Trends

Well, the SGX is up nearly 5%. In fact the whole world is up now. But of course not ANYWHERE near the midway level where everything fell apart.

I sold some stuff in the morning. UOB at 20.30 - Ferro at $1.75 - and made some money. Bought UOB at 19.90 and Ferro at 1.68. The was a garbra moment and I sold an extra 10,000 shares in UOB - thankfully my broker spotted in and fixed it up for me (guess she either rebought or crossed at the same price). Its now at 20.90. So if the error wasn't spotted- I'd be in trouble; I'd have to buy it now and cough up an extra $6,000.

But yeah, I had a horrid panic attack in the morning. Its just the accumulation of all the troubles- worrying about the portfolio, the phone went funny etc...

I still have a considerable more shares purchased at a higher price. But really this whole shocking episode has taught me the value of trend watching rather than focusing so much on price.

In normal everyday activity, price watching makes sense - because prices stay relatively the same. And so people look out for Sales or discount specials. If a packet of your fav italian pasta is at a 30% discount- you wouldn't hesitate to get it.

In share trading this can lead to trouble. If the trend is going downward- what is cheap today can become cheaper tomorrow. Did you know that the price of Gold was at US$800 an ounce in 1980? It fell to a low of $250 in the Year 2000. You would have lost money if you had bought Gold at $600 - $400 an ounce as the thing went downwards. Keeping Gold doesn't pay you dividends, interest or rent. And you need to pay storage fees too.

As you can see- it eventually picked up - but lets not kid ourselves - it was a bad investment decision - moreso if you dumped all your entire investment money into it.