Singapore has been known for its land scarce challenge. Some link it to rising HDB flat pricing. However, this post suggests how prices of HDB flats need not rocket.  Move out of the norm and we may tackle the constraints. However, I would like to acknowledge that this article is written with the limited knowledge of myself in buildings.

Why do HDB flats have to be less than 30 storey? The highest HDB flat in Singapore is the Pinnacle@Duxton – towering over HDB flats with 50 storeys. However, I chance upon newly built HDB flats which are still less than 30 storeys. My next logical question would be – If HDB prices are rising due to land constraint, why is it that the government is not proposing to build more roofs WITHIN the same AREA? Since our land area is being restrained, doesn’t this translate to higher HDB? This would overcome the challenge of land constraints and ALSO possibly reduce the cost of HDB flats. Of course, if the soil is not suitable for such weight, then it is illogical to sacrifice the safety of the public. However, I believe that this should be the way ahead for HDB in Singapore if the condition is favorable.

Speaking from the construction firms’ point of view, they may actually profit more from building higher HDB flats. Assuming, that the construction firm has to pay X amount for Y area of the land, if he builds Z number of units, he would require A amount of cost. A profit, P, is achieved as long as Revenue he earns outweighs Cost. My assumption is that the cost does not weigh the revenue even at 50 storeys. I do however acknowledge that more support/materials are required to support the higher building. This may result in smaller profits. Perhaps, this is why most HDB is about 20 – 30 storeys. Unless this and the soil condition would compromise the safety of the public, I do not see any reason not to have HDB of such height. Moreover, this may mean bigger HDB flats since we have ‘overcome’ the challenge of scarce land by building higher HDB. Higher HDB = more units = units do not have to be small to accomodate the land scarce.

This article is just a thought.

This post discusses the how price hike by any company should translate into advantages for its employees (notably those in middle-income bracket and the low-income group).

The recent changes in taxi fare spur me to such thoughts. If price hike doesn’t result in better quality and service, what is the justification of the hike? Ultimately, consumers are the one paying.

Let’s assume there is no improvement in quality and service, the extra profits should go into the pockets of the employees who are not in high income bracket. Let me quote an analogy using a particular company, ABC, providing food to consumers.  The hawker in this case usually belongs to Middle-Class or lower-income group. For the people in middle – class (& lower-income group), it may be said that they are hugely affected by recession. This is especially true in Singapore where the prices of housing, even HDB, are rocketing. Price hike should aim to benefit these groups of employee. It is ridiculous for high income group (eg. CEO) in the company to take the share of the price hike! They already have cars and private housing! What else do they need? Another car? Or another luxurious private house when the middle class or lower-income group in the company may have problem affording/paying their HDB?

Thus, the government should look into such loopholes in the system. Such loopholes would only widen the income gap between the rich and the poor.

Just a thought from ethical point of view.

While I have not really been trading much, I still do keep myself updated with major currencies. I still check the charts to confirm my strategies.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any losses.

This post represents my opinion and I am not a qualified trader.

I took a look at Aud/Usd and Eur/Usd and manage to upload my opinions about them. Coincidentally, they reach a similar finding – Both are hitting their Major Supports in about 200+ pips. I believe this could be a major turnabout. Yet, we cannot ignore the possibility of other risk off events to spur USD from being bullish. The higher probability now is USD has strengthened too much and it is due to risk off event – EU debts. As usual, I believe EU would solve the problem and thus convincing the world that the worse it over. This would be then converted on the charts with USD falling against most risky currencies.

Lets take a look at E/U first.

The red horizontal lines are the supports/resistance I have drawn. Due to limited space, we could not see how the last 2 horizonal red lines at the bottom could be a support/resistance. You can take a look at your chart to confirm these. The first horizontal red line was supporting the currency but the support was shortlived which could be seen by the price action pentrating through the line. Now, we are trapped in between 2 red lines. I have to acknowledge that in any event (expected or unexpected), we would see this pattern to fail. By unexpected, I mean EU suddenly manage to solve their Debt crisis or US suddenly fall into a recession/debt crisis and etc. Nevertheless, 1.29 is now the support (200+ pips south from here). The logical approach now is not to go short in expecting it to go south 200+ but wait n go long at 1.29.

Price has always been a determining factor in sales and it still has.

But I believe as the words ‘ Climate Change, Organic and etc” come in more frequently in our reading materials, it would change our consuming habits. As we get educated about the origin of the  food, clothes and equipments we use, it would bring consuming to a whole new level – evolution.

Sales would then be determined not by price ONLY but also how green is the product. Companies would rush towards cleaner way of maufacturing their products to lure the new consumers. Companies which fail to dump their dirty methods of productions would see  their profits eaten up.

How would such scenario occur? Like every other evolution, it takes 1 company to take the first move. For those in Singapore, do you remember the bubble tea craze? It started, stopped and restarted again with Koi. Many other bubble tea like Gongcha sprang up again. Everything starts like this – A new concept sprang up and we get rivals in the next 10 days.

Hence, the marketplace is actually a feedback system. Producers manufacture products which consumers want and consumers buy what they want. But the new generation of consumers would do some research before they buy. In another words, information would distort or influence consumers’ decision.

And only when green information dictates consumer’s decision then companies would turn greener!

Would such a scenario occur within the next 5 years? We shall see…

22 years of life and a few years of trading, I came to realise how important our expectation of something can be.

