Gold DownTrending

With Dow Jones and the US markets breaking new highs, commodities especially gold is clearly losing its sparkle. With the US ending its QE3, it further puts pressure into gold as a safe haven.

From the above chart since 2012, gold has been a downtrend and it is still continues on a downtrend with no sign of reversal!!

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Death Note

I bet you have heard the latest hottest real estate investment being marketed around. Well, this is not the literal real estate property housing but the entry level is a 5 digit sum. Per square feet wise, it is the most expensive real estate in Malaysia, and some say the whole world.

Well, it is the real estate housing whose occupants once check-in , will never check out.

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low cost house application

Saw that the application starts today: 3,000 forms gone in 5 minutes!! wow. Anyone that knows anyone that is eligible for it, please quickly go apply for a low cost housing so that you don't waste money to paying rent for someone else.

I wonder whether this will give some amount of pressure to the ruling government to start caring for the Rakyat after the countless unfulfilled election promises. Transparency is very important as everyone wants to own their own prices at affordable prices, especially on Penang Island hence the balloting.

Either way, this is a good cooling measure by Penang government, I wonder whether Selangor/KL would implement such measures. Although I think that might hamper some economic growth in the Greater KL area. Penang is a little different as most of its major infrastructure is located on the limited space on the island. 

For example, building/moving the airport to Mainland Penang will drastically shift the economic center of gravity.

http://www.knowthymoney.com/2013/12/new-penang-property-measures-in-2014-to.html

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the Penang Development Corporation has been ordered to build 19,973 low-cost houses, low-medium cost houses and affordable homes in all five districts in the state.

“The state government currently has a RM500mil fund to kickstart the project. To be fair to all, if there are extra units, we will conduct a ballot.

“An auditing firm will be employed to monitor the balloting to ensure there is no misappropriation,” he said.

On the criticism hurled at the state government on the proposed new housing rules, Lim said that they were ready to face any consequences.

“People who want to shoot or lambast us may do so but we will not back down for trying to help first-time house buyers,” Lim told a press conference after launching the event.

Among the 10 locations for the low-cost and affordable housing projects are Jalan S.P. Chelliah, Teluk Kumbar, Jelutong and Pintasan Cecil on the island and in Batu Kawan, Kampung Jawa, Mak Mandin, Ampang Jajar, Bukit Mertajam and Juru on the mainland.

Under the new rules to regulate affordable homes, owners of affordable homes (below RM400,000 on the island and RM250,000 on the mainland) will be barred from reselling them in the first five years.

Owners of public housing (low-cost units and low medium-cost units) bought for RM72,500 or less cannot sell their units within 10 years.

The deadline to submit the application forms for houses in Jalan S.P. Chelliah is March 31 next year. For those applying for houses at other locations, the deadline is June 30.

Those who are interested can also download the form at http://erumah.penang.gov.my.

All application forms can be submitted at Level 3 in Komtar or at the state assemblymen service centres.

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Money Flying Away

As you all know, the tax deductions for Private Retirement Scheme only cover up to RM3,000 of contribution per annum. The youtube video statement by Rafizi is worrisome because of his claims below on some recent tax clause changes are harmful for those that invest money into private retirement funds. Disclaimer : I am not 100% sure on whether the claims are true as purportedly in the video.

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Some of the readers in my newsletter subscription asked me to share this in my blog instead of keeping bounded inside the newsletter.  Just let you all know, I just sold off my entire stock holdings to take money off the table. In my personal opinion, I felt that even though that some counters are going to all time high, overall sentiment is beginning to weaken. So I am just reloading & waiting for the next train ride. Nevertheless, I found the following good info that I wish to share with you all, since some of the readers are asking me whether I have a list of good dividend yielding stocks. Note do not try to chase stock prices as stocks have gone up alot and a correction is soon to be expected. One of my reason why I sold out. I maybe wrong but I am satisfied with my gain :D The table shows stocks that have increasing dividend payout for 3 consecutive years. I have a particular stock in my mind that I wanted to buy after seeing this list. Maybe I will post in my blog after I bought it or maybe I won't post it all since I don't really want to turn my blog into a stock picking blog which is not really my intention. (which why I only share this in the newsletter) See the top dividend centric stocks by signing up to the subscription link--> http://eepurl.com/cYFkU I will resend the full article to new subscribers in 1 week time. So please be patient :D

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Should I try my luck again for the AirAsia X IPO? So far, after countless attempts, I have yet to get an IPO share. It is priced to be RM1.45 per pop.

