Invest Positively

ISR Capital's subsidiary, Infiniti Advantage, has entered into an agreement to invest up to S$2.68 million in Straits Hi-Rel (SHR) in a move to expand into the high reliability (Hi-Rel) engineering services business. The investment will be done in four stages by subscribing for 16,667 shares in SHR, representing an equity stake of 25 per cent on an enlarged basis. In a filing with the local bourse, ISR Capital said SHR, a private company, was set up to be a provider of Hi-Rel engineering services and will be structured as a Hi-Rel Technology Centre to be based in Singapore. The centre will focus on speciality testing and back-end manufacturing for Hi-Rel integrated chips and electronic modules targeted for end applications in the automotive, energy (oil and gas) and industrial sectors. So far, SHR has yet to commence any operations with regard to the Hi-Rel Technology Centre. The investment will be funded using proceeds raised from the issuance of convertible r...

Stage One – The Euphoric Build Up This is the point of maximum financial risk as the market builds towards a peak- where Wealth Managers feel invincible. 1986 and 1987 were banner years for the stock market. These years were an extension of an extremely powerful bull market that had started in the summer of 1982. In 1987 it was five year bull run up while the 2008 crash had earlier seen run up of again just over 5 years ever since the end of the “dot com crash” which started on October 9th 2002. As can be seen below, the bull market can take various numbers of days but most have taken just over 2000 days. Stage Two – The Final Top The second stage is a crescendo in the market – this is often the peak before the market crashes and is characterized by complacency and the sentiment of the investor is a general feeling of “I can buy any stock and it will go up”. As you can see from the Chart 6.3: (Oct 2006-September 2007 Dow Jones Industrials) below it can be quite euphoric at...

As sentiment improves, short-sellers find themselves nursing big losses Not that many investors will shed any tears for them but short-sellers are among the biggest losers this year, as major stock markets around the globe go on a tear. One major setback they suffered was in the United States, where their wagers against the high-flying technology stocks - Tesla, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google - blew up in their faces spectacularly. In Singapore, their bearish bets have also tapered off somewhat as stocks have gained in strength. Data from the financial information provider IHS Markit shows that the percentage of shares of constituent stocks in the Straits Times Index (STI) out on loan has now almost halved to 1.04 per cent from 2.02 per cent in February last year. Its associate director, Mr Simon Colvin, said: "We have seen short-sellers continue to cover their positions in the last few months, taking the average short interest across the STI to...

Paying in S$ when using your credit cards abroad will rack up unnecessary extra ch Anyone who travels at all would have come up against this scenario - you are ready to pay for your purchase with your credit card when you have to choose whether to pay in Singdollars or the local currency. A quick word of advice: always choose the latter. I have always vaguely understood that using your credit card to pay in Singdollars while overseas would rack up extra charges but I did not fully know the extent of the damage until recently, thanks to Mr Aaron Wong, who runs the popular blog milelion.com, a Singapore-focused travel hacking site that teaches people to travel better for less. Mr Wong and I became friends recently when he read a column I wrote about the dilemma I faced between using credit cards to collect air miles versus cashback. He proceeded to give me an education in how to get the most out of my credit cards and chase miles like a pro. In between his busy sch...