Derivatives

My mind cant take in those complicated derivatives' theory. Its only CFA Level 1 and derivatives only constitutes 5%. The derivatives in CFA I looks ok to me as it is not that hard but I cannot imagine taking CFA Level 2 and 3, with a higher weightage on this topic.

Their theory is hedging here and there, making it very complicated. Cant they make it simple? My friend, S , had told me that only complicated stuff can earn big money and achieve a barrier of entries. I am wondering if this is the life I am looking forward to next time after audit. My interest in finance is much simpler. Invest within your own means and try for long term in good stocks and I don't think its the agenda of most banks. Though I am guilty of not holding stocks for more than a yr at times and I think long term means 5 years. I am disillusioned about my career path.

New Liverpool FC shirt sponsor

This is an old news. Standard Chartered is the proud shirt sponsor of Liverpool Football Club. The sponsorship is worth a cool 20 million pounds per year compared to Carlsberg's 7.5 million pounds.
The contract last 4 years :)

As a Liverpool fan, I am obviously very happy for the club as they have an extra 13 million pounds to spend but the interest expense incurred from the debts is worrying :( Till now, I do not know why the former chairman do not want to sell to those oil kings.

The focus today is, I am wondering what benefit does Standard Chartered gets for having their name on the coveted shirt. Firstly, you can have a Liverpool Standard Chartered card. Haha, I may get one to have a Liverpool logo on my credit card :) Secondly, you definitely has more media exposure as a lot of people watch EPL. However, Liverpool has a lot of rivals! Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea. I was thinking what benefit does Standard Chartered get? Only Liverpool fans? Hardcore fans will never support their rival clubs' sponsors.

One thing to note that even though I dun really like Chelsea (shirt sponsor is Samsung), I think that doesnt influence my decision to buy Samsung as I feel it is a reliable brand. But I feel abit unease buying AIG (Manchester's shirt sponsor). Haha. Just a little unease.

If I ever had a car, I wont dare to paste my car with Liverpool logo, fearing some hardcore ManU fans who will destroy my car. The same logic applies to when you go to away games, you don't really want to wear you favourite club shirt.

So the ultimate question is, does a club shirt sponsor gain a lot from their sponsorships? Except for the media exposure, I seriously doubt so.

Love keeps no record of wrongs

I always embrace people's strengths but I feel that I have the tendency to remember the wrongs done by people. But somehow if there were an argument with my love ones, I will sometimes bring up those wrong stuff they did last time, wanting to win that argument. Another weakness...

It definitely hurts.

Hope I can keep no record of wrongs. If I do keep, I hope I don't say out to them.

P.S. Haha please dun use this weakness to answer interview questions. HAHA. A lot of interviewers like to ask, 'what is your weakness?'

Ashton

My mum does not really like me to bring my nephew out as she is worried that my nephew will fall down and injure himself. But today, I bring my nephew out to Pungool Park and he has lots of fun. When we come back, he keep sticking to me and wanna hug me. Hahaha.

I feel that its so easy to make a child happy and all parents should do their part to make their children's childhood a memorable one. My sister is going to bring my nephew to watch the High 5 show. HIGH 5! Maybe next week I will fly a kite with my nephew :)

Flying Kite

I think my NTU friends are not that interested in flying kite. They prefer to play mahjong, citadel and bridge instead :)

The wind is very strong today in Buangkok and my eagle flew very high! So exciting. As there was not much wind yesterday, the Sengkang people taught me how to fly a kite but they didnt teach me how to retrieve a flying kite that was 200 m above ground level. It was a battle. The tension is so strong but I am going to buy a 500m string tomorrow. Hope the wind is strong tomorrow so that I can fly a 500 m kite : )

I still remember when I was at the top few levels of Taipei 101, one of the tallest building in the world, something flew past us. Jason, GB and I were debating what it is. I kept insisting that a kite cant fly above a 500m building, trying to show off my knowledge. But on closer look, it was a gigantic kite. I was stunned of course. It will be cool to gain some knowledge to fly a 500m :) Actually at 300m, I am very worried a plane might pass by. Today I played with a small little girl and I passed her my kite. She was very shy and I hope my nephew will like my kite too. I always think of bringing my nephew to play in the playground at pungool park. I better do it before I start working.

Thanks pong for the picture :)


Trying hard to make the kite fly. It seem to tilt sideways :(

Kampong Buangkok and fly kite at Sengkang

So after studying one hr in CFA which I cant concentrate at all, I decided to leave my house at 5.30pm. I cycled around 20 minutes and reached Kampong Buangkok. I realised I always passed by it last time and didnt know that it was smacked one corner. Very Kampong setting and I am almost chased by a small dog and was barked by a huge dog -_- I was quite scared of dogs as I was bitten by a dog so I will stand clear of them at times. But as a Leo, I will act that I am not afraid. Hahaha super like to act cool.

