Archive for November, 2006
November 20, 2006 - Most financial consultants when they speak of your investment portfolio mention a low beta as a positive attribute. In fact, you will hear many wealth managers stress the need of having a beta close to 1.00. Beta, in simple terms, is the measure of a stock’s or portfolio’s volatility as compared to the volatility of the stock market index as a whole. So if you owned a stock with a beta of 1.30, it would be about 30% more volatile then the market index.
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November 20th, 2006
November 20, 2006 - The following blog entry is a re-cycled entry from a magazine column that I write. I’m re-cycling this column because this article is a particular favorite of mine. However, don’t worry, you won’t see this blog degenerate into a blog of recycled ideas. 99% of my blog entries will be new. Besides, for the overwhelming majority of you, this article is probably still novel. So if it is, please read on.
What does McDonalds really sell? And what about Nike? I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking what in the world does understanding McDonalds’ and Nike’s marketing strategy have to do with building wealth? As you’ll discover in this article, understanding this has everything to do with how successful you’ll be in building wealth.
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November 20th, 2006
November 16, 2007 - The other day, Kaeho and I were discussing an article we both read entitled “What if Buddha Dated?” and both agreed that “What if Buddha Invested?” would make a great topic for the casual Friday blog entry. However, I decided to hand the duty of this blog to Kaeho. After you read my short story below, you’ll understand why.
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November 16th, 2006
Q: An Update on ZOI Readership?
Regarding my goal of obtaining readers from 100 different countries on a consistent basis, here is the update for readers of my blog from new countries for this week (though not all are consistent readers):
43. Peru
44. Latvia
45. Sweden
46. Venezuela
47. Austria
48. Republic of Malta
49. Libya
50. Portugal
51. Kenya
52. Democratic Repulbic of Congo
53. Hungary
54. Kenya
55. Netherlands
I’m now up to readers from 55 different countries. Maybe my request to you, the reader, to spread the word about my blog really did work because I really don’t expect to add 13 new countries every week. So thank you.
Here are the top ten countries regarding readership of my blog:
- U.S..A.
- Canada
- Switzerland
- India
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November 16th, 2006
November 15, 2006 - This blog is a continuation of my previous entry. I was going to wait uintil next week to post it, but was in a writing mood today so since I finished writing it earlier, here it is. From March 2005 to March 2006, I achieved a 40% return in my portfolio with 100% long positions. This year, from March to mid-September, I was up 35%. And if you’ve been following my newsletters and blogs, you’ll see that for the past six months, my calls on the price of gold have been more accurate than the Chief Global Economists of most major global investment houses
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November 15th, 2006
November 15, 2006 - Today, I’ve decided to trump Kaeho at his own game. Having considerable training in martial arts myself, I’ve noticed many strategies and techniques that have improved my martial arts training that are applicable to the art of investing. After all I named my blog the Zen of Investing for this very reason. So today, I’m going to branch out a little and cover how martial arts has made me a better investor.
In the seminal book about martial arts strategy, “The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi, the author mentions that teaching any more than five cutting techniques for the sword is all for show and will actually detract from your progression in mastering the sword. He said there are only a finite number of ways to kill someone with a sword and that he “fails to see the reason for practicing hundreds of little tricks to do it. It is better to be the master of a few techniques than the student of many.”
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November 15th, 2006
November 14, 2006 - Last week, in the U.S. Mid-Term elections, the Democrats won a stunning sweep of both houses of Congress, throwing the U.S. government into what many term as “gridlock” for the next two years as a Republican President will fight a Democratic Congress. But what does this sweeping change mean in terms of a market perspective?
I really don’t think too much. Maybe that’s just my skepticism, but I think it’s more a dose of reality. The biggest changes that can affect markets are likely to come through legislative changes,
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November 14th, 2006
November 14, 2006 - Just a few hours after I posted my blog entry on J-REITs this morning, this article appeared on the newswires.
“HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Japan’s gross domestic product expanded 0.5% in price-adjusted terms in the three-month period ending in September from the previous quarter, or at an annualized rate of 2%, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of growth, Japan’s Cabinet Office said Tuesday.