For readers that want to apply for an IPO, just search my old blog postings on how to apply for an IPO. I will skip this time as much of my money is tied somewhere else.

Good luck guys.

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia X Bhd's initial public offer (IPO) of up to 790.12 million shares, which includes the issuance of new shares, will see its market capitalisation increase to RM3.43bil, based on the enlarged share capital of 2.37 billion shares.

In its summary prospectus issued on Monday, AirAsia X said the enlarged paid-up would be 790.12 million shares comprising an offer for sale of up to 197.53 million existing shares and a public issue of 592.59 million new shares.

AirAsia X said the floatation exercise includes the sale of 197.53 million existing shares and 592.59 million new shares. The institutional offering would involve 538.01 million shares while the retail offering would be 252.11 million shares.

The listing exercise would enable AirAsia X to raise RM859.26mil from sale of 592.59 million new shares at an indicative retail price of RM1.45 a share.

Of the gross proceeds of RM859.26mil, it said RM280mil would be used a capital expenditure, another RM285.81mil for repayment of bank borrowings, RM255.45mil as general working capital and the remaining RM38mil for listing expenses.

The low-cost carrier posted revenue of RM535.27mil for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, compared to RM1.28bil in the year to Dec 31, 2012.

Its net profit during the first quarter of 2013 and financial year ended Dec 31, 2012 stood at RM50.19mil and RM33.85mil, respectively.

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Everything is cyclic in nature. What is beautiful can be ugly the next day or vice versa.

Gold futures dropped more than $100 an ounce at one point in European trading hours on Monday, deepening their descent after entering bear-market territory last week, while prices for industrial metal copper also slumped following economic data from China that fell short of expectations.

Gold for June delivery tumbled $93.40, or 6%, to $1,407.60 an ounce, but has dropped to as low as $1,384.60. Gold last week lost 4.7%.

Looking at the ETF GOLD today @USD143 while Silver SLV: @USD25.28

So it is best not to put everything into a single basket. Diversify :D

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The bank is literally bustling with activities. I saw alot of senior citizens and elderly clutching their fixed deposit certificates to the bank counters. So, I just observed them.

Looks like for CNY, alot of banks are holding fixed deposit promotions to encourage people to put their money into FD. Some of the promotions are indeed very good for those ultra-conservative investors aka mostly old people.

Hong Leong Bank Fixed Deposit Promotion

I particularly like Hong Leong's promotion because

1) I like the cute Chinese New Year cartoon.
2) It gives 4.28% rate for a minimum for RM10,000 deposit for 12 months. ( I see the auntie at the counter kept on asking the banker on this)

Disclaimer: I don't know about the terms and condition of the promotion, (Currently I don't have any Fixed deposits. I don't plan too :D ) so do practise your own judgement on this.

Just look at the promotions below. For more detail just go to the nearest bank if you are interested.

Ambank FD Promotion

Public Bank FD promotion

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I also received a email from my Public Mutual agent but I overlook it since I was flooded with tons of unread email. Looks like the unit trust consultant in question is really in deep hot soup. He/She could be the most wanted enemy among the thousands of Public Mutual agents. You seriously don't want to be that guy!! But it is quite common to see some agents showing comparison data between unit trust & EPF returns. I guess EPF just pissed off this time and decided to give a spat on the hand.

