Choo Koon Lip

Yesterday I watched ‘The Green Zone’ starring Matt Damon. I must say this is so Much better than the one (i.e. The Hurt Locker) I watched last week… The pace is good, the story gives us a possible (or perhaps real) dissection of the Iraq warring situation and definitely, the top-notch almost non-stop action by director Paul Greengrass!

Made for more than USD100million, the up-to-date

The production studio did what it could to hide the film’s Iraq setting and pushed it instead as a film from the Jason Bourne guys but audiences didn’t buy into it. With a production cost of more than $100M, The Green Zone grossed a weak ten-day total of only $25M in North America and likely to end up with a domestic take of just $35-40M. The early overseas tally is $20M with many markets still to open, but recovering production and marketing costs internationally will also be a challenging task.

This also brings me to think about how the movie producers think like traders and investors alike. Purely investor complacency. With a superb track record from the 2 Bourne colloboration between Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, they may think any story will sell across. This movie is definitely a hard sell, but this is definitely one of the year’s best!!!

Black Ransom – 5 Feb, 11.40pm @ GSC Times Square (KL)

Tiger Woohoo – 7 Feb, 11.10pm @ GSC Pavilion (KL)

Fame – 9 Feb, 11.20pm @ GSC Times Square (KL)

14 Blades – 13 Feb, 10.15pm @ GV Grand (SG)

72 Tenant of Prosperity – 15 Feb, 6.35pm @ Filmgarde Iluma (SG)

From Paris with Love – 20 Feb, 12.15pm @ Cinema 21 Plaza Senayan (Jakarta)

Valentines Day – 21 Feb, @ GV Plaza (SG)

Hot Summer Days – 26 Feb, 11.20pm @ GV Tiong Bahru (SG)

Up in the Air – 27 Feb, 4.50pm @ GV Plaza (SG)

While doing my reservist, I just thought of sharing with you guys one of my long term forex trade – strongshorting of GBP/AUD/strong. Most traders wont even look at this because the spread is around 10 pips! Then again, let me explain more…

Looking at GBP, I think this currency may probably be the worst performing currency this 2 to 3 months. Judging on the recent economic data triend including the highest employment level ever in 12 years. Tthe GBP should be headed lower.

On the other hand, the RBA intends to raise interest rates again very soon. The good economy due to mining boom (which always fuel inflation) must rise the AUD (to contain inflation).

On the technical side, you can easily see the strong downtrend of GBP pais and decent uptrend of AUD, and hence clear down-down for GBP/AUD!

strongConclusion: From both a technical and fundamental basis, this pair should be headed lower./strong

A side note: We, at Forex Asia Academy (FAA), are currently set up a new blog called a title=Forex Asia Live (www.ForexAsiaLive.com). As our tagline Make It Live, we (me, our traders and strategists) are going to blog about the 3E of our Live trades – entries, exits and experiences. Stay tuned!

Oh ya, just calculated: I made 87 trips (not movies) in 2009.

Movies I watched twice:
- Red Cliff 2
- Shinjuku Incident
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- Terminator: Salvation
- The Taking of Pelham 123
- Overheard
- Haeundae
- G-Force
- 2012
- Avatar

Movie I watched 3 times:
- Monsters versus Aliens

So actually I only watched 75 movies last year!

Treasure Hunter – 3 Jan, 9.30pm @ GSC Times Square (KL)

Did You Hear About The Morgans? – 4 Jan, 11.40pm @ GSC Times Square (KL)

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus – 7 Jan, 5.15pm @ GSC Pavilion (KL)
- I really slept quite long and quite hated this!

It’s Complicated – 17 Jan, 6.30pm @ GV Bishan (Singapore)

The Blind Side – 26 Jan, 9.35pm @ The Cathay (Singapore)

Fortunately the latter 2 shows saved the month! The first 3 really below so-so level only…

I just scalped using AAPL (Apple Inc) options yesterday and made a quick profits during the iPad announcement.

As a new iPhone user, I must say this blog post is inevitable and let me share more with you.

After all, yesterday night (my Singapore time) is THE DAY they announced their new tablet computer, the iPad, that’s supposed to take the world by storm. Just like you, I’m excited by all the hype and the buzz.

But hype alone does not necessarily make for a great investment. Should you be buying Apple stock before the company sells the first iPad?

My take is as follows:

Because I would normally warn mid-to-long term investors away from buying any stocks when new products are being announced.