The figures bettered forecasts of zero growth for the September-ending quarter, or 0.1% in annualized terms, cited by Thomson Financial IFR.”
So given this surprise growth, investors may start considering re-entering the Japanese markets even before the new year. However, as far as the J-REITS sector is concerned, it is still the ignored ugly duckling, generating very little interest as it patiently waits to morph into a white swan.
November 14th, 2006
November 13, 2006 -
When an asset class has been downtrodden for a long period of time, I tend to look at it and assess whether conditions have changed that now favor an awakening from long periods of hibernation. Japanese REITs, or J-REITs as they are better known, may just be one of those opportunities, specifically apartment/residential REITs in Tokyo. There is almost nothing uglier than Japanese real estate right now. By ugly, I mean an asset class that nobody likes, but not necessarily an asset class that does not offer opportunities. On the good side are REITs that are emerging and poised for rapid growth. Hotel and resort REITs in Shanghai and Beijing fit this bill. And as for the bad, well, just avoid the bad.
Even though most JREITs seem fairly valued right now,
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November 13th, 2006
November 12, 2006 -
To determine if the person managing your $1,000,000 account is truly the expert you believe him or her to be, pick up the phone tomorrow and do this simple experiment. Do not give your financial consultant any advance notice to prepare any answers, but call him (or her) up and ask him what are the three best performing stocks in your portfolio. Then ask him what are some of your worst performing stocks. Then ask him what will be the best performing asset class for the next five years. And what will be the worst. And in what specific countries. And ask for detailed explanations for each answer that is given.
And get him to answer on the spot. Not in ten minutes. Or don’t let him tell you, “I’m in the middle of a meeting. Let me call you back and I’ll be happy to answer those questions.” Because if he was in a middle of a meeting, he wouldn’t have taken your call in the first place. That’s a stalling tactic.
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November 12th, 2006
Q: How to Take an Old Idea and Recylce it?
Time again for the casual Friday entry. Several weeks ago, for my casual Friday blog entry, I wrote about a photographer that started a project where he was attempting to photograph a child from all 194 countries in the world without leaving New York City. Just within the past two weeks, I’ve been checking the analytics for my blog and I was surprised to discover that people from 42 different countries have accessed my blog. So I’m starting a drive to gain readers on this blog from every country in the world as well. If you have friends that live in countries not on my list below, please help and spread the word!
Of course, by discussing international stocks such as Acergy of Norway, Soco International of London and HDFC and ICICI of India, my goal is to provide information about the best investment opportunities in the world without regard to boundaries or countries. I notice that whenever I blog about gold, that I receive hits from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the Middle East.
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November 9th, 2006
November 8, 2006 -
Here in my blog and in my newsletter, I have mentioned Sothebys (NYSE:BID) as a favorite of mine a couple of times. Yesterday I sold out of BID for a 33% gain after holding it for about five months. There are a couple of important lessons to take away from my strategy regarding BID.
Number one, above all, always lock in profits. Normally once I’m holding on to a stock that is sitting on 20% gains, I usually put trailing stop losses of 15% on the stock. That way, my stop loss moves higher if the stock moves higher and I never have to think about making a decision to sell the stock
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November 8th, 2006
November 6, 2006 -
No, you aren’t having déjà vu. It’s the topic that just keeps producing good investment opportunities. From natural gas and oil reserves, to diamonds and gold and uranium mineral resources, now this – the first new shipping corridor from Asia to Europe in over 100 years that will also drastically reduce shipping times.
But first, let’s start with a little historical perspective. In 1903, the United States engineered a revolution in Columbia in order to set up an independent Republic of Panama. After they accomplished this, the U.S. named themselves owner of the strategic Panama Canal “in perpetuity” and established military bases in Panama to ensure their control of these strategic waters. This situation lasted for almost ¾ of a century until the canal lost its strategic military importance and the U.S. returned its control to Panama.
Why is this important to know? Because with the melting of the Arctic ice, a very important strategic shipping lane is opening up to sea vessels – a path that would shorten the current shipping distance between Asia and Europe that passes through, you guessed it – the Panama canal – by 5,000 kilometers.
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November 8th, 2006
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