I realised Sengkang people are super friendly. They keep giving me recommendations on how to get a kite and taught me how to fly one. I am like so noob. My string is 300M. Super cool right. Total cost $35 dollars. I think quite worth it as 6 people are going to play it. I hope the wind is strong enough tomorrow. And Sengkang is one of the place to see sunset. Quite romantic.


The myth that they dun lock their doors is true :) They have a gate there which I feel is to keep away those unfriendly dogs. Ok I am biased.
My trustable bike which had clicked more than a few thousand mile I think. Did you realise my seat is super high? A lot of my friends always ask me why I set the seat so high. The reason is that it is easier to cycle with a high seat. Its easier to stand up cycling right :) Anyway last time it was even higher and up to my belly button but that will compromise safety. Imagine falling down and your feet cant really touch the ground. Last time, I was flung out of my bike when I was lazy and use the front brake while travelling down slope.
I looked weird here. My face is so round.
The romantic setting and a kite which a guy was trying to bring it up to the sky.

Weakness

I realize I like to argue with people if that person wants to start an argument with me. Long ago, I always quarrel with Catherine Ng S.H (not my sister)over very small matters. I have the tendency to treat girls better if she is the kind that dun like to argue. And I heeded Xiangling's advice to give in to girls.

Her Golden Rule: Only can argue with Catherine 30% and let Catherine argue 70% of the time. It works wonders. Hahaha.

I started to apply to all the girls I have known and it worked pretty well. The goal is to apply to everyone.. So heed Xiangling's advice is the best.

Black Swan

This book was recommended by Shunzhong and is written by Nassim Nicolas Taleb.

I only read a few dozens of pages and it kinda of answer my previous post.

It wrote: I don't really care about the usual. If you want to get an idea of a friend's temperament, ethics, and personal elegance, you need to look at him under the tests of severe circumstances, not under the regular rosy glow of daily life. Can you assess the danger a criminal poses by examining only what he does on a ordinary day? Can we understand health without considering wild disease and epidemics? Indeed normal is often irrelevant. Page xxiv

Review:
I feel that this book is challenging the way people only look at the things that happen often and ignore outliners. I will try to read more before I comment on. A great book.

Some friends I had met in my life

Actually I am a blog reader and so my Mozilla Firefox can open twenty blogs at the same time with one click.

What I feel is that I dun really understand some of the friends I had met in my life. They can appear nice and cool headed in real life but in the blog, they are very different. Revealing their true side, showing anger and frustration to bfs or certain stuff which I can never imagine them doing that in public or in front of my eyes. They seem to have the patience and tolerance in front of everyone but seem to lose it all in front of their bfs and family. I think life is hard for them right?

Are they only nice to friends? And when a guy become her boyfriend, they have the thinking that the guy must treat them nice and ask certain stuff from the bfs. Even they dun demand, they could have created that kind of expectations. From the blogs I read, the boyfriends may not meet your expectations at times but they do not really demand or expect the girls to do something. I feel that they treat their friends nicer than their bfs. So sad right.

I think one of the boyfriends is lazy and does not feel like calling her everyday and the girlfriend is frustrated. But sooner or later, the girlfriend has to know that Guys talk less than Girls as research has shown.

-End-

My mum

So my mum accepted my reasoning about the insurance and said do you know about all these when you are Primary Six?

I was stunned. I say of course dunno.

Then she said,'' No choice mah, last time dunno anything, just have to insure anything that seems good. ''

So in the end, I have to blame myself for not knowing financial terms when I was Primary Six (full of sarcasm). Though I vividly remember the headline news is RUPIAH dropped to 10k rupiah to US 1 Dollar due to the 1997 economic crisis.I think I will have to continue that $1191.

Golden Mile and Insurance

Today went to Golden Mile. In the end cant go to Genting with a grp of frens as it is fully booked and Pong cant make it for Redang as her mum does not allow her to go. I strongly believe her mum has strong telepathy with me. HAHA. Now I am free to meet my old friends before I go audit.

My NTUC Income advisor and Guobin came to my house and I found my mum bought a $1191 per yr with coverage of 30 critical illness. I am super vexed over this insurance. Why did my mum buy a 30 critical illness for a Primary 6 student in 1997? Its like what is the chances that a 12 yr old kid get a critical illness. She should have buy that for herself and not me. So now I have to bear this burden to continue the plan if not my mum will be angry. She will feel sad that she had paid over 10k over this yrs and I wanna terminate it.

