Mid Week Pit Stop #7

Why do you need to invest?

1. Money and more money. Sounds rather dumb to mention this obvious answer but it is the main problem that most people are facing with isn't it? Money is never enough. You have your car loans, housing loans, milk powder, food (INFLATION) and ultimately you have to live in a country with a very high standard of living accompanied by low wages. I believe everyone understands this reason for investing so I shall not explain more.

2. Time = Money. Basically you need money to produce time. It is a simple logic actually. You want to retire young, why? So that you can enjoy life after all. You do not want to work for money all life, instead you want money to work for you. I remember someone saying this to me from a book called "Rich Dad Poor Dad". The book cover and title puts me off so I never bother reading that book. Apparently it teaches you how to make money work for you. Maybe its a good book, who knows? However, I think otherwise.

3. A better future. Actually this is closely related if not the same as first reason, but I feel that I have to mention this. After all investing in companies is something like betting that these companies will grow in the future. In this case, you invest to give yourself a better future to look forward to. What will you do in the future? Start a business? Maybe. Sleep around? LOL. Or start a family? Definitely. It is exactly why you want to start learning now and do your planning. Of course if you want to sleep around, it's your life, but remember you may have plenty of families to look after. As a parent, you will definitely want your child to have a good life because you know that life is tough. You don't want your child to go through what you have gone through. You know that now, so don't procrastinate anymore.


I believe most people work or do stuffs for the above three reasons. Investing is just one of the ways to achieve all those above. Of course trading is slightly different. To me, trading is about beating the game which has millions, if not billions, of people playing. Other than that, I trade for a fourth reason which only a few people will know.

Nice and short, I will like to end off with this article. Try to read, it is very true.

EURO Time

Similar for SIA cup, I have decided to throw in another piece of analysis for stuffs outside stocks. This time is about the long awaited Euro. Honestly speaking, I wish England to be in the Euro because they will be the top few favourites and provide value for other teams in Singapore betting pools.

I firmly believe Italy will win the Euro. It's not because I am a fan of Italy or because I have won some money with Italy at the World Cup. If you are being rational and not betting with your emotions, you will also agree that Italy stands a good chance to win Euro at VALUE.

The odds for Italy to win Euro is about 1:8 online. But 1:6 at Singapore pools. Lousy odds.

1. Italy has depth and balance in squad. I like good defensive team. Italy will probably do the same as France back at France 98 and Euro 00. The main thing is value for money. At 1:8, there is no better value team out there other than Italy.

2. Germany is good. Well-deserved favourites but not value for money. Less depth in squad than Italy but they have an easy group. But Germany lost to Italy at home during previous world cup.

3. Portugal also has easy squad and this year could well be Ronaldo's year. I don't really like him but you can't question his ability. However, Portugal has no striker. I doubt they can win just by depending on Ronaldo.

4. Spain looks so well on paper everyday but no tough players in midfield, will probably face difficulties after group stage against france or italy. However if they get to the final, I think they will win, of course they have to win france or italy first.

5. France has weak attack. I think they are just missing a "Zidane" in there.

6. Holland can't score for nuts. So many talents but they just can't score.

7. Czech is still no longer the good old czech.

I am pretty lazy to talk about the rest because I don't think they stand a chance. Basically it comes down to only a few teams - Italy, Germany and Portugal. Italy > Germany. Portugal is unknown factor because it's Ronaldo's year, just like Kobe Bryant in NBA. It's Kobe's year. But I have to drop Portugal in the end because they have no strikers.

Another reason why I like Italy is because they always have something to fight for. World Cup was for the scandal and the death of someone (old coach? I forgot). This Euro is going to be for Cannavaro.

"Chiellini reportedly broke down in tears after discovering that the Azzurri captain had been ruled out of the tournament as a result of their training ground collision, but Cannavaro insists that he harbours no hard feelings whatsoever."

Cannavaro says, ""I comforted him. He was broken. I told him that it wasn't his fault. We lost a player - it's not worth losing a second."

I like this type of team bonding.

For Golden Boot, go with proven scorer Klose. If you like some wild card, buy Mario Gomez at 1:19. I think he is awesome provided he starts beside Klose instead of Podolski. Basically Germany will score a lot and advance far in the competition.

Latest Update

I think ECB will raise rates, dollar plunge, oil shoots =D