My agent sent an email yesterday 11am, saying that Public Mutual will not accept new transactions using EPF monies. And around 2pm, another email was sent informing the uplifting. Looks like this crisis was resolved in just 3 hours?!

Luckily the suspension was uplifted, if not this will seriously impact the rice bowls of the unit trust agents. Competition in this field is very tight.

From TheStar

KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has lifted the suspension of Public Mutual Bhd’s services as an approved fund management institution.

The suspension was lifted yesterday.

In a statement, Public Mutual said this followed its explanation that the violation was made by a unit trust consultant (UTC) who did not adhere to the company’s stern reminders on EPF’s rules and regulations. “With the lifting of the suspension by the EPF, Public Mutual continues to be an approved fund management institution under the EPF members’ investment scheme,” it said.

It said EPF caught the said UTC distributing unauthorised flyers in Shah Alam. Public Mutual said it had always reminded all UTCs that they were not permitted to use any sales and marketing materials, including materials that make any reference to EPF or with EPF logo, other than those approved by the company.

Public Mutual noted that “it does not condone any violation made by any UTC to the EPF rulings.” In view of the seriousness of this matter, the company said, it has taken immediate appropriate action against the said UTC who has violated the EPF rulings.

It was posted on EPF’s website on Monday that Public Mutual’s services as an approved fund management institution under the EPF Members’ Savings Investment Withdrawal had been suspended effective Oct 29. — Bernama

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Maybank is the first to introduce SILVER investment beside the well known GOLD investments now offered by most of the major banks. Since GOLD investment has become some-what infamous because of the Genneva fiasco. 

For those that is interested in GOLD invesment but wants to sleep soundly at night without the fear of BNM raiding and freezing a companies asset, it is best to invest in the gold investments offered by our local banks.

Here is a comparison between the Gold investment offered by Malaysia's local BIG banks aka Maybank, Public Bank & CIMB Bank. If you want to find the cheapest option, just look for the best spreads offered. For me, I also look for a good online system so that I don't need to be dependant on agents, the need to go to a physical branch etc. Continue to read more on Online transactions.

http://www.knowthymoney.com/2011/09/legal-gold-investments-in-malaysia.html

CIMB is the first to offer online transactions though among the banks. Here is the step by step to buy & sell your gold transactions online via CIMBClicks.

http://www.knowthymoney.com/2012/08/gold-investment-account-gia-via.html

Perhaps in the future there will be some scheme similar to Genneva but trading in Silver?! (Greed does not know boundaries and scams appears in various forms parasiting on greed itself)

One major difference between the GOLD & SILVER investment offered by Maybank is that you can withdraw your physical GOLD purchases from the bank (perhaps you want to hide it under your pillow for safe keeping in case of economic apocalypse soon 12.12.2012??) but you CANNOT do the same thing for their SILVER investments. See their Clause 11.1 here

Compared to GOLD , as expected the entry point is much much lower. It is just RM3.50 to buy 1 gram as of 12 October. The spread is just RM0.31 but if you look closely in terms of spread percentage, it is must higher than GOLD's :D

Nevertheless, in terms of precious metal , GOLD is still the GOLDEN standard. No pun intended.

Maybank Silver Investment Account
DATE	SELLING (RM/g)	BUYING (RM/g)
12-Oct-12	3.50	3.19

Last update : 12-Oct-12 at 02:55:22 PM

Features	Description
Minimum Initial Purchase	20 gram
Minimum Subsequent Purchase/Sale	10 gram in multiples of 1 gram
Minimum Balance in the Account	5 gram
Silver Purchase Price	- Silver purchase will be based on the Bank's prevailing silver SELLING price quoted in RM per gram - The mode of payment accepted for purchase of silver are: • Cash • Debiting of current/savings account maintained with the Bank • House cheque
Silver Sale/Withdrawal	Silver sale will be based on the Bank's prevailing silver BUYING price quoted in RM per gram Withdrawal options available are: • Cash • Crediting of current/savings account maintained with the Bank
Mode of Operation	Passbook
Interest	No interest payout
Stamp Duty Fee on Agreement	RM10
Replacement of Lost / Spoilt Passbook	RM15 (inclusive of Stamp Duty for Letter of Indemnity)

Who can apply

• Individuals aged 18 years and above
• Joint account - maximum 4 persons

Disclaimer: The returns on Maybank Silver Investment Account are subject to the silver price fluctuations. Customers are advised to read and understand the product before making any investment. Maybank Silver Investment Account is not insured by Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia (PIDM).