After all, they are often unproven and even in Apple’s case there are no guarantees that the iPad is going to be a winner. Except for this name: Steve Jobs.

Since he’s returned to Apple more than a decade ago, he’s the only CEO on the planet with a vision and a golden touch, recently named the CEO of the Decade by Fortune magazine.

His previous visions had created the iPod, iMac, and iPhone – the key drivers in Apple’s $12 billion first-quarter revenue.

His newest stroke of genius will follow in their footsteps. The reason is simple: Job’s iPad is about to take the world by storm and double your money along the way.

If you think Apple’s iMac, iPod, and iPhones were revolutionary products, you haven’t seen anything yet: Apple’s iPad is going to deliver a profit explosion the likes of which the computer world has never seen before with this new Apple tablet computer – large iPod-like touch screen, full color e-book reader that will definitely hit the sales of Kindle all in this four-in-one convergence device (Internet, TV, music and e-book reader).

I realise when we are working and trading days and nights, we seldom have time to think and reflect.

I realise I seldom eat with friends and associates (since I always wake up late) and I normally eat alone. But while I was sitting and lunching alone just now, I realise that this is the only time in the day where I think and reflect about things and happenings and what I want to achieve more in life.

This is the particular time that I hold no conversation with anyone, away from my email and MT4 and truly relax and think.

Everytime at this point of the year, I will think back on what I did for the last 12 months and plan for the next year ahead.

Somehow I realised the year 2009 was really a tough year! Maybe it’s in the midst of a financial crisis and the entire environment was rather messy. Or perhaps I met up with a lot more people and I have lots to write here about people around me. After all, it had been a year of experiences and discovery.

Just like having buddies to enjoy the true fun of trading, you need people and partners in business along the way.

When I ’semi-retired’, this was when I start to delegate my works and responsibilities around, I met up with more people that I could discover more only when you work with them. When I look back at the ones that I should not trust in the first way, I have broken them down in several major categories:

1. People who think too highly about themselves and also tell people how much their time is worth and how expensive they are. And when you buy into their expensive story, they deliver peanut value to you.

2. People who claim sky high and deliver below hell level. And worse of all, when the outcome is in a mess, they push back the sh*t to you (i.e. push back to me in many cases).

3. People who have too big of an ego and just don’t admit that they are wrong and waste my time by defending them for the whole afternoon. When you’re wrong about a trade, you’re wrong. Same goes for life, business and investment decisions.

4. People who don’t deliver and then avoid you all the way (whether you sms, call, email or fax him) to prevent himself from explaining and embarassment.

5. People who don’t deliver their high claims and yet ask you for more payment or business. These are really the thick-skinned!!!

6. People who want to get paid first and/or get the contracts signed and/or ask for money first, then no follow-up from there or you don’t hear from them (unless you call them). Especially true for media sales people…

7. People who push their way through and keep hard selling. That’s why you never get my deal!!

Perhaps this is marketing, perhaps this is just how the world works. People who read this, please take note!

The best people I worked with in the year 2009:
1. Lowie
2. Ong/Mei and his team in Malaysia
3. Chee Seng (still my best Tutorial Master and assistant), Yeanjie and Billy
4. KS Low (still my best pal in business chit-chat)

There are more on my list. Apologies if your name is not on the list – I probably thank you when I see you! Thank you all who had helped me along the way in the year 2009 and I hope to stay in touch ongoingly!

To summarize, the year 2009 was really special to me as I remember that I wanted to semi-retire at the age of 26. And yes, the age 26 was now over.

Time for a new beginning.

Couples Retreat – 5 Dec, 5.15pm @ Cathay Cineleisure (Singapore)

The Storm Warriors – 10 Dec, 11.40pm @ GSC Times Square (KL)

The Princess and Frog – 11-Dec, 11.50pm @ GSC Times Square (KL)

Avatar (3D) – 16 Dec, 6.00pm @ GV Marina (Singapore)

Bodyguards & Assassins – 17 Dec, 10.20pm @ GV Vivocity (Singapore)

Avatar – 20 Dec, 8.30pm @ GV Max (Singapore)

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 – 24 Dec, 2.15pm @ Cathay Cineleisure (Singapore)

Sherlock Holmes – 26 Dec, 10.20pm @ GV Marina (Singapore)

Another 2 photo collages of the 2 Malaysia gathering session last week!!! Both were held at the hotels – nice view (but super lousy service at Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel in Penang) & nice ambience (really good service by the staffs at Pearl International Hotel in Klang Valley).