Common Sense Trading - A Blue Jeans Approach to Philippine Stock Market Trading

"What comes up, must go down" is not a too comforting thing to hear and yet it is happening. to the PSEi.   The index fell by 1.27% as reported by  The Philippine Daily Inquirer here . News of good GDP was ignored in the face of news reports that overseas remittances fell to five month low.  Philippine Star reported that: " Money sent home by OFWs fell by 8.3 percent year-on-year to $2.2 billion in September, the central bak reported." The article further stated that: " The countries that registered the biggest declines in cash remittances in September were Saudi Arabia, followed by Kuwait, Qatar and Australia."   "The BSP noted that reports that a number of global correspondent banks have closed their service facilities on money service business might have “partly” affected remittances flows during the month."

I awoke to notifications of another 5% jump in the price of bitcoin on the international market.  I checked coins.ph and saw a buy price above Php400,000!  Just a few days ago, I was able to covert some pesos at a rate just above Php300,000.00.  I share in the sentiment that we will end the year somewhere around the Php500,000.00.  My simple understanding of Bitcoin is that it is at a point where it is being "born" and its true purpose and value is emerging.  Around the world, it is being used as a safe haven for value/assets.  The initial plan to have Bitcoin focus on transactions seems to have changed. The people behind Bitcoin now want it to be like gold.  Current events illustrate this perfectly.  Just a yesterday, I read about (and heard on the news) political instability in Zimbabwe.  A decades long dictator, Mr. Mugabe, was placed under house arrest.  Notably, that Bicoin's price in Zimbabwe is soaring . Due to difficulty in f...

Inquirer reported here that the Philippines' GDP was better than expected. The Philippines Statistics office noted that the main drivers for growth were:  Manufacturing, Trade, and Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities. The official press release from the PSO can be viewed here .

I was wondering about the Philippine Mining industry. I came across this article.  It seems that our mining industry is profiting from a shortage in Nickel.  Indonesia seems to have passed a law that limits the exports in favor of domestic use.  Looks like they are building up some of their industries.   What strikes me is that it is a very artificial increase in demand of Philippine sourced Nickel.  If Indonesia changes its mind what will happen?  Rumors of that have already been spreading and some Philippine Mining stocks have been going down. This makes me feel that mining stocks are still rather risky purchases.  I think its a good idea to buy in small quantities whenever the price dips for reasons such as this.  While the risk is high, so will the returns when the time is right. click here for the full article.

As I imagine the point of view of a fresh College graduate in the Philippines, call centers do not exactly seem like a prestigious choice for work.  It's really about the salary.  Work is hard, hours are tough and it's hard to call it fulfilling.  But there are hordes of Filipinos signing up and taking home a lot more money than they could before.  Notably, Filipinos turn out to be really good at customer service thanks to our general politeness and fluency in the kind of English Americans use - something that matters since most clients are American.  It turns out there's a practical side to our obsession with American movies, television and music.  We can answer their phones.  While that's not glamorous, it's a humongous part of the Philippines' recent economic renaissance. I'm all for a common sense approach so this may seem like a simplistic analysis. With more than just a mob of young Filipinos getting what is arguably excellent pay for local sta...

They are saying that the Philippines is no longer the "sick man of Asia." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-30/move-over-thailand-the-philippines-is-southeast-asia-s-strong-man Click here for full article I came across this article saying really nice things about the outlook of the Philippine economy while not so subtly cautioning another. The article listed a few reasons for saying so including GDP growth, manufacturing growth, exports surge, swelling consumption, and a demographic dividend. I was surprised about a few things including how population growth can be a boon. This was curiously called a demographic dividend.  Having 31% of the population aged 10-24 years old was described as an advantage and population growth considered a good thing.  There's a debate ongoing regarding current notions on the impact of population and the need for population control.  There's growing belief in focusing on per capita income rather than simpl...

So the last post I wrote implied that tracking the index was a good idea. I was wondering what companies are currently part of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi), formerly known as PHISIX. I looked it up on google.  Here's what wiki says: The following are the companies listed on the PSEi (effective 17 March 2014) : AYALA CORPORATION (AC) ABOITIZ EQUITY VENTURