Three Years of Absence and Fifteen Minutes of Rantings

This afternoon I suddenly felt like coming to visit my blog set up more than 10 years ago, I used to post articles quite regularly but have stopped since sometime in 2015. I returned to look at it in 2016 and since then have not returned till today May 03 2019. In fact I have forgotten my password and had tried different combination before I finally managed to crack it.

Many things have happened over the three year-period. In fact many things have changed in the world since then. America has a new strange self-absorbed president, the longest reigning monarch in the world had died, Prince Harry of UK had married and most importantly Malaysia had managed to change the more than 60-year-old government that has become terribly corrupt in the last five to eight years. Currently the ex-Prime Minister is in court facing corruption charges. Under his watch from 2010 to 2018, he was dubbed as the biggest kleptocrat in the world. In fact the ex US attorney,Jeff Sessions in 2016 had accused Malaysia as practicing kleptocracy at its worst. Malaysians were ashamed when they travelled overseas but now they can hold their head high when they were able to topple the sick government at the General Election on 9 May 2018.

I remember feeling a sense of relief when the new government headed by a 92-year-old ex-Prime Minister assumed power and is set to put the country on the right footing by first fighting corruption which has become widespread in the country. If there is one thing that I am allergic about is corruption. Virtually every government ministries and departments is involved in corruption. Since the change of government, almost everyday the news of corruption are reported in the various media.. Today we know why the scourge has been rampant. For a start the leader of the past government is highly corrupt, using public money to fund his lifestyle and that of his family, friends and cronies. His behaviour is despicable to say the least. May he be severely punished for his greed and abuse of power. May we never see the likes of him ever again.

Unwanted ads in my blog.

I have not blogged for a long time and when I returned to my blog this morning I noticed there were many unwanted and dare I say "rather salacious" ads in my blog placed robotically by adsense. Believe me, I joined adsense for the fun of it and have not even checked how much my blog has made over the years, heck I even don't know my adsense account number! In the past I made efforts of setting conditions that the ads should not have unsavoury contents. It worked for some time but since I have not been monitoring, they have come back again. I apologise to my visitors who are not happy with this kind of ads. Please just ignore them.

What About Hedge Fund?

I have heard and read generally about hedge fund which is managed by companies whose managers are well versed in rather complicated investing strategies and instruments. This kind of investing was rather "hush-hush" in that only a few people in your circle of friends would know about it and would persuade you to go into it by telling how much money they have made over the period they have been investing. And one has to have a rather large sum to go into this investment which is in US dollars.

A close relative had made money in hedge fund investing since the early 90s and had encouraged me to go into it. Apparently certain hedge fund had made 64000% returns for their investors from 1995 to 2011. Many rich people have become richer. Despite the high risks like political turmoils and financial volatility, the funds were performing brilliantly.

In 2008 I foolishly invested in a structured fund (capital-protected) for a three-year maturity period and by the end of it in 2011, I received zero returns on my investment. I was very upset as had I put the money in an ASNB fund I would have been able to enjoy reasonably good returns during the period. I calculated my losses regretfully. Then I took a risk of investing in a hedge fund based then in Hong Kong. By 2014 I recouped my losses on the blinking structured fund  along with a decent gain and decided to exit as the fund started to charge 20% on redemption. But the ride was breathless and being paid in US dollars was exhilarating because you then get at least three times the returns calculated in Ringgit.

The hedge fund manager who has more than 20 years' experience has since stopped the fund and presently embarked on Money Markets with different investing strategies but I have had enough of the high returns and would rather put my fund locally. The hotshot manager talked about the different scenarios resulting from more stringent regulations following the GFC in 2008 and it seemed these new ballgames have gradually affected the previous high returns. His hedge fund is not the only one to call it a day, please refer to the source below and read all about the current problems of investing in hedge fund when economic and financial data are no longer reliable hence affecting market predictions.

Credit: Stockman @contra corner

This is the highly successful hedge fund I was talking about earlier, Martin Taylor's Nevsky Capital emerging-markets fund. The days of high returns are over.

Needless to say the choice of investment products have a lot to do with one's method of investing. If you have a wealth advisor, you could well go into greater diversification but some of us would feel uncomfortable with such an arrangement and would prefer to do our own thing. On that note, I am currently more into Unit Trust Funds while waiting for the headwind to blow over...

Current investing: My balancing act

As the stock market has been suffering due to the slowdown in global economic outlook triggered by various factors among which is China's economic issues and low commodity prices, it has not been an easy time for investors.

I have pared down my stocks to four from 13 in the heyday before the global financial crisis in 2008. I am more into defensive stocks like telcos but the foreign capital flight to the tune of about RM19b in 2015 had also affected the performance of these. At the moment I am still holding on to MAXIS and TM which have been with me for more than five years. After some calculations, I have decided that the time has come for me to let go of them as soon as the prices are right for me.

I have a plantation stock acquired through an IPO (BPlant) which unfortunately has not done that well ( nevertheless it gives a regular dividend of  5 sen per unit ). And of course my disaster of the "century", the acquisition of Icon Offshore an oil and gas stock which has come tumbling down and down and downhill from 1.90. Gees, the cheek of me.... I bought an equal number of units at 45 sen in June last year hoping to dollar average as the price was low giler (crazy) but the critter even went down further to 25 sen! Would you believe it! At present it's 41 sen. Though my hefty loss is compensated by about 50% from my telcos stocks' gain, the regret of going for an oil and gas stock at the end of the industry's cycle is enormous. The massive reduction of the price of oil from US150 to below US50 per barrel in the space of less than two years had more or less sealed my fate.

Current investing is like a sailing ship weathering a storm
(Net image)

My AMB unit trusts similarly are not performing as they are closely linked to the local equity market. From a high of 60  and 56 sen per unit in 2014 for Ethical and Value trust fund respectively to below 40 sen in December last year. You can just imagine the losses that are incurred by investors like me . I have targeted both funds for 4-5 years so I have another 2 years to see through their performance. In the meantime I bought another Unit Trust sold by HSBC, Eastspring Investment Equity Income Fund simply because I wanted to ensure my deposits in the bank complies with the amount required to enjoy my current  banking privileges as the bank interest rate is low at about 3% I tend to withdraw my money and put it somewhere else. I chose the Unit Trust after studying its prospectus and you should do the same if you want to invest in any of these trust funds.

So let's hope 2016 would be better than 2015 though I doubt Malaysian political scenario will change much and this situation has definitely affected my fun in investing.

Happy New Year 2016

I also like to share this greeting from a dear friend of mine in Australia that I like very much. Indeed we all need this flight.

The Boarding of Flight 2016 has been announced.....

Your luggage should only contain the best souvenirs from 2015

The bad & sad moments should be left behind.

The duration of the flight will be 12 months.

The next stop-overs will be :

Health, Love, Joy, Harmony, Well-being & Peace.

The Captain offers you the following menu 

which will be served during the flight :

A Cocktail of Friendship

A Supreme Dose of Good Health

Au Gratin of Prosperity

A Bowl of Excellent News

A Salad of Success

A Cake of Happiness

All accompanied

by bursts of laughter

 Wishing You & Yours 

An enjoyable trip

On board Flight 2016

May this be

a Joyous & Super Healthy New Year!!!

I must admit that since I got hold of an iPad, I have  not been  been using my computer as much but I always remember my blog visitors and am now making an effort to be here today to wish you all a belated Happy New Year 2016. I have also missed wishing some of you a Merry Christmas 2015. However believe you me I did think of you all on the day and quietly wishing you all joy of family reunion and the best in your endeavours.

Happy Diwali

HAPPY DIWALI

To All My Blog Visitors Celebrating 

This Festival of Lights

TM and MAXIS as defensive stocks in my Portfolios.

I am back from the cold. I must say being away for almost six months has given me a sense of control over my activities including blogging. As the market environment deteriorated over those months so too my portfolio which I am managing myself.

