have experienced out of this so far.

I extracted all my activities/transactions last year 2010 to assess and confirm if my investments bring me any good, or I’m just wasting precious time to delve on such subject.

But first, let me say that I was really ignorant financially before, let alone on investing in the stock market.

I just considered thinking about the stock market few months after I had read Bro Bo’s book which started my financial freedom expedition. Then it was followed by an invitation from one of our lecturers during our board exam review.

Up to now, I could still clearly remember how that kind professor said his regret on his late entry to the market. That it took him many long years before he and the stock market met along the road.

                                                                                                                                                                         

So when I finally decided to give it a try, I went the next day to an online brokerage firm and deposited 10,000 pesos.  And following the strategy of all Truly Rich Club members, I faithfully made  monthly deposits to add to  my trading account.

Now what happened months after venturing into a previously unknown and seemingly intimidating world?

Shown is the summary of all my transactions for the year 2010.

A Typical Trading Day

Just last April 7 I bought few shares of PLDT (TEL) at 2348 per share.

I thought that’s pretty low price considering that it had attained 2550 -level in March of 2010.

Besides, that’s one of blue-chip companies, so I need not to worry where it would bring my money.

(Blue-chip meaning it’s 101% sure that it will go on standing in the next 10-20 years)

And I noticed the market these days has been very generous to its players.

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Indeed it brought me cakes and partys!

I checked early  this day, and it’s price ballooned to 2436 per share.

Now it also gave me balloons!

Wheee, that’s more than 3% in a matter of days!

But do you know what typically follows when people see profits?

Yepzyepzyeeepz!

Greed easily makes a graceful entrance, so graceful you won’t notice it flowing within your circulatory system.

So I experimentally posted a sell order at 2440 per share, when its market price even went down to 2430.

(Somehow I acted like a vendor selling items overpriced. Just being too playful)

Make Your Fantastic Sex and Profits!

Let me share one golden advice  – an advice that, if applied appropriately, may help a lot to your sexual and financial life.

Here it is - “TAKE YOUR TIME”.

Women naturally love to be undressed, slowly, bit by bit.

Men of course also love this form of foreplay very much, and smart witty women know how to make their partner go really crazy because of this.



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 But nah, women’s tendency is less obvious, and therefore is often ignored.

Unfortunately, both sexes are tempted to begin their sizzling action completely naked at the beginning, without doing the art of doing things slowly, thus grabbing them of the chance to make things  a lot more exciting and ecstatic for them.

Thus this blog to remind us of this tested rule.

Sorry if I Confused You

When I made my blog  My Batchmates are now Working for Me, I received lots of inquiries as to how to start investing.

They raised question like “Romer teach me how to enter the stock market”,

or “What’s your portfolio now” or “ What to buy now?”.

With that I apologize that I brought the wrong impression.

I want to confess that I just balled you! (Nambola lang! )

Because stock market alone won’t make you a millionaire.

In the first place, I didn’t make the blog so you start venturing on it right after.

All I want to bring to the table is that there’s more than working for a job, without actually doing more.

 But it seemed I forgot one important point there worth mentioning here - that money from stocks, in its bare form, can never make you truly rich!

And that financial expedition journey is more than acquiring money for oneself.

from http://jessicabarnett.com/

My Batchmates are Now Working for Me :)

I believe the time has come when money is best made by taking your vacation. My senses feel that the market will carry on with a positive outlook for a month at least due to foreign buying.

Happy 50^th Year Anniversarry to Petron Bataan Refinery!

http://www.tucoo.com/logo_class/transport_logo08/s/

Just last  Wednesay Petron Corp boss Ramon Ang declared plans to expand its refinery operation in Bataan, target to be completed by 2014, and is seen to lift its earnings by as much as 50%.  This is in line with their goal to make the refinery lead in Asia-Pacific region, meeting the demands for petrochemicals and white products including LPG, gasoline, and diesel.

Its 2010 net income jumped 84% to PhP7.9bn on strong petrochemical and export sales while revenues reached PhP229.1bn. Domestic sales grew 6% while export volume rose 48%. And upon completion of the expansion, Petron’s contribution to its parent San Miguel Corp could rise from 30% to 40%.