This word is of huge impact to traders. I shall use an example to quote. Every month, there would be data coming out from countries, be it in US, European countries or even Singapore. Some data are important while some are less important. The effect on the involved currencies can be huge which is how the term volatile comes about. Have you ever seen a spike or plummet within 10 seconds after a data comes out?

Such extreme movements are normal in currency trading. This post believes expectation plays a huge role in the volatile movements. Next, it brings us to the data forecast. How does the expectation come about? News forecast and information give us an indication where the economy in a country is heading. Any surprise result when the wire is crossed (for important data such as interest rate) would definitely spur huge movements. For instance, during the economic crisis in 2008, if AUD interest rate is coming out in 1o minutes and is forecasted to remain, as a risky currency, it would remain more or less similar if the data is indeed as forecasted. However, if it rises by 0.25%, it could rocket as it could represent the economy is doing well and recovering. On the other hand, if its interest rate decreases UNEXPECTEDLY, AUD would plummet. All this boils down to EXPECTATION.

In life, have you ever thought of something which would turn out bad but in the end, didn’t turn out as bad? How did you feel? You would feel excited, lucky, happy and etc. This explains why I also think of the worst case scenario because things can only get as bad. How about a close friend/kin said something nasty to you which you would not expect them to say? All concludes to expectation again.

Perhaps, that’s how the phrase, ” Expect the Unexpected” comes about. Nevertheless, expecting the worse case scenario seems to be working well for me. Use expectation of yourself or others wisely when communicating, trading and everything you do. It will come in useful. Signing off!

With 5 more days before voters make their final decision, political parties would definitely continue to make headlines for new comments - mainly the PAP against opposition parties and vice versa  BUT not among the oppositions parties.

This post does not seek to influence any voter’s decision.

It comes to my mind about the 2 youngest and attention grabbing female candidates – Tin Pei Ling and Nicole Seah. I try to picture the following – What if Nicole Seah is in PAP and Tin Pei Ling in Workers’ Party? Would Nicole’s popularity still overwhelmed Tin’s?

Are voters targeting the issues or the PAP? Or is it that it is Tin’s private lifestyle which discounted her popularity? If Nicole is in PAP and she still manages to garner as many supporters (which I think is impossible), people are not targeting PAP. But we would never know…

The next interesting finding would be the massive turnout in opposition rallies relative to PAP. It would be interesting to see if the votes correspond to the turnout.

Some speculation in election victory speech by PAP (along those lines):

Voters are rational and they have made the right decision by voting for the superior party… (undermining the opposition parties)

PAP has gained the trust of voters ….

We will continue to improve/take care of the residents

Voters are going to regret for the next 5 years ….

Exercise critical judgement and vote for the superior party. If the winning party fails to target the issue which they promised, we are indeed going to suffer for the subsequent years. Parties which failed to DELIVER would face the consequence of losing more votes in the next election.

It would be interesting to see what would happen to cost of housing and cost of living after the election.

Recent repeating parang attacks by youths and  political situations in Middle East point to one social problems. Putting it in layman’s term, copycat syndrome is the best description of the problem. A few years back, we had cases of suicide on MRT tracks in Singapore. Such scenarios had died down quite a bit but we had parang attacks. I wonder what will be next disease. Nevertheless, the point I would like to illustrate is that, once a society has a disease, that could possibly be the trend. This is supported by past experiences and examples which I have cited.

So, what attribute to such ‘disease’?

Could it be genes which attracted a particular group of people to follow suit?

Or could it be people who share similar environment ( for instance in the Middle East – Egypt and Libya)?

Most often, it takes one special person to have the courage to stand out to influence the community.

A few weeks back, headlines were surrounding Wiki-leaks and Julian Paul Assange. His acts removed the facade of politicians who have been playing the role of Mr/Ms Nice politician. Unfortunately, one can’t hide his/her true self for country’s sake. Perhaps some comments were made to pacify allies or at least signal to allies that ‘I agree with you’. For instance, calling North Korea’s leader a flabby old chap is likely to make US happy (perhaps at the expense of our lives when this piece of info reaches Kim Jong-II). However, who would have thought that the private conversation would be leaked? If MM Lee and other politicians foresee this unimaginable scenario, they wouldn’t have openly made those comments.

Now that comments are leaked, we know who are the true allies. How would this impact the ties between countries? We would have to wait and see. Would it be possible to function normally and treat comments as they were never there ? For now, I can only hope that the flabby old chap doesnt vent his anger on Singaporeans.

Haven’t been posting due to the hectic university life (which obviously limit my profits).

Anyway, as the title suggests, I have found a great opportunity (less risk Great reward).

The chart on the left represents the daily chart while the one on the right is the 4hr chart.  I m losing confidence in USD and hence I would not be trading USD pairs unless such opportunity arises.

I will enter long on a 4hr confirmation on the break of the potential flag. TP is 1.40 for conservative (you can buy more lots to compensate). This trade is further supported by the poor economic health of Canada which has recently posted a less than F/c Retail Sales data.

Hello,

Finally crossed the $200 profit mark after 3 weeks of trading in a mini- account. Anyway, the following are the possible trading setup with small risk but great reward.

Eur/Usd – Long SL 1.2700 TP 1.2900

Gbp/Usd – Long SL 1.5500 TP 1.5700

Alternative if candlestick closes below SL = short

Do look at the following chart for my setup. Good luck and set SL to entry once you are earning 50 pips. We need to be flexible and act according to the market.