The current market turmoil due to both external and internal factors has a great impact on wealth creation. Despite earlier knowledge that the oil and gas industry is cyclical, I fail to clear my position on a related stock on time and my loss on that is particularly staggering. I also have a plantation stock which is still giving a tiny dividend regularly but the share value has depreciated as well. And there is the stock that I bought based on its rapid rise in price only to be followed by its rapid decline. Well, these are my losing stocks which I will hold till better times come.

I am glad though I did not buy those stocks loved by foreigners like AirAsia which lost rather heavily when the capital flight out of the country started and remains so to date. I have so far, on paper, lost about 16% of my capital investment but it could have been higher if not for my two defensive stocks, MAXIS and TM. These two are quite resilient in times like this. It's so fortunate that I decided to participate in TM's dividend reinvestment scheme as I could acquire the shares at a discount and without extra charges. These two stocks have mitigated my severe paper loss on my three other stocks. TM's dividend is at 9.3 sen per unit and that of Maxis's at 5 sen per unit down by 3 sen and all due in two weeks' time. In the past the annual dividend rate for TM was 22 sen per unit and that of Maxis was 40 sen per unit.

My regret is for disposing my Axiata and IHH stocks so soon after making some capital gains. I would not have lost so muchon paper had I kept these two as they are in the defensive category in times of market depression. But as they say market will always rise after a decline and it's not a matter of if. All you need to do is to sit it out and monitor the economic and financial data of relevant countries such as the US and China, the oil and commodities' prices and of course the domestic factors which would have some impact on the Ringgit and our stock market due to bad investors' sentiment. In addition, I am hoping the Fed doesn't raise US interest rates too fast as our currency would further drop precipitously.

My unit trusts, the fixed price ones are fine albeit their dividends have lower purchasing power of imported items. The variably priced unit trusts are the ones suffering due to market's tumbling.

I am looking forward to receiving dividend for my AS1M on 01 October and thinking of investing it in AMB value trust whose price is currently low at 34 sen per unit. Life continues but investing strategies need to be changed to adjust to present market downfall.
. 

Alternative therapy for cancer and chronic diseases is mostly hype

I am sharing this article The Wellness Warrior, Jess Ainscough, has passed away  with those who are considering alternative therapy for themselves, their relatives or friends. In my practice I have come across patients who would rather choose alternative therapy for their medical conditions. Some factors which make them choose this unconventional treatment include, like the case in the article, the conventional solution is disfiguring like amputating an arm or a foot. Others are the after effects of conventional drugs like nausea,vomiting and diarrhoea or loss of hair among others.

People are attracted to traditional or alternative treatment because they do not have many of the above side-effects and that they are in control of their own dosing. With no doctor to monitor they can take one day and not the next. In a nutshell, they are much in control of their own "medicating" along with their "prayers".

I met a lady who was diagnosed as a diabetic and not being given a proper advice and counselling, she decided to go on a fast to "reduce" the sugar in her blood. And one day she was prescribed with "metformin" the first line drug for diabetes and again not being given the proper advice on drug taking, she took the drug on an empty stomach following which she had voluminous diarrhoea and became really sick. She then decided to go on an alternative therapy and avoided conventional medicine. No one could convince her to have conventional treatment for her diabetes. I feel really sorry for this lady.

Another lady from a wealthy family who suffered from cancer was being treated with the best in a hospital in Singapore and was in remission when she decided to go for an alternative therapy and within a few weeks of starting it (with prayers from the religious man) she became worse and expired.

Alternative treatment is here to stay as long as people think that conventional treatment is not effective (that is not curative), a lot of time anyway, the treatment delays the process of the cancer invasion and some are palliative and few curative especially if detected very early. Most cancers, by the time they are detected, the rogue cells have already travelled to many parts of the body especially to the liver where they "breed".

The same for treatment for chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes: the conventional treatment is to delay damages to all the organs in your body as a result of high pressure and high sugar level. They are not curative.

