Choo Koon Lip

We (as in me and Lowie) just set up OUR blog on 11/11, just thought of chronicling our journey together!

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame – 2 Oct, 9.40pm @ GSC Pelangi (JB)

The Other Guys – 5 Oct, 2.30pm @ Cathay Cineleisure

Eat Pray Love – 9 Oct, 6pm @ GV Tiong Bahru

Reign of Assassins – 17 Oct, 1.20pm @ Cathay City Square (JB)

71: Into the Fire – 23 Oct, 12mn @ GV Jurong Point

The Social Network – 23 Oct, 11.35pm @ GV Plaza Singapura

I just received an email from GAIN Capital (also known as forex.com commonly) this morning. The email content is as follows:

——

On October 27, 2010, GAIN Capital entered into a settlement with the National Futures Association to resolve the pending proceeding against the firm, which included three claims relating to execution practices in its Metatrader platform and its former weekend liquidation policy. The company entered into a settlement without admitting or denying NFA’s allegations and agreed to pay a fine of $459,000. As part of the settlement, the company also agreed to provide appropriate refunds to those customers who were adversely affected by the practices described in the NFA complaint. We estimate that, in total, the trades affected by both issues represented approximately .05% of all customer transactions during the period.

In accepting the offer of settlement, NFA also dismissed a separate claim alleging that the company failed to cooperate with the NFA’s investigation and issued no finding with respect to a claim alleging any failure to supervise the operations of the company.

GAIN Capital is fully committed to compliance with all applicable laws and regulations affecting its business. We will continue to review all operations of the company to ensure that our operations are world class, transparent and that the interest of our clients and partners are fully protected.

——

After researching about what happened, here’s what happened. The market market broker apparently reduced half the leverage level over the weekend (where there was no trading) and caused lots of ‘margin calls’ in their clients’ accounts. Complaints were all over and you can read more about the NFA orders at http://www.nfa.futures.org/news/newsRel.asp?ArticleID=3676.

Step Up 3D – 2 Sep, 4.45pm @ Inception – 2 Sep, 4.45pm @ GV Vivocity

Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D – 9 Sep , 2.30pm @ SF Cinema City MBK (BKK)

Heartbreakers (L’arnacœur) – 12 Sep, 7.20pm @ Cathay Cineleisure

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen – 23 Sep, 8.30pm @ TGV Sunway (KL)

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – 24 Sep, 9.50pm @ GSC Pavilion (KL)

I’m very glad to announce that I launched my book on my 28th Birthday 10 days back. This is another small milestone to me where I FINALLY FINALLY completed the book ‘The Lemming Trader‘.

The inception of this book was trying to be forex related, but somehow conceptualising the book halfway, I realised there were already too much ‘forex forex’ books and also ‘secrets of ***’ books in the market. The whole initial idea was thrown away and I began thinking into what matters most by traders. The answer was simple – trading psychology and money management.

The next important component is to make the topic interesting and so I decided to use animal to create a metaphor. The rest is history and I chose Lemming over here.

Oh ya, what’s a lemming anyway? A lemming is a rodent believed to mass commit suicide by jumping off a cliff and then drowning to death after swimming for a long time. Why lemmings choose to do this or whether or not lemmings are really into mass suicide is not what this book will tell you. Rather, what’s more important to you and me is how this supposedly oddball (and fatal) behaviour of lemmings parallels that of many traders.

A short introduction of the book:

The Lemming Trader is a first in trading psychology books that introduces us to the suicidal behaviour of lemming traders, and how we can convert that to winning behaviour for consistent profit.

The best reward I hope for all my readers is seeing your trading profits increase steadily as you apply what you’ve learnt in each chapter.

The Lemming Trader lets you learn from the fatal mistakes of lemming traders so you don’t find yourself drowning in the harsh, cold sea of the financial markets.