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For those gold bugs out there, CIMB Bank has come out with a nice online system to buy & sell electronic gold. The new investment scheme is called the GOLD Investment Account (GIA) . *P.S GIA sounds like a girl name to me, nice touch though. It is easier to remember a girls name that any made up acronym.

Add gold to your investment portfolio today in the most opportune way – now you can invest in gold via CIMB Clicks.  You can buy and sell gold via CIMB Clicks in the purest form (99.99% fineness). Basically, you will be able to trade in paper gold format but perform and view all transactional activities without the hassle of holding physical gold.

How it works

This is an Internet Banking only account on CIMB Clicks which is available to individuals, Joint and/or Sole Proprietor customers. You can access your account via CIMB Clicks on your PC to perform transactions and keep track of your investment.

Features

Features you can perform include:

• Account Opening
• Buying and Selling of Gold
• Schedule Transactions
• Set Recurring Transaction
• View Transaction History
• Gold Calculator
• Physical Gold Request
• Gold Price Alert via SMS/Email

Account Opening

Opening an acount can be done quickly and conveniently through www.cimbclicks.com.my.

Buying Gold

You have the convenience and flexibility to purchase gold, with these features:

• Buy gold at the prevailing selling price
• Buy gold for yourself or third parties
• Make a one-time purchase of gold
• Schedule transactions – Choose to buy at a future date based on a predetermined gold price and amount (one-off or recurring). All you have to do is specify the quantity of gold you would like to purchase at a certain price (limit price) and state if it is a recurring transaction. The system will check daily whether the limit price is matched by the selling price. If the limit price is matched by the selling price, the system will execute the transaction and the affiliate CASA will be debited accordingly. The order will be repeated until the recurring transaction is completed.  All scheduled transaction requests have a 3-month validity period.

Selling Gold

You have the ease of selling your gold, with these features:

• Sell gold at the prevailing buying price
• Sell off your one-time purchase of gold
• Schedule transactions – Choose to sell at a future date based on a predetermined gold price and amount (one-off or recurring). All you have to do is specify the quantity of gold you would like to sell at a certain price (limit price) and state if it is a recurring transaction. The system will check daily whether the limit price is matched by the buying price. If the limit price is matched by the buying price, the system will execute the transaction and the affiliate CASA will be credited accordingly. The order will be repeated until the recurring transaction is completed.  All scheduled transaction requests have a 3-month validity period.

Gold Price

Gold price is quoted as RM per gram. Investment value will be converted to gold holdings in gram based on CIMB Bank’s prevailing gold Buying / Selling price quoted in RM per gram on a daily basis.

Withdraw Cash or Physical Gold

You may realize your gold holdings in the form of cash or physical gold. Withdrawal of gold into Ringgit Malaysia can be performed through CIMB Clicks. Withdrawal in the form of physical gold can be requested through CIMB Clicks; however, the collection of the physical gold currently can only be done at our CIMB Bank branch at Menara Bumiputra Commerce (“MBC”).

Gold Calculator

Use the calculator to help you trade more effectively as it allows you to:

• View gold prices for buying and selling
• View gold price charts
• Estimate profit and loss

Interest Rate

No interest will be paid on this investment. Return on investment will be purely based on capital gain if there is an appreciation in the gold price. 