I hope you discuss well with your experienced doctor before you embark on alternative treatments for your maladies.

Happy Chinese New Year of the Golden Ram

Wishing all my relatives , friends 

and blog visitors 

a Happy and Prosperous New Year 

of the Golden Ram

Happy Valentine's Day - 14 February 2015

FoR All THoSe wITh LoVE in TheiR HeArTs ToDay

..................And  to my Valentine , My Love and

 My Best Friend, Jeff.

The Touching Story of Jeremy the Koala

Koalas are adorable. You can hold the tame ones close to your chest without any fear of being attacked or even scratched. I did that some years ago at Lone Pine, a Koala sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia. A treasured memory.

The story of Jeremy the koala rescued during the recent Adelaide Hills bushfire reminds me of Sam the koala whose image I have always placed prominently in my blog. Sam was also rescued during the a widespread bushfire in Victoria, unfortunately she died due to some internal infection unrelated to the fire.

Jeremy the  three-year old male koala also had his paws burnt and had to be treated to prevent infection. He was very well looked after and later released back into the wild. Here are his images for my record and blog visitors.

Sad looking Jeremy found with his paws burnt during the bushfire
Source : ABC News

Sedated Jeremy being treated with all paws in antiseptic solution.
Source : ABC News

Jeremy's paws were soaked,treated and bandaged for several weeks, at an estimated cost of cost of more than AUD 6000 to the Australian Marine Wildlife Research and Rescue Organisation (AMWRRO). However donations poured in from good-hearted people when they saw him being treated on the FB of the organisation. Jeremy's paws have now healed and he was just released back to his natural habitat today.

Rehabilitated Jeremy being released into the wild , one last look at his human  saviours
Source : ABC News

Stories like this really warm the human heart. What would animals do without human under these circumstances? By the way the fortunate koala is named after a fire volunteer Jeremy Sparrow who found him and brought him in for treatment and so saved his life.

MERRY CHRISTMAS - 25 December 2014

JoY to tHe WoRLd aNd PeAcE oN EaRtH

COMPASSION

FAIRNESS

JUSTICE

INCLUSIVENESS

Investing in Black December

Within a space of 10 days I witness all my stocks come tumbling down. By the way the plantation and oil and gas have started the rot well before that. My capital depreciation mimicked the one in 2008 though to most big-boy league investors, losing 75k  on paper is nothing to shout about, for small-time ones, it's something to learn from. The important thing here is to have the staying power.

The current rout in our stock market is due in part to the falling price of oil and the effects on other oil and gas counters such as PChem, SKpetro and Icon. As a result the financial counters like Maybank  follow in tandem. The low crude palm oil (CPO) price has already affected the plantation sector for more than 11 months now. I only have Bplant and due to its being well-established, the decline in its price is not as alarming unlike my O&G counter, Icon, a new kid on the block. My other bad let-down counter is Caring, a pharmaceutical and healthcare/personal care products  chain, another newbie on the stock market. This one I regard as an ugly stock, a terribly bad investment and will definitely off load it as soon as my loss on it is manageable and compensated for by my other counters. By the way, this stock might go up again once its wealthy owners decide to perk it.

Caring: Gradual decline since August
Source- Bursa Malaysia

I noticed the recent surge in price of my telco stocks namely TM and MAXIS but as per my investing strategy, I have refused to sell them and in less than a week, the gain was wiped off by almost by 50%. This development is attributed to foreign selling on our Bursa, as they say, Christmas comes early to those foreign funds eager to dress up their portfolios before the start of the new year which is fast approaching.

TM: The gradual rise and the steep tumble
Source - Bursa Malaysia

MAXIS: Tumbling as well in December

Source- Bursa Malaysia

The hope for a pre-holiday stock market rally this December has gone to the wind. In fact this December has become a black one for many investors. For some of us this is the time to pick up those stocks which have been overvalued a number of months ago and wait for the bull to return because it sure will return.

You've got to stay positive in all this up and down of the market. Here's hoping a Black December's giving light to making more in the future.

