Citi in trouble?

It’s been a mad rush after the Fed reported that all the 19 banks have passed the stress test. Strangely, they have not mentioned what are the criteria they use to do it? The amount of money on hand? All they mentioned is 2 scenarios are used to gauge the survivability of the banks. That’s very vague isn’t it? For all you know that it may earn $1 and yet lose $1.50. Could it be just to contain the economy from further implosion?

At the same time, I was quite surprise Citi’s share hasn’t went up but drop 1 cents. How can this be possible? Only when the Ceo Vikrem was rumoured will be replaced by the government. Under his stewardship, the company has shown strong profit grow. Or is it otherwise?

Or can it be like the previous news, when BOA’s CEO was forced to purchased ML. Things will be quite interesting for the coming weeks.

JP Morgan valued Citi at $1.50 per share for buy and currently it’s $3. So is it still over-valued? Anymore bad news will prolong this recession and hard to gauge if the market has bottomed.

The S factor

As of most guys, I do enjoy watching pretty girls especially ahem… I had a lot laugh especially for the last girl when she said, “I use my eye to give electricity.” ………

Hello, is that direct translation?

US Govt force BOA to buying ML

This just show us being in business, Government is the biggest boss. It chills to know that they have the rights to force company to make such decision. I thought they’re suppose to be pro-human rights? Oh yes I forget, it’s about human not company. Just wondering what more do they have up their sleeve. I fear that there will be lots of cover up for the stress test

Extracted from Yahoo Finance

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) — New York’s attorney general says government officials pressured Bank of America’s CEO Ken Lewis to complete the bank’s purchase of Merrill Lynch and threatened his job security.

 

A letter from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office released Thursday said Lewis testified in February that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke threatened to oust Bank of America’s management if the bank tried to back out of buying the investment bank.

The government helped orchestrate the acquisition of Merrill by Bank of America over the same weekend in September that another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went under, setting off one of the most intense periods of the financial crisis.

Bank of America acquired New York-based Merrill Jan. 1.

Roller coaster ride in Wall Street

These few days on Wall Street is really a roller coaster ride. What amazes me is the up and down despite the gloom from financial sector. It has been suspicious for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to only come out and said after the bloodbath

“The banks had enough money”

Well, it doesn’t make sense if the macro-economics is is shambles. They have been delaying the stress test report for quite sometime. What are they trying to imply?

I felt the recent surge is all due to speculators from Financial Institutions. Trying to keep myself rationale, there is no common sense in the surge at all if the companies is still losing money. Beware of the bear trap, the market may have yet to bottom.

Is it time to buy stocks now? I don’t think there’s any best time to buy stock for now, anytime now is good time for fundamentalist.

Extracted from WSJ
U.S. stocks turned around on Wednesday after an early dip, following a similar pattern to the previous day’s trading when enthusiasm about the financial sector overcame a set of sour earnings reports from several major companies.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by about 46 points after an early decline of more than 50 points. Other major indexes also reversed after early drops - the S&P 500 was up 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.3%.

Stocks bounced on Tuesday, led by financials, after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that the vast majority of banks had more than enough capital, easing some fear about the results of the government’s stress tests of top lenders. Wednesday, Geithner said at a speaking engagement that he would welcome strong banks repaying bailout funds to the government.

Earnings news in the financial sector was again far from upbeat. Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley reported a first-quarter loss and said it plans to cut its dividend by 81% to five cents a share. Its shares declined more than 4%.

Wells Fargo, meanwhile, reported that its net income jumped 52% in the first quarter thanks to its acquisition of troubled lender Wachovia. But the bank also boosted its credit reserves by $1.3 billion in anticipation of higher losses from its consumer-credit and real-estate portfolios. Its shares rose about 7%.
…

Developers concern over Oracle takeover of Sun Microsystems

With the database giant takeover of Sun Microsystems, what will happen to the open-source community?

Remember that Java and MySql is the most popular combination around for any project. What will happen to companies or individual who is still using MySql if Oracle decides to license it? What will happen to Java, the most important of WORA (write-once run anywhere) platform around.

I do hope that Oracle will continue Java and MySql as the open source and free to use program else I do have to switch working with other language fast.

I do feel a pity for the takeover. Not to mention that I’ve been there for Industrial attachment for 3 months plus only two years ago. I have foresee that the company might have a problem if it continues the path of selling Solaris servers at a exorbitant price. And being proprietary, it just did not have the edge over Dell which just bang on shipping servers with more user-friendly Windows installed

Well, even Ballmer is lost for words.

Packaging PHP require_once problem - Solved

For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to solve the path problem of PHP for my pet project. As the project is getting very big due to the decision of using Object-Oriented way of to manage the classes. It is getting super irritating to know that you the code is working if you access in one location and not on the other. I was clamoring how great would it to be able to code like Java.

Using the php __autoload function provided, it is by theory that you can load the classes without specifying the location. This can be most easily done if you dump all the classes in one directories. Well but this will create the problem of not able to package the classes for better management.

After studying the Zend Framework and sources from the net to mediate this problem, it did come to my mind of using framework to restart the project but this will definitely mean that I’ll be back to square one since I ditched Cake months ago. But what I did realised is Zend do follow the class naming convention of X_Y_Z. And for this X_Y_Z class, it will be in file Z.php and this file will be in Y directory which will be in X directory.

The main problem for php is it does not automatically figure out base on relative directory. For C.php to access A.php from another directory, in which A.php has to access another class from another directory, you’ll have a problem if you’re using relative referencing. The best way is to use absolute referencing.

But here comes another problem of having to change every ******* single class directory if you shift location. Programming is about making life easier not the other way round.

After realising relative path is the main culprit, my workaround to solve this problem is to define an global constant of the root of the project/web and then use a function to replace the underscores with directory slash. So if X_Y_Z class is to be used, the location of the file will be root/x/y/z.php and the combination with autoload function will include the file when it’s needed.

Eureka!

Hope this do help PHP furgitives out there.

- PHP n00b and a coffee(Java) addict-

Photoshooting lesson @ sony

Thanks to Blog2U and Sony for organizing this event where n00b like me can instant upgrade on how to take great pictures and sure enough after the event, everyone’s photos looks so much photo.

My fellow blogger friends like Nicole, Neo, Cris and Nadnut was there. And there’s some not so familiar faces. If you’re there, do let me know who you are

The trainer was humorous and lighten my mood after work with easy to digest lesson. There are a few tips which they gave for photoshooting like keeping the horizon straight, group of 3, 1/3 rule, using round objects etc. The main takeaway is the use of ISO and flash in different situation and also the use smile detection in Sony camera. I’m sure I will take a much better photo for Chingay next time.

Our photos will be upload to sony website soon. So do check up.

Last but not least, thanks Dk for the invitation.

omg i’m gonna get killed

camwhore

dk and his pretty

must be brooding over papers. dun worry too much

boss is here. all listen up and put a smiley face using the sony smile feature

the many faces of our trainer. he looks like he’s gonna kill us all

i think this is my best pictures.  yes everyone please VV

first attempt at food shot… doesn’t look appetizing

a much better one

look at the butter… hmm

I like this one too… from trainer

MyDigiSkin Runway

Digiskin is a protective skins for your gadgets and can print on also irregular surface. It is not sticker but uses machine skinning, which is non-permanent and the color does not fade. Customer has the flexibility to design and customize their skins as they like.

The runway is fantastic with lots of eye candies for guys ahem like me and girls too. Though I think I should be up with them *slap* modeling on the runway….. It is a tall order for the models to rush to the changing room and stage several times to showcase the products.

The mcee is humorous to begin with and had a “not-so-fun” time on stage giving away prices. Especially the uncle having to answer umpteen times the same true/false question wrongly, given the help from mcee. But he do give us memorable entertainment during the break.

The ladies were dressed with clothes from various boutiques, located within The Cathay like J Love, Vintage, and they look fantastic. Just that it’s a hard time trying to take photos of the products with the model due to the lighting condition and my not-so-up-to-standard skill. Some of the products were creatively designed for example laptop skins with jean design and formal wear skins for iPhone.

If you’re interested, do visit My DigiSkin at The Cathay level 4 or Bugis Level 3.

Concept Runway

I helped a friend to do some runway modelling at the cathay.

Fun? definitely.
Again? ….

Today was the last day and it was the best of the last 3 days. Basically, there were many constrains to start out with, so it was a miracle that this show was even up.

First day was the VIP opening, and to many of the models it was our first time doing this. We had someone to give us a crash course on modelling the products:
1. Products should be above the waist but below the chin
2. SMILE
3. Play with the products i.e. if its a phone pretend to call, if its a laptop, so some typing
4. 4 spots to stop and pose
5. Make sure every moment when you are on stage are photogenic

But it was also the day when i threw all the 5 points of of the window~! sigh… when you are on stage it’s very difficult to keep your cool. Moreover, the dressing room was quite a distance from the stage. Which means we all have to shuttle run from the stage to dressing room. I had 4 outfits, so it was very exhausting.

