Friday, March 21, 2014

Random thoughts: money and news

I have always been skeptical about analyst reports. Don't get me wrong, analyst reports are useful, and there are many with a lot of details and insights, but that is where the use end, one shouldn't read further into the buy or sell call or their target prices.

We need to understand that not all analyst reports are self-initiated, some are paid to do the reports.

I was rather surprised with the money section of today ST. There is only 2 articles on properties, whereas it is usually dominated by property news. It is not hard to see why. Singaporeans at large are attuned to property investing rather than companies investing. Many will think of property investment as a foolproof investment whereas if u mention stocks, they will either think of u as a guru or a gambler. ( this is my gut feel when communicating with many colleagues am friends, only 2-4 can exchange pointers on equity investing, but the "whole world" can talk about property investing. I wonder the taper off property news got anything to do with property cooling.

I read an article on a senior executive of bloomberg asking the journalists in china to focus on financial news and not others, as investigating journalism might not be useful in terms of generating sales on its terminal. They have previously run a article on how rich xi jinping is. Shortly after, there is a directive to state enterprise to stop subscribing to bloomberg terminals.

So, when I read, I always have the question: is this what they want us to know, or is this what happen?

But am I advocate total freedom of speech? No. Taiwan news is too dividing and sensational, US cannot stop snowden unless he stop his own leaks.

We just have to be more discerning, and encourage others to be critical thinker too. Be critical in our thinking, but not on people, we always tend to overshoot in our critiques of establishment, sometime to the extend of being unfair.

7 comments:

  1. Properties won't crash to zero so most people will prefer them for long-term investment

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi CW,

    There is no denying of property investment merits, especially in land scarce Singapore.

    However, many think property prices can only go up. I am not talking about the long term, but ppl who are anxious to get in regardless of price. I told property prices will correct, there might not be a crash, I am not sure if the correction is steep, but maybe if u are looking for gains, it is highly risky in the short term. Many look at me in disbelief.

    Many also forgot property investing is a leverage investing, without deep pockets and getting in at the wrong cycle can be quite painful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My beloved article on property.

    Retrenchment or business failure can happen to anyone.

    Read? debt-free — and that, to me, is richness enough

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi SI,

    Are more colleagues and friends talking about entering the stock market now?

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice article, thank you for
    Sharing it.

    My hDB is not paid up yet. I am quite sure I am a poor man in and out. But I have quite a big buffer in terms if CPF monies if one day I am really out of job.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I dun usually start conversation on stocks unless I know one is also a fellow investor.

    Most serious investors are
    Like that too, I think. My colleague and friends never talk about stocks, even during the bull leading to 2008.

    ReplyDelete
  7. DEBT FREE!

    Yes if you can afford to be debt free (except if you are into active business) not only you find you can sleep soundly at night but also you see you accumulate your wealth faster. Believe me i am an old man who has been taking this route.
    Sad to say, i doubt your generation can be debt free. A HDB flat will ensure you are in debt for 20 to 25 years. Sad.

    ReplyDelete