In the meantime, hold on tight to the rail of your roller coaster guys!

Seven Years A Mystery

A 21 year-old girl came with her relatives to the clinic last week. She travelled about an hour to get to the clinic even bypassing other clinics on the way.

She complains of a nagging skin condition for the last seven years when she first noticed it. The crops of lesions would grow in different parts of her body: face,neck,trunk,arms and legs. She has been to many doctors both government and private and has been prescribed with several medications: antibiotics,antiviral,antifungal and anti allergy plus all kinds of creams but the condition never goes away instead more lumps have cropped up.

The papules (elevated lesions) are not tender or itchy or red or ulcerated, in fact nothing which causes physical discomfort. Her problem is cosmetic as the lesions have become unsightly and she is very sensitive when people look at her. In effect, she looks depressed as all manners of treatment, modern and traditional have been tried by her family but nothing comes out of them.

I took one look at the lesions in the neck and immediately knew what they were. To confirm it I had to ask her to undress to check other parts of her body. what I observed on her bare back, convinced me that she is suffering from a genetic disease called "neurofibromatosis". No amount of medications would cure this condition.

Elevated small lumps in the skin
(non-erythematous papular lesions)

The sine qua non of the condition -
 cafe au lait (flat coffee-coloured) spots on the skin

I referred her to a dermatologist to confirm my diagnosis and there it is. I have explained to the close relative the nature of the genetic condition which is passed down through an autosomal dominant gene; meaning to say that her offsprings will have a 100% risk of contracting it as well. The condition could be a mutation in her body itself or she could have got it passed down from one of her parents though, I did not get that history from her as she denied that either of her parents suffer from the condition.

Counselling is mandatory in genetic diseases so as to give the best advice as far as future generation is concerned. In this sad case, at least they do not have to keep looking for a cure for her as they have been doing for the last seven years.

The non-diagnosis of this condition for so long earlier is likely due to the history not been taken adequately, examination is only done cursorily and on only the exposed part as too much emphasis is given to preconceived patient's sensitivity (patient is a hijab-wearing Muslim) and also the preoccupation with using drugs as answers to all ailments.

A seven-year of mystery is finally solved but the emotional pain will need a long time to heal, if at all it could be healed.

MAXIS issues dividend as promised and soaring again

Late last year when there were talks of MAXIS being unable to pay the 32 sen annual dividend like it used to due to some financial issues, I was feeling anxious as I have fallen thoroughly "in love" with the stock and was not about to abandon this blue chip comes what may. I also have great faith in the new CEO, Morten Lundal who has a lot of experience in the telco industry being ex-CEO of Digi, Maxis's rival. He came after Johan Dennelind, another ex-Digi CEO was not able to fill the post citing family commitments.

True enough after a number of months the stock began to slide and I watched with horror as my capital was being attacked so to speak. I kept telling myself to persevere as over the years of my investing in MAXIS, I have received quite a substantial amount of dividends, far more than the amount which was eroded mercilessly during the second quarter of this year. Yes, I cringed when the shares dipped to 6.20 but I took it as part of the excitement of investing.

Heart flutterings when MAXIS dipped  and normalising
 when it starts soaring

I was elated when MAXIS third quarter financial results were rather unexpected and Maxis is still able, up to this stage, to issue another 8 sen dividend per share with its earning per share (EPS) standing at 6 sen. The dividend ex date is on 26 Nov. From then on the stock began to rise to its previous high and today it has reached 6.93.

Credit to Maxis especially its hard-working CEO for having made many transformation and market initiatives to stay competitive in the industry despite declining revenue partly as a result of a reduction in income from voice and SMS usage owing to the introduction of applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram, Viber  and Skype , all of them are free at the moment. Notwithstanding the intense competition, they have succeeded in maintaining the population mobile coverage. Apparently, greater penetration of its service via internet usage is in the pipeline. Now I know how sticky MAXIS is.

