“Do you play the stock market?” “Which stock are you playing now?” Do these sentences sound familiar to you? Many ‘investors’ invest (speculate is a better word..) with a gambler’s mentality, attempting to ‘play’ the market through series of buy and sell. By associating investing with the word ‘play’, investment becomes a game, [...]

Since the electric tariff increased by 21.5% for October 08 to Dec 08, there has been increased attention on the price of electricity, especially during the current economic downturn. Following the drop in oil price, the tariff will decrease by 24.7% for the Jan 09 to March 09 period. There was an advertisement [...]

A major local bank has declared that they are overhauling their sales tactics. 3 changes will be made:

A more ‘intrusive customer qualification process’
A summary sheet that customers must affirm that they have read
A cooling-off period

The chairman is adamant that the bank will turn away customers who are ‘not suitable by their [...]

Many a time, you can find insurance companies dangling freebies to attract customers. It is not unusual to find them at electronic and pc fairs where they will display advertisements showing freebies such as digital cameras or printers. You would have mistaken them as another electronic booth!

It is very common to find [...]

Just watched the 10pm news on Channel 8 reporting on the dialogue between a local bank and their Lehman-linked Structured Note investors. There wasn’t much info as reporters were not allowed into the dialogue session.

The reporter mentioned that there were occasional burst of shouting followed by loud applause. Some investors who don’t understand [...]

Yesterday, I was at the Speaker’s Corner at Hong Lim Park for the protest against having been mislead into buying of structured products like Minibond, High Note, Pinnacle Note and Jubilee Note.  An estimated 700 people was there. I had not bought any of such products but was there to understand the kind [...]

The recent uproar over the alleged mis-selling of structured notes vindicated my fears in the blog Worry for heartland uncles and aunties. Stores of how retirees lost their life savings and how their children were were saddened by the fears and resentment that their parents go through are everywhere. Some RMs complained [...]

The following is a letter to The Straits Times Online Forum  on 1st October.

Consumers should understand the immense pressure we are facing

I REFER to the current market situation of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy which led to the DBS High Notes burst recently. I am a personal financial consultant [...]