Day 2, we all learnt from our mistakes, and the organizer decided that they cannot have models running around like ‘head-less chickens’ because it caught a lot of attention. (imagine someone all made up with curry puff hairstyle and odd looking clothes, hmm.. very eye catching) So they added games in between changes to buy us time. The event was much much smoother than the first. and plaktoz won a wireless keyboard! (cheapo Bravo~!)

Day 3, everything is very very smooth, even better than the second day. But it was not without flaws. One model did not come, so we had one model doing 7 outfits! So what did the rest of us do to help her? ‘teamwork’ pose pose pose pose walk pose pose pose walk… you get the idea…

I learn that there are many things behind the scene that many do not see. The make up artist and hairstylist had to come 4 hours beforehand to do hair and make-up. The dressers at the dressing room helping us rip clothes and stockings off. It was a team effort that made it successful. So while looking at the pictures we all have to acknowledge the effort put in by these people and not just the models

~misting~

Uncle Sam: The Debt Collector

From the investment/business point of view, like what the article said, it will show the fundamental of the bank itself. if GS really return the money, you will see a whole lot of mess.

But u can’t stop people from returning money they borrowed right? isn’t it weird?

Ah Long Uncle Sam: you cannot return the money, must remain under the conditions i set and pay interest bcos it’s no good for the the other borrowers.
Borrower GS: But I already have enough money to return. So Why can’t I? What the economy got to do with me…

April 11 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., by selling stock to help it repay $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury, may pressure competitors to follow suit or appear dependent on government support, analysts said.The company, scheduled to report earnings April 14, is considering announcing the share sale as early as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Lucas van Praag, a spokesman for New York-based Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.

A 47 percent gain for the company’s stock price this year and a return to profitability in the first quarter may help Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein raise new money, analysts said. That might let Goldman Sachs, the sixth-biggest bank, return the cash received in October from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program and shake off compensation and hiring restrictions imposed on banks that took the U.S. aid.

“It’s in Goldman’s best interest to be free from the TARP,” said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. “But just because it’s best for Goldman Sachs, doesn’t mean their repayment is in the best interests of the broader U.S. economy.”

Goldman Sachs’ repayment may lead banks “to race each other to access a very weak equity market and to write their checks to the Treasury,” Hintz said by e-mail yesterday. “This could set off new credit concerns about the banks that can’t repay and could set back the recovery of the credit markets.”

One question, I would asked is if Uncle Sam going to set another rule for Goldman Sach to delay the payment or are they going to receive the payment and let the frenzy begin. I can foresee Citi share price to drop again once it happens

What investment strategy you employ?

In order to generate some topic of interest to kill the silence, I asked about investment, which I have been studying for months. And this is when I drag someone down with me. lol…

So I asked the most basic question.

I: So uncle eh, what type of strategy do you employ in investment? fundamental or technical?

He: I employ the winning strategy.

I: ….

I was feeling out of words for a moment. But I come to a realisation that it doesn’t matter what techniques one use. One don’t have to marry a investment technique until he/she died. But it do matter that the one you use is making money.

We continue to talk about the topic and investment at their age is about making sure everything is safe. Is the company going to bankrupt if this recession goes wrong? How long the company can survive without making any money. Does it pay dividend?

Just to add on, I’ve finally receiving all the necessary documents from The Central Depository(Pte) Ltd and can start doing my own trading.

The main point is that when people ask you what strategy you use for investment, you will know what to reply

Insurance products recommended to me

Interestingly, these 2 products are the ones pushed to me by 2 different financial advisers. They are highly recommended products as according to them using the cost benefit analysis. Of cos the are, when compared to Prudential or AIA. Just very interesting to find this article from Tan Kin Lian’s blog. Still reading up on the FAQ and find it beneficial as it does give a non-bias advice.

Hi Mr. Tan

My husband and I are doing our reviews of our profile. My financial planner recently recommends that we increase our critical illness coverage to at least $125K, via a limited pay term insurance. The two products recommended are Asia Life TM Legacy and NTUC Income Vivolife.

I have read your FAQ and I’m not sure if we should be increasing the critical illness coverage by another $100K. We have two young children, that’s also the reason why we want to ensure at least we are sufficiently covered.

REPLY

Both of these products are high cost products that give poor value to the consumer. I advice people to buy a 20 year Level Term insurance, and to invest the difference in a low cost fund.

You can see some examples of the difference in the FAQs in my blog:

www.tankinlian.com/faq
http://www.tankinlian.com/faq/true.html
http://www.tankinlian.com/faq/age65.html

I find this link on term insurance very insightful. The chart do give a clearer understanding on how term insurance is priced at various age.

I can see why he recommended decreasing life insurance with investment to go along. Not a bad choice. Though people would like to also see some form of return after the years. I would prefer a whole life, decreasing life term and investment combination.