Here's hoping MAXIS would be able to sustain its efforts to stay in the mainstream of the industry and continue to add value to all the stakeholders of the company including this minnow investor.

Commander Hadfield's Iconic Zero-G Rendition of "Space Oddity"

 I am very happy to be able to watch and listen again to this exceptional performance of a song recorded in International Space Station (ISS) where Canadian Astronaut, Commander Hadfield was based. The video was uploaded in May 2013 and was taken off till the new agreement recently made to keep it in cyberspace for the next two years.

This famous space song "Space Oddity" was first performed by celebrity singer/composer, David Bowie in 1969. Commander Hadfield recorded it as a farewell gesture before departing from ISS .He was in ISS from December 2012 to May 2013.

This video brings back memories of his daily chattering and chronicling of activities from ISS  and posting them through Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to be shared across planet earth and inspiring million.

Pretty awesome!

MyEg and MyGirl Friday

Zana is a busy professional working in a prestigious organisation known for employing only the best in their fields. To keep up with the organisation's well known performance, the staff there have little time to dabble in shares market. They may have the money to invest but not the time to keep track. So many of them just confine themselves to mutual funds. Slow and steady alright but the fun is in the market.

Early this year Zana had a bonus bounty and had asked me to invest as I like for her. So I acted as her fund manager so to speak. She apparently has been impressed with the little success I've made over the years in the market despite my busy practice.

I told Zana to stick to my decisions and not to ask too many questions ( not the normal fund manager I must say! After all I am not paid for this task so could afford to be dictatorial :)

And with Zana's fund I went to the market and after some general research I chose to invest her fund in MyEg, the company which provides tax collection services system to the Custom Departments. I bought the shares at 2.93 and for awhile due to some delays in system implementation, had gone down quite badly. But I persisted telling Zana that the shares would rise once everything is in place. At times though, I was regretting putting all her fund in one basket!

Today MyEg hits 3.95 and hopefully will continue ascending

But as expected today MyEg has soared beautifully. Zana has made a tremendous capital appreciation well over her investment on those slow and steady funds. A real joy to see such investment rise and rise. I wish I had put my own fund in the stock and ride with it.

In the meantime, I have yet to inform Zana of her fortune. She would doubtlessly be pleasantly surprised if she happened to read my blog today.

 I must however disclose that Zana has helped me with a lot of tasks without taking the credit. Thanks Zana,  my Girl Friday!

ASNB Funds: Taxation of Dividends

All these years many of us have taken for granted that dividends derived from ASNB funds are not taxed forever unlike mutual funds managed by other companies. Well it's not strictly correct that these ASNB funds are going to be tax-exempted forever except perhaps for ASB.

Reading the Master Prospectus 2013 -2014 today , I discovered that the tax exemptions for all funds except ASB are temporary in nature and investors should not be taken by surprise if the time should come when all their dividends issued by the various ASNB funds will be taxed in the future.

The current taxation status of the funds are as below:

The Funds managed by ASNB are granted an exemption from income tax under Section 127(3)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1967

Funds	Taxation Status
ASB	The Fund is exempted from income tax for the year of assessment 1991 and subsequent years.
ASN ASN 2 ASN 3 ASG-Pendidikan ASG-Kesihatan ASG-Persaraan ASW 2020 ASM ASD	These Funds are granted an extension on the period of exemption from income tax for the year of assessment 2007 to the year of assessment 2016.
AS 1Malaysia	The Fund is exempted from income tax for the year of assessment 2009 to the year of assessment 2018.

Source: ASNB Master Prospectus 2013 -2014

There are many other aspects of these funds which are unknown unless you care to read the voluminous Master Prospectus. The point is if so-called new developments are taking place, you cannot feign ignorance as they are all already stated in the prospectus . So, go on read the prospectus to increase your knowledge about the funds you are investing in.

Icon Offshore : The Shockingly Ugly Ride

It looks like my investment in Icon Offshore is going to stay there for the next two years. With the current downgrading of the oil and gas sector, we can expect many of the local players in this industry will be in the doldrums. There are several factors contributing to this state of affairs from delayed projects to the rising stiff competition from foreign concerns. And there is also the fact that this industry is cyclical in nature.