A small advertisement: You can now buy the book online at https://www.createspace.com/3469285 (nope, this is not an eBook) and get it shipped to wherever you are! Hope you have a good read!

One year older again. Every birthday, we’ll have birthday wishes and looking forward to bigger milestones in life. Every time at this point of the year (or should I say this particular month of September), I will think back on what I did for the last 12 months and plan for the next year ahead.

As always, I reflected on myself so much more during this period of time than any other days in the past 365 days. The past 12 months, I would say, it’s truly a roller coaster ride – lots of ups and downs.

The first few months had been pleasurable – winning the ‘Best Forex Education Project in Asia’ in November 2009 and been approached by Phillip Capital CyberQuote to run our ‘Forex Intensive’ programme with them in January 2010.

Maybe it’s complacency. Maybe it’s forces of nature. Somehow I realised the following months were indeed not as easy! Maybe it’s the entire environment, or is it when one gets older, it ain’t getting easier? Only time will tell. It had been another year of experiences and discovery.

For whatever I had faced for the past 12 months, I understand things will not get any easier. Things are getting more and more chaotic. When times are good, be humble. When times are bad, keep a watchful eye – anything can easily spin out of control.

My 3 biggest lessons these 12 months:

- People may not always reciprocal your kindness.

- Execution and results matters; talk is really cheap.

- Money really tests friendship.

Like what I always thought, we are really on a slope. If we don’t move up, we move down! But it’s precisely because of these tough times, we become stronger and tougher.

Time to move on, always!

Inception – 1 Aug, 9.20pm @ TGV Salak Selatan (KL)

Wild Oceans 3D – 13 Aug, 3.50pm EST @ Johnson Imax Theater, National Museum of Nautral History (Washington DC, USA)

Inception IMAX – 16 Aug, 10.20am EST @ AMC Loews 34th Street (New York, USA)

The Jade and the Pearl – 23 Aug, 9.40pm @ Cathay Cineplex Prangin Mall (PEN)

City Under Siege – 24 Aug, 3.00pm @ GSC Queenstown (PEN)

Grown Ups – 29 Aug, 10.00pm @ Cathay Cineplex City Square (JB)

The Stool Pigeon – 30 Aug, 3.40pm @ Cathay Cineplex City Square (JB)

Haha.. I asked this question because of two interesting encounters over the past week touring the east coast of the States.

First, I was in National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC last Wednesday. I joined a mini tour guide within the lavish museum. And the lady tour guide asked where i’m from. When I said ‘Singapore’, she mentioned that America is a young nation as compared. I was like ‘huh’ especially National Day was like last Monday (and we’re officially 45th).

Then on the way back from DC to New York, I met my younger brother in Philly for a half day trip. While we walked from 30th Street Station all the way to the Front Street (i.e. around 30 streets), we walked back to somewhere in between to have dinner in Chinatown.

It came to a time that we’re afraid that we will miss our bus back to Manhattan, we took a cab. The driver asked where we came from. When we said ‘Singapore’, he said our country is so much bigger and apparently towards the end, he thought that Singapore is Shanghai!!

At these 2 instances, I knew they ddn’t know where is Singapore. And like most people said, they must be thinking that we are part of China.

Killers – 7 June, 4.30pm @ Cathay Cineleisure (SG)

Echoes of the Rainbow – 8 June, 9.45pm @ Cathay AMK Hub (SG)

Love in a Puff – 10 June, 11.00pm @ GSC One Utama (KL)

The Karate Kid – 14 June, 6.25pm @ Cathay Cineleisure (SG)

The A-Team – 16 June, 3.50pm @ GV Marina (SG)

Toy Story 3 – 20 June, 3.00pm @ GV Plaza (SG)

Knight and Day – 24 June, 12.10am @ GSC Gardens Signature (KL)

The Legend is Born – Ip Man – 24 June, 11.40pm @ GSC Times Square (KL)

Sex and the City 2 – 30 June, 3.00pm @ GSC Dataran Palawan