What I can see from the trend is that many actually over-insured, under-insured or bet on the insurance company via ILP. I prefer to draw a line between investment and insurance to keep things simple.

Details on Shield plan

Follow up on my post on types of insurance cover, this post will provide 2 important links to evaluate Shield plan. As all shield plan in Singapore is approved by MOH, you can follow this to get all the plan details. Do follow up the comparison chart for research.

Even after meeting so many insurance agents, I still feel such a n00b. A feeling I don’t quite like. Like what I talk about being responsible in my previous post, it can be quite draining to get to meet up so many times. At the same time, there will still be so many things you will not know since it’s their trade secret. It’s how they make their living. Shrugs.

I think the point is many people realised the importance of insurance and yet do not know how to plan for it. I come to realised that my dad wasn’t his fault to buy so many useless insurance because of the complexity for people to understand what it is. Well except for the part to buy because feel paiseh (bad) to reject relatives.

Glad to get personal advice from a friend to plan backward rather than forward. Well at least I know what i need for now. But a lot more work is to be done.

Our trip to Little India

The familiar smell of curry, jasmine flowers and coconut oil. Beautiful fabrics on women and the chatters of men, it was like a totally different country. Yes, we were at Little India.

Our objective was simple - Go Mustafa, locate weights, buy weights, leave.

But mesmerized by everything going on there, we had to stay for dinner. We were spolit at the number of food outlets there, from curry to prata. OKAY, we admit, prior to our excursion, the only Indian food we knew were curry and prata. So we had an informal education about Indian food.

We went into this Vegetarian Indian Resturant and was immediately disoriented. Because we did not know where and what to order. Anyway, funny how things work out (especially when the Singaporean’s past time is to follow the crowd). Plaktoz and I did not know what to order. So there were 2 pictures on the menu, Northern Indian Set and Southern Indian Curry Set.

Make a guess what we ordered….

When the food arrived, we stared at each other in awe. We didnt which was north or south, but Plaktoz had this HUGE (really huge) set with 3 different curries, soup (i think), a mountain of rice with 3 vege sides and lots lots lots of crackers. I had 3 different curries, with Indian fried rice (with spices that taste wonderful) and 2 prata. GASP~! they were really generous with their portions.

Where do we start eating?

‘Dont care la, just whack! i Hungry’ Plaktoz said. and started mixing the different curries with his rice. He probably was not aware of the couple beside us looking in amusement how Plaktoz ate. Haha, he must have been hungry.

It was fun stepping out of your comfort zone once in a while and do something that you dont normally do everyday. Take a walk in Little India and experience life outside Orchard Road. You might just find yourself having the most interesting meal and have indulge in good tasting curry and prata.

~misting~

~misting~

Why pick-up lines?

Aside from all the insurance stuff, its time for something interesting.

From experience (ahem) pickup lines are COULD be quite successful in showing your interest to the other. The first one that someone used on me was quite cheesy, that i almost fell off my chair.

‘Are you very tired today?’
‘HUH?’
‘Because it have been running in my mind’

Get the idea? Pickup lines will definitely make an impression on the other person(good or bad, really depends how you put it across and the other person’s interpretation). So here are some conditions that need to be applied before using any pickup lines

1) make sure that you know her
Because unless we are blind and cannot hear properlydrunk, you will be classified under our ‘weirdo’ list.

2) you are a funny guy
Its a wholesome package thing which comes with the pickup lines that makes it charmingly funny

3) confidence
using pick up lines are not for the light-hearted. Because it might be embarrassing, especially when you really like that person. so if you want to use it, you better have a heavy dose of confidence.

4) correct setting
Use them appropriately, like lightening up the atmosphere, complimenting her. for best results, catch her off guard~!

Here are some pickup lines that i got from the web and experiences*

‘Thank you for helping me take this picture, all i need to do now, is to sent this to Santa to thank him for the best Christmas present’

‘Do you work for California Fitness? I could have sworn I saw you checking out my package’

‘I’m invisible. (Really?) Can you see me? (Yes) How about tomorrow night?’

‘Do you have a Band-aid? Because I just scraped my knee falling for you’.

‘What has 142 teeth and holds back the incredible hulk? My zipper.’ - will leave this up to your imagination on how it works out

‘You look so sweet you’re givin’ me a toothache.’ - you could use this while having dessert with her.

*Disclaimer: this blogger will not be held responsible if these pickup lines do not work out. as mentioned, pickup lines are just part of the package (i.e. you), therefore, if it scared the living day light out of girl, it has NOTHING to do with me.

~misting~