Lamenting after the event whilst irritating, need to be released so as to learn from the debacle that I let myself into and risk my fund to existing in a dormant state. I have had this heart-dipping experience before during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2007-2008 when I made extensive losses in my plantation and construction stocks. I used the "opportunity" to buy more into stocks such as MRCB,Sime Darby and HSL and managed to recoup my losses by 2010.

Icon Offshore  IPO was 1.85 on 25 June 2014
 and now on a tumbling ride

However this current scenario is different in the sense that the stock I bought is recently launched  as an IPO, though now I am encouraged to think that the stock was unfairly valuated at 1.85. It made only a slight premium for about ten days then it started falling and now it has fallen precipitously with the current declining contract rate for offshore transport services. That has sealed the fate for Icon offshore. I did think of dollar cost averaging but my instinct told me to let it go and I am glad I did just that.

Actually I was not successful in my application for Icon IPO instead I bought over the counter during those crucial 10 days after its launching and was nicely trapped by those who have prior knowledge of this industry and sold their shares relentlessly. It reminds me of the ugly Astro IPO but my loss on Icon this time is multiple that.

Then I remember a book on investment by Burton M Malkiel entitled " A Random Walk on Wall Street" where there was a warning about buying IPO stocks. He reminds that IPO stock is launched when somehow the people who own the company have negative knowledge about the environment in which it is operating. And these people are the ones who will sell their shares gleefully post IPO and make money from ignorant retail investors. They actually time their IPO launch and it is not a coincidence, it is a well thought out timing to share their losses with the public.

Remember JCY? That technology company which had made millions before deciding  to list on Bursa just before the hard drive industry started to decline? Yet had we  read the financial report of Western Digitals and Seagate which order its supplies from JCY, we would not have been so adventurous in buying into the company's stock. The financial results were showing a decline in profit! The price was from 1.60 (IPO) to as low as 0.35 sen in less than nine months. The stupid thing I did was to dollar cost average and got myself right down to the pit. No fun there I must admit.

I have not learnt my lessons simply because I thought Icon was related to some government-linked outfit and its association with Petronas, our national oil giant, and so would not go on this route of failed ride and lose 30% of my investment on paper.

Though my loss is partly compensated by the uptrend in TM stock, I found this experience humbling and will definitely think thrice about buying IPO stocks. The last eight years have seen unhealthy activities on IPO stocks like Caring which was propped up by a single wealthy person and when he sells at the height of the price, the whole stock price comes tumbling down. The market is indeed a jungle, enter at your own risk!

Ebola At Our Gate?

I was rather down when I read the statement from our immigration Department which stated that there would absolutely be no restriction of entry for Students coming from Africa despite the current Ebola crisis occurring  largely in West Africa and now has spread to Nigeria.

Rapid travel by air is the culprit. Those who travel are well advised to take precautions like washing hands with soap and water frequently and resort to wearing masks if the passenger next to you is coughing and sneezing all night on long-haul journey.

The news of an African student entering Malaysia with signs and symptoms which are suspected to be an Ebola infection is disheartening and frightening to say the least. Though Malaysia is equipped to deal with the scourge having dealt with the SARS problem ten years ago, we cannot but be highly concerned. Unlike SARS, Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has a high case fatality rate, killing almost 50% of its victims and like SARS there is no cure, neither  is there a vaccine to prevent it.

The report of the fourth doctor to have died of the infection in Liberia is disconcerting though we understand the condition there is a lot less favourable in terms of detection, diagnosis, management of cases, contact tracing and isolation procedures. The problem there is compounded by poor education of the people and the belief in the unknown, poverty and the  mistrust of health personnel.

Though it is said that Ebola virus is hard to be transmitted, the risk of fatality to infection is high due to its virulence nature and massive immune response causing widespread internal bleeding in organs.

So do be careful when you are in the crowded international airports. You never know.