Just my thoughts on investing

Sunday, 20 December 2015

Retail reits - Are they still worth looking?

It's a festive month and many people are in the mood of spending for their love ones or themselves. There are many reits listed on SGX, who owns large shopping malls, is it worth looking at them now. Before you look at these reits, do take some time to read these articles below first, and it might change your thinking.
Alibaba Singles Day sales;
1. Alibaba busts Singles Day sales record
2. Alibaba rings up record sales
3. Alibaba tops Singles Day sales despite slowing China economy

Amazon's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales;
1. Amazon gains the most on record-high cyber monday sales
2. Amazon capturing big slice of US online shopping
3. Online sales hit record

In the coming months, will this be the trend as to how Singaporeans will be shopping or has it already started?

Sunday, 13 December 2015

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.

Sunday, 9 August 2015

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.