Ivan's Blog of Singapore Money Matters
Why you should not buy IPOs As Sheng Siong is launching its IPO next month, I expected a few calls as whenever an IPO is launching. And if you are my client, you know my answer. I decide to write this article so everybody can benefit...
Questions to ask your Financial Adviser Every Sunday morning when I read the newspapers, I always see articles or advertisements regarding "Financial Advisers". Nowadays, just like the once prestigious word "Banker", which is misused in the...
Revision to Nomination of Insurance Nominees Regulation With the onset of the Mental Capacity Act ("MCA") coming into effect on 1st March 2010, the Insurance (Nomination of Beneficiaries) Regulations 2009 ("the Regulations") will be amended to effect 2 changes: The...
The ABCs of the Financial Advisers Act The title, Financial Adviser, is always mis-used in the industry and misunderstood by the consumers. On 10 October 2002, the Financial Advisers Act came into effect and all financial institutions are...
Moratorium Underwriting by Aviva It is a common that insurance companies do not cover pre-existing condition. Typically, pre-existing conditions will be excluded with little or no chance of them being covered, even after a number of treatment-free...
The S&P 500 closed 1,258.84 yesterday, it has stayed above the psychological Lehman level of 1251.70.
One Sep 15, 2008, Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy has led the quity benchmark fell 4.7%, the steepest drop since the first day of trading after the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The S&P 500 has fell as much as 57% from its peak in Oct 2007 to Mar 2009.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Crude oil is now influenced more by the stock market than by its own inventory levels or demand patterns. Lately, that lockstep has reached an extreme, with the correlation between crude oil and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock Index hovering around 70%, doubling the average of 34% since 2008.
Oil and stocks aren’t supposed to swing in sync with each other. Unlike stocks, which are priced off corporate earnings, oil is usually driven by supply-and-demand dynamics.
Last week, this high correlation was a double-whammy for investors who owned both oil and stocks. A 4% selloff in stocks was compounded by a 7% loss in oil prices.
“The typical low correlation causes many investors to include commodities into their portfolios of stocks and bonds to diversify and smooth out swings in their other investments”, It seems investors have to reconsider this strategy now for the portfolio construction
Last week, I wrote an entry “S&P 500, The end of Elliott Wave” Just before the rebound of the stock market world wide. Until today, the markets have up almost 10%. and after last night, Both S&P 500 and Euro STOXX 50 is approaching 200 days moving average. As the trading volume is slowly picking up, I believe it is very likely to break through and create a short term momentum.
Of course, Euro Debt concern will certainly come back to haunt the markets in the near future, so personally, I think it is very important for people who are in-the-money to lock the profit and who deeply out-of-the-money to reduce their equity holdings. You can always buy back in the near future.
Last night, Stocks surged, sending U.S. benchmark indexes up the most since May, while the dollar and Treasuries slid as growth in American retail sales bolstered optimism in the earnings season and investors speculated European banks will pass stress tests. (Source: Bloomberg )
I was monitoring S&P 500 recently and interestingly, I found they have formed a complete Elliott Wave (a model used to predict stock market movement) since last rebound. (refer to the chart below)
I agree with what London-based Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin Securities Ltd., said, whose parent company oversees $33 billion
“The markets were ready for a rebound, all they needed was a trigger. In this case, they are getting a trigger from the bank stress tests,”
Fundamentally, the world is in a much better shape than last year. If the rebound is accomplished, we may see another Elliott Wave, and that is really a good news for the long investors.