Return on Investment =

Return - Investment Investment

X 100%

Benefits

• Earn potentially higher returns from preferential buying and selling rates, and appreciation in gold price
• Good hedge against inflation
• Affordable initial purchase and subsequent investment
• Trading of gold is performed on CIMB Clicks, making it convenient to invest
• Invest in gold without the hassle of having to hold physical gold

Item	Details
Number of accounts per person	Maximum of 3 accounts
Eligibility	Individuals (residents and non-residents) aged 18 years and above Personal, Sole Proprietors or Joint Account  Existing customers of CIMB Bank with a conventional CASA and access to CIMB Clicks (Note: New customers are required to open a conventional CASA with CIMB Bank and have access to CIMB Clicks)
Mode of Operation	Account opening via CIMB Clicks via internet. Account can only be closed at CIMB Bank branches.
Minimum Initial Buy	5 grams
Subsequent Buy	Minimum 5 grams and in multiples of 1 gram
Minimum Sell	5  grams
Minimum Balance in Account	1  gram
Maximum Limit of Gold	No maximum limit
Minimum Quantity for Withdrawal	100 grams and in multiples of 100 grams
Terms & Conditions (“T&C”)	Customer needs to read and accept the T&C displayed prior to opening the account on CIMB Clicks.
Statement Type	E-Statement
Operation Hours	8:30am to 11:30pm daily except on national public holidays For one-off transactions, the buying or selling price will be based on the prevailing gold price when the transaction is submitted by the customer Scheduled transaction requests will only be processed at 4pm daily. If the gold price quoted at 4pm matches the customer’s pre-specified order criteria, it will be processed. Otherwise, the request will be processed the following day (during the 3-month validity period)
Physical e-Gold Request	Payment will be debited from the customer’s designated affiliate account Customer is required to collect the physical gold from our CIMB Bank branch at Menara Bumiputra Commerce Physical gold ordered and not collected within the stipulated time period will be liquidated and the amount will be credited back to the customer’s affiliate CASA at the prevailing buying price
Depositing of Physical Gold	CIMB Bank does not accept depositing of physical gold
Interest	No interest payout
Fees & Charges	An annual service fee of RM5 will be charged to the designated affiliate account on the first day of the calendar year should the gold balance in the account fall below 5 grams as of year end RM1 per gram of gold in the event customer requests for physical withdrawal of gold from their account (inclusive of insurance and transport charges) RM1 per gram of gold in the event customer fails to collect the requested physical gold 30 days from date the notification letter is sent out (inclusive of insurance and transport charges) RM10 for closing of account within 6 months of its opening

Hence I logged into my CIMBCLICKS to have a look. Here are some screenshots of the interface.

 Main Interface under "Manage My Wealth"

Gold Calculator - Bank Sell is the price we buy , while Bank Buy is the price we sell. :) So the Bank make money aka commission since the Bank Sell price is always higher than Bank Buy. Note that the spread for today is around RM10. In the terms & conditions, I noticed that there is a clause that gold prices offered in this account may fluctuate a lot after working hours and during weekends. World Gold prices are very violatile hence the disclaimer by CIMB.

Gold prices

You can request physical gold but you can only collect from CIMB KL main branch.

Now it is so easy to buy & sell GOLD. Just by a click of a mouse. And the spread is not that huge compared to physical silver that my friend ask me to invest in. (~25-30% spread)

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This last feature is undoubtedly the final accumulation of the "Technical Insight"'s & "Value Analyzer"'s power & strength into the RHBINVEST RHBScreener tool. It is the "Strategy Builder". At first I thought it is something similar to the "Value Analyzer" as you can key in the financial criteria that you want in a search in its universe of stocks. 

However, upon more inspection, this "Strategy Builder" is actually a tool for you to do some serious back-testing on your investment strategy either by using Technical Analysis or Fundamental Analysis or both. We will see more screenshots explaining more on this later on.

Here you can pick the criteria to build your screening filters. I just simply key in a few values and it comes out with 7 matches.  There is a fair amount of preset screening filters based on certain TA and FA signals provided by Recognia Inc which is actually the provider of the tool aka RHBScreener to RHBINVEST.

