Now you have piqued my interest. Perhaps, the op was being swept up by animal spirits. Have you ever noticed the buzz for trading shares around Singaporeans? Every worker checks his stocks during lunch time. Has it gotten to that point? I am not worried about real estate. That is where money goes to during crisis and there is not enough US dollars around. In case of civil unrest, be safe. Wear black socks with brown khaki shorts and peope will think your a broke European/Australian tourist.
Asians certainly like to gamble... The small beach resort town in Cambodia (50,000 inhabitants) where I spent my last holiday offered 10 big casino sites. Could we somehow take advantage of the Philippine stock/realestate bubble? 10% a month sounds sweet, and with our knowledge as traders we won't go bust as easily as the pinoys. btw, d08, how do you like living in the Philippines? is it noisy there? I think in Asia it's always noisier than in the west, but have never been to the Philippines. How are the ladies? Really as great as everybody says - better than Thais?
@Koi Broker my friend, you sound like somebody with no clue who's just excited to start trading. that's alright, we were all starting out someday. Trading is not as you imagine! You can't treat it as a second job, just stabble around a little at 5pm after work.... you'll go bust soon. The truth is, trading is hard! Terribly hard. You'll need years to learn the markets and your personality to be consistently profitable. Trading is emotionally stressful and sometimes it really sucks. Trading must be your passion, not some spare-time activity. Trading is not a magic ATM. At the start (first years) you'll lose a lot more money than you win. You still want to do it? Then I suggest a) you read a lot of the threads here. b) start with investing (= trading the daily timeframe). take a stock index like QQQ or SPY. one in the US and with a US broker. c) make a strategy, plan, and follow it d) watch the markets every day. yes, you can do it as a spare time activity after work. will take you 1-2 minutes a day to watch markets. but do it. Then, if you feel comfortable, go on. But the way will be hard and long. good luck.
@SwingToWin You're right I'm still pretty clueless about all of this. lol I'm eager to learn though, and I'm willing to put in at least 4 hours after work in the evenings everyday to read and maybe trade a little of my money (experience is always the best teacher). I already accept that I will be losing money in exchange for that experience. I see it as an investment in developing a skill, one that I hope would pay off in the future. Right now I can't think of any other skill I should learn instead, maybe you can suggest something? Related to finance, of course. I don't have a trading strategy as of yet, gotta learn more first. Right now, my plan is to trade with money I don't mind losing. Like instead of going out to dinner or a movie, I put that into my account and learn to trade with that. Another one is to focus on simply preserving my capital first. If I follow these two, I should prevent losing a lot of money while in the learning process i think. I've been a lurker on financial forums for about a year now, but most them simply suggest to invest Vanguard and leave it at that. It wasn't until recently that I decided to at least give trading a try. That's how I stumbled upon this forum I will still set aside part of my income to invest into an IRA, match employer 401k, index funds, and all of that passive income stuff. But with what's left over, I would like to use to learn how to trade. Should be an interesting journey P.S. To answer your questions about the Philippines, I think d08 meant that people who are still planning to trade or "invest" think that they will be getting 10% a month. Most of the time, that doesnt realize I don't think. Never traded on the PSE though so I don't know. As for the country itself, it's your basic developing country. You have your traffic, huge disparities in wealth and education, pollution in the bigger cities, corruption, all that good stuff. If you were to visit, go to Cebu. Beautiful city If our capital, Manila, is our version of NY and maybe LA grouped into one, Cebu would be parts of Miami and San Francisco together. And yes, the ladies are prettier than Thais, but I am biased. They're not as easy to get though, at least not the ones worth going after.
@xandman you have a good point about how few things are being traded on the PSE and that would stunt my growth as a trader. If you were to pick a market with around the same time zone, where would you go? Would it be easy to set up an account in order to trade in that market? How are their fees compared to the US? Also, I'm still really curious about the US commission fees. I checked with one of the popular trading brokers, IB, and they charge about a dollar per 100 shares. Is that good or are there even better brokers out there? Thanks again to everyone for answering my queries, you guys are really helping me get a grasp on what going the trading direction will be like.
Asians like to gamble but the people talking about stocks aren't seeing it as gambling per se, they look at it as investing. The gambler types are in the casinos. It would be nice to earn from the markets here but I fear that insider knowledge dominates the markets here. If you're not in the inside, you really are outside here. It's noisy and hot alright, I don't see myself staying in Metro Manila for long since with the exception of shopping venues, there isn't much positive to talk about. Cooler mountain towns are much better though. People in general here are great, ladies included. But one should remember that this is a capitalist haven, in the worst sense - corporations rule, you have no rights or opportunities to complain; services are at least 10 years behind Europe and the bureaucracy/business inflexibility is often ludicrous.
I'm surprised you consider that a positive. I see the endless barrage of mega-malls in SEA as a character killing plague.
@Koi Broker What you say all sounds very reasonable! I wish you have the discipline and the strenght to follow your plans! Trading can be a wonderful journey, but you should not invest all your hopes and dreams into it! 90% of traders give up. Yes, it's a hard and difficult business. And a very emotional one. But surely one the greatest projects I can think of. I still love it, for many years now. No, I think trading and even more investing is a great skill to develop. Do that IB is one of the best broker out there, most of us use it. Be aware of their 10 USD monthly minimum comission however, if you trade less, you pay the difference. And you need 10K to open an account I think? Not sure - depends on your age. Wish you good luck and all the best for your trading journey
@d08 I really need to visit the PI on my next holiday. Only heard good stories - great people, lovely ladies, pretty western and everybody speaks english. Also cheap compared to the US/EU. Need to go there... You said it's too hot for you. Why do you stay in big and dusty Manila? There should be some cooler places, for example near the sea. Or Baguio - weather should be really comfortable there, almost as cold as in Germany
If you're living somewhere then you inevitably will buy things and you want the goods to be competitively priced. I also like Indian, Korean, Japanese etc. food and getting it in smaller cities in PI is much more difficult. Yes, like you in the beginning I hated the malls but as a refuge from the weather they are great, also not crowded and relatively clean (complete opposite of the streets here). Because my ladyfriend attends school here, without her I wouldn't be in Manila and possibly not in PI. Baguio is a little too cold and depressing at times, Tagaytay is better. By all means, you should visit as the country does also have the world's best beaches (IMO) but it's not very easy to get around as a tourist, it's certainly no Thailand. It's not at that point as most people don't have affordable internet to do that (sad but true). I simply notice that too many people are into investing, when taxi drivers want to earn money from the markets, you know things are overheating. Interestingly, civil unrest is a real possibility here. The catalyst will probably be financial turmoil in the middle east after which the remittances will dry up and riots will ensue. The chances of that happening aren't too high at the moment and I rarely see people lose their temper when faced with stupidity/governmental abuse of power, something that was very common in Europe and is possibly needed for things to improve.