My first online shopping experience

Well, actually it's not really my first time buying stuff from the internet. Its just that the last time I bought stuff from a online merchant was more than 5 years ago. Recently, during the black friday and cyber monday, I bought some stuff from Amazon, and here are my thoughts after buying them.
Currency
With the USD getting stronger, it is no longer that appealing to buy stuff from the US. It only makes sense economically if  you get more than 50% savings. On the item which I had purchased, I managed to get 70% of savings off from the same item here. Recently, I saw the same brand having some 20% promotion locally, and if I were to buy here, the savings from my online purchase reduced to 45%. However, this is before shipping.

Shipping
I used a local shipping provider, and because I was their new customer, they gave me a $15 off from my total shipping costs. With the shipping cost included, now my savings from my online purchase reduced to 30%.

Timing
At the time of writing, it's been 8 days and I have not received my "goods". This is because I used the free shipping option from Amazon, and it takes about 5 to 6 days to transport to the local provider's US address. It takes another 5 to 6 days for the local provider to transport my stuff into Singapore.

Banking Charges
I also just realised that I have been slapping with some banking charges known as dynamic currency conversion fee. At first I didnt know what is this, then I realised it was the conversion from USD to SGD which Amazon has offered me.

Conclusion
Now that I learned (the hard way) of all the charges involved, the item must have a substantial savings before I will shop online again. It also has to be stuff that I dont need urgently and can wait for at least 2 weeks shipping time as I only use the free shipping option.

What does George Soros, David Tepper and Robert Shiller think in common?

In the recent few months, these big boys have been feeling negative about the US stock market, or at least their action says so. It might be worth taking a serious look as all the US indices are all time high.

George Soros has been increasing his shorts in the S&P in a big way for many months now. He has also been slashing and reducing his exposure to the US equities in the recent months. Check this article from seekingalpha.com and bloomberg.

Another successful hedge fund founder, David Tepper, has also been reducing his exposure of his US equities. Hedge funds tends to be sensitive to the market and react when the indicators are telling them to. Check this article from marketwatch.com.

Lastly, most people knows this guy, Robert Shiller. Check out the following articles on why the US market is expensive now.

1. Robert Shiller tries to understand why stock market is expensive now.

2. The S&P 500 P/E is 19, unless it's actually 27.

The table below shows the CAPE ratio of the various major economies.

Source: https://www.researchaffiliates.com

Knowing these information helps us to navigate on what next, so how will you use these informations.

Happy SG50 Singapore.

Best 2015 Performer

Russia stock market was one of the worst performer last year, and remember in one of my previous post, I mentioned that my initial investment was down by more than 30%. This year, despite all the bad news, Russia market is one of the best performer, apart from China.

Just last week, I have added on to my initial investment, as the chart below shows that the price has broken the 200D resistance. This is one of the common indicator also used by professional to determine a change in trend of the stock.

In my next post, I will be sharing the other market which has caught my attention and on my radar.

Related post: Russia unloved