And if you are still adamant on building your own filter, there is a lot of advanced settings that you can choose  from and tweak to fine tune your stock picking strategy!!

Pre-selected strategies are provided and you can also use the filters created by the community. Sharing is caring :) (Although I am not sure how many people are willing to share out their winning formula to others without any return in mind. Yes, it is a selfish world in the stock market world. Well that is a reality in this practical world!!)

The result summary provides good explanation about the GOAL, STRATEGY & BEWARE (weakness) of the pre-build strategy. Every strategy has its strength and flaws, so this summary will give the user some fundamental idea on how the strategy should play out.

In the result page, clicking a stock will trigger the information below to be displayed. It basically shows how the stock measure up and fulfilled the criterias specified in the selected strategy.

More detailed results selection tab.

Performance tab is where you can do some serious back-testing of your strategy that you build up previously.

                      

I can compare the performance of my strategy against various benchmarking namely the stock Indexes. Here I used the KLCI as a comparison to my screening over 2008 to 2012. Looks like my strategy only out-perform the index from July 2011 onwards.

To produce a good strategy or mechanical system ,it must be subjected to strenuous back-testing  against various markets , Indexes and economic conditions. Of course, all the back-testing is just a "projection" of how the returns will be. In real life, the most difficult challenge is the ability to stick to your system regardless of turbulence your portfolio that you might suffer in the unpredictable stock market.

Lastly, you can see more related pre-build screens.

Conclusion: As the brokerage industry consolidates and competition increases, in order to differentiate their products and services , brokerage companies must be able to provide value added services to the retailers. 

This could be used to maintain and increase customer loyalty. Honestly, with the age of fast Internet connection, the brokerage commission rate is expected to drop over the years and is not a major differentiator between the brokerage firms. So a excellent online stock system is a MUST. 

Well, RHBINVEST is certainly going in the correct and positive direction with the introduction of this screener. 

My wishlist is that at least the basic features: "Technical Insight" & "Value Analyzer" will continue to be free of charge for RHBINVEST clients after the trial period ended. And keep the "Strategy Builder" feature as a premium feature as the back-testing feature is EXPECTED to be the revenue earner for any screener software/system. If this is doable, I have no doubt that a lot of retailers are going to switch brokerage to RHBINVEST because this tool is quite powerful. :) 

So the next question is how the other brokerage firms are going to respond to RHBINVEST's challenge??

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This is the 2nd part of the posting on RHBINVEST's RHBScreener which does stock selection based on the fundamental aspect of a company. This method of selection is commonly known as Fundamental Analysis or FA. Since a lot of the financial information is summarized into graphs, it is very easy to digest the relevant information.

This is the default overview tab for the Value Analyzer, which will feature some random stock. It will give you some basic information on why the stock is featured as a good stock pick idea. (Next 2 screen-shots will show more reasonings)

If you decide to look up the fundamental analysis of your preferred stock, you can type it in to let the screener work its magic.  It will show the revenue & earning history, the fair value, current value, and high/low price for a certain time frame.

Also given is the information on the outstanding shares, debt to equity ratio, dividend per share (DPS) and the current cash level holdings for your selected stocks. The good feature provided here is that you can do a PDF printout of all the financial graphical information using a simple click on the top right of the page.

If you are in a bargain hunting mode, you can use the "Value Screener" to find stocks that fit certain financial criterias. Using the example below, I am searching for a stock that has a minimum earning growth of 15% and revenue growth of 5% over a 4 financial year period.

Of course stocks that fit my financial selection above is not many, as shown in the search result below. From here, you can select the "Value Lookup" to view more detail information about each individual stocks.

If you are the lazy type or in the search for a new investing idea, you can also do your stock picking based on the "Featured Value Stocks". This is basically, stocks featured by the screener :) I am not sure whether this list will change on a monthly or yearly basis though.

That's all folks. Stay tune for the last part of the RHBINVEST RHBScreener write-up which will touch on the "Strategy Builder" feature.

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