Enough of the details here, but the whole point is there’s going to be a massive expansion, which in turn will lead to greater potential for company earnings and revenues.  

Many of my friends, orgmates and batchmates will surely benefit from this as this investment will inevitably require a lot of technical manpower to meet this upcoming demand for labor.

Some will decide to enter this gateway, submit their resume, wait for the call for an interview schedule, ride a Five Star bus to Bataan for the interview itself, and then go back until the series is finished. If fortunate enough, they will be given a job offer, start working and begin earning their monthly salary.Yehey!

Earn for Your Loving

Why invest in the stock  market?

This has actually two questions.

First is why invest, and second is why choose the stock market.

Let’s tackle the first in this blog.

Why invest?

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Short answer: Because you want your money do something for you

Here’s an observation - We’ve almost done everything for money.

Starting from the time we sit on that hot chair for that series of interview, up to the time we retire, we’re essentially working for money.

It may not be the full reason, yes, but it’s definitely a big part of it.

In fact, many we’re trained and equipped for it in school. Sometimes even in our own homes.

Now there’s nothing wrong getting a job, it’s a very decent way of earning for a living.

And everyone should really strive for it.

But a job shouldn’t stop you or hinder you to “earn for your loving”.

Yes, your mission shouldn’t be bounded by your office cubicle, or a noisy manufacturing plant, or your cold conference room.

It has to support you in your own personal mission and goals.

It has to be felt outside your own world too.

Earn for your loving

A typical man working is awake two-thirds of a day, more than half of which is spent working.

When the time he’s home, he’s just so tired and exhausted to invest in other things more important to job. Quality family time, family updates, dinner together with friends, supporting others, etc.

Wake-up early in the morning, drive/commute to office, greet your boss, please your clients,  deliver your outputs, go home. This routine cycle repeats itself five times every week, some even more than that.

Don’t get misled.

Be an excellent employee you can be, deliver the greatest value you can give,  and make the best of your opportunity, but don’t forget to “mind your own business” too. Remember that your employer is also investing on you, and is actually minding his own business doing so. It might be wise pondering to do the same.

A job alone also wouldn’t bring you to your complete personal goals.

It may even hold you back at the worse.

And  leave you at an instant.

Now we want to diminish that non-supportive total- job-dependence.

And one way to do it is invest a part of what you get out of working for it.

Start Investing

It’s said that cemetery is the most fertile land because of the worthy dreams continuously get buried remaining unrealized.

And I have a theory that next to it is workplace, where self-dream-sabotage is a common episode.

Friend, let your hard-earned money work even harder for you.

Then go find your way to your real home.

Have fun investing!

For your dreams and passion!

It All Started with a Book

Let my first blog here be a confession.

Since I was a child until the time I graduated in college, I am unconsciously financially ignorant.

I didn’t know how money works, why the rich are rich and the poor are poor, and why it remains that way.

I even had a blurred idea of making a deposit in a bank until high school.

Now that’s actually a big problem. 
Why?

First because I was ignorant about a thing that “makes the world go round”, second because I was not even aware of it.

I believed money is important, but reflexively, I told myself that it’s bad, and so I stopped myself to have  more of it without even  conscious of that behavior.

Whenever a lump of money falls in my hand, I had that unstoppable tendency to always spend it until I’ m left something I’m comfortable with.

My picture of a rich man is bad greedy man, one who always oppresses the poor to remain rich, or a corrupt official at the expense of the suffering public.

Money for me is the root of all evil, and anyone having much of it is an epitome of a selfish materialistic picture destined to suffer in hell upon his death.

In fact, when I graduated from college, an inside fear came creeping telling me that a job might give me money big enough to make me forget the  most important things in life (relationships, friends, quality time etc). I’m afraid it would control me instead of I being able to handle it.

But not until now.

Thank God He didn’t allow me to stay in that unsupportive behavior. His grace was once again made perfect in that very weak area of my life.

While my beliefs on the most crucial aspects of our lives remain the same and solid, I’m now seeing money as a tool to improve these jars of our lives instead of as a curse to get rid of.

Money automatically becomes an available means for anyone to serve the mission God has prepared for him.

How it all started?

With a book - The 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich by Bo Sanchez.