Reason I want to terminate it.
You get 100k only when you get one of the 30 critical illness. And your money is locked in forever. I can easily buy a more comprehensive term insurance to cover me than spending $1191. HOWEVER, I want to say its that it is cheap as I HAD paid so much since young and the deal looks good as you still get to keep the money after 13 years. As I know how to invest, LOCKING a sum for so many years, I rather wanna lock my funds in CHINA for 60 yrs better. Appreciation of RMB and the economic growth but my mum will not understand it. She will say yours has so much RISK. I think I have to follow my mum's wishes cos I know if I say I wanna terminate, she will take control of that insurance and pay herself. I know she is nice to me to buy such an expensive insurance but in financial terms, its a bad investment.

So we were discussing about accident plan and NTUC incomeshield. The accident plan gives u $50k for accidental death and total disability and cost $40 dollars per annum only. And the incomeshield which covers medical costs $131 and can be paid using CPF medisave. I think I need to clarify why I dun like the $1191 policy. I have to pay so much money upfront for critical illness. If I have the mediashield till old ($131 for 24 yrs old. $3813 for 80 yrs old and you cant get the money back), I will have to pay more than the $1191 when I am old but seriously you think in 50 yrs time when I am old, is $100k enough? I rather spend money pumping the income shield at a higher cost which could amount $4000 at the age of 79 but its more comprehensive and does not only cover 30 critical illnesses.

I hope this post is not too boring.

Random post - I always wonder how come a new company Rexona has so much resources to do advertising and even asked Elva Hsiao to be their ambassador. I know this post is very random but I finally found out the answer. Rexona is under Unilever. A super huge company.

Bad Pick Up Lines

Do you believe in love at first sight or do I have to walk by again?

Excuse me, but I think I dropped something...MY JAW!

Hey there! Can I borrow your cell phone? Because my mom told me to
call her when I found the girl of my dreams.

Excuse me, Miss...the voices in my head told me to come talk to you.

(Check the tag on the back of their shirt) OH, I was just seeing if
you were made in heaven.

My name's [your name]. That's so you know what to scream.

Is it hot in here or is it just you?

You're so hot you melt the plastic in my underwear.

If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together.

I hope you know CPR, 'cause you take my breath away.

Review:
Super funny bad pick up lines which I saw people posted. I dun understand the melt the plastic in my underwear and my sister also dun understand too.

Actually I remember one pick up line.
Do you know how heavy the polar bear weighs?
The gal will be puzzled if she do not know the answer
It is enough to break the ice.

Jinnai Tomonori

Insurance

I have to make full use of my time to do some meaningful stuff beside CFA. I kinda force Guobin to research insurance plans with me so that I can buy the best insurance plan.
As I read a few insurance book years ago and has interest in managing my finance well, I believe in term with deductible and invest the rest.

Accident Plan
I need to end the Aviva accident plan from Army as I feel that NTUC company better suit me than Aviva.

Medishield
I do have any at the moment and once I start work I surely need one. So its either Incomeshield or Prushield.

I will always remember what I read from insurance books during my army time. The key to insurance is to insure those that you cant afford to pay and do not insure those that you can pay.

Michael Jackson Tribute

Michael Jackson remix @ Yahoo! Video

Nice pitch and good remix! Enjoy

ENFJ

Pong asked me to take a test and again I am ENFJ.

Popular and sensitive, with outstanding people skills. Externally focused, with real concern for how others think and feel. Usually dislike being alone. They see everything from the human angle, and dislike impersonal analysis. Very effective at managing people issues, and leading group discussions. Interested in serving others, and probably place the needs of others over their own needs.

ENFJ Strengths

● Good verbal communication skills

● Very perceptive about people's thoughts and motives

● Motivational, inspirational; bring out the best in others

● Warmly affectionate and affirming

● Fun to be with - lively sense of humor, dramatic, energetic, optimistic

● Good money skills

● Able to "move on" after a love relationship has failed (although they blame themselves)

● Loyal and committed - they want lifelong relationships

● Strive for "win-win" situations

● Driven to meet other's needs

ENFJ Weaknesses

● Tendency to be smothering and over-protective

● Tendency to be controlling and/or manipulative

● Don't pay enough attention to their own needs

● Tend to be critical of opinions and attitudes which don't match their own

● Sometimes unaware of social appropriateness or protocol

● Extremely sensitive to conflict, with a tendency to sweep things under the rug as an avoidance tactic

● Tendency to blame themselves when things go wrong, and not give themselves credit when things go right

● Their sharply defined value systems make them unbending in some areas

● They may be so attuned to what is socially accepted or expected that they're unable to assess whether something is "right" or "wrong" outside of what their social circle expects.

Own Review:

I think all the strengths and weakness are all very accurate :) Most of time I wont accept my weakness due to my ego but I will say all are true. I remembered Collin Ng told me that I should not get over-reactive at ppl's opinons and how right he is. He told me in chinese, ''ppl have freedom of speech and they can say what they want and you cant stop them. ''I admit I am very over-protective and critical of opinions and attitudes which don't match my own.

About popularity, one friend dun like me to act popular and think that I will say the wrong thing sometimes but she said she understands me that I dun mean it that wrong way. What I will say is, I think my jokes at times are way off the line (Sometimes unaware of social appropriateness or protocol), another accurate weakness. Nowadays I feel my jokes has the 20% chance of social inappropriateness and 80% funny. The good thing about my friend is she is straight forward but its hard to take the truth at times and I dun really feel its offending. It really depends on what angle u see it and I hope I can have her angle sooner rather than later~

Msn chat with H

h says (12:11 PM):
hmm yea
do you still play basketball?

Fable.. says (12:12 PM):
one yr play 4 5 times
I played since pri 4 eh
I chose to play basketball
You know why?

h says (12:12 PM):
?

Fable.. says (12:13 PM):
haha... cos last time soccer super popular
then my skills so so ..
then always not pick by captains until I am the last few
bu shuang then take up basketball
I super ego one
cannot make it

h says (12:13 PM):
haha.
can tell =x

Fable Book

I remember one Christian friend told me something that some people like people to :
1) Help them when they are in need
2) Give them gifts
3) Give them care and attentions
4) I cant remember the 4th one

I always tot that I feel most happy when people help me to do something when I am in need. Thats why if any friends who need help, I will try my best to help them if it is within my capability. I tot gifts from friends wont make me tt happy. But a few days back, one friend gave me a book with a FABLE SIGN. Suits my blog totally. Haha. I am quite happy :)

Taiwanese photos

The photos with the Taiwanese people~

Msn

K says (11:05 PM):
orh
cos you put the busy sign
Fable.. says (11:06 PM):
always put one
haha
K says (11:06 PM):
why always put?
Fable.. says (11:29 PM):
duno eh
cos if i put online
then nobody msn me
i feel sad
then put busy.. assume ppl think i am busy.. then wont msn me
LOL
K says (11:29 PM):
but if you put busy
then pple will really think you are busy
even if they want to msn you
hahhaa


Then from now I changed to online mode. See what is the response like. Hehe

Hectic Day

I still cannot upload photos.

I went to Changi Airport to sent off my Taiwanese friends. Woke up at 745am. Yawns. After that is tuition at Serangoon. I tried to motivate my student by saying that he should study harder if not he will graduate at the age of 28 if he went by the longer route. He was quite worried. Haha. It always better to graduate earlier.

Anyway, after that I went to Pong's house to play mahjong and bridge. I am more interested in bridge than mahjong. The chances of winning is higher as every round, there are only one winner for mahjong but bridge you have TWO! Haha. But in the end, I still lose -_-

Then the organiser has a craving for alcohol. We went to Clarke Quay for dinner and went to Lunar Bar. Very cheena. Lots of chinese songs were played and we were quite bored as we cannot get high. But I was dizzy already as I was tired after such busy weekends.

Taiwanese Friends~

I know a few Taiwanese friends through the exchange and one of them actually arrived to Spore :) We visited a few main tourist attractions and here are the pictures. I feel so tired as we walked from orchard road to city hall. I will say the weather is super Hot. We walked along orchard road, went to Cathay to eat Aston, visited National Museum, SMU, Esplanade, Singapore River, looking at Merlion from Esplanade as we are too tired to walk and the final one is Singapore FLYER. We really need the Casino~ There is really nothing much to do in Spore~ The theme park in Marina Bay is the key!

As usual... Blogspot does not allow me to upload photos.. Losing interest to blog already

Fish Spa

I went to fish spa today. My sister gave me this complimentary voucher which means that it is free. So I went to Marina Square Kenko. I will say its very itchy at first. Though I try to enjoy it, after 5 minutes, the fishes seem to like to eat my wounds that were sustained during my Cable Ski trip. In all, it definitely worth a try for gals and my legs' skin becomes smoother. At least I can introduce this place to my Taiwanese friend who is coming. Singapore does not have many places to go to :( I hope she likes it as she is 1.7 metres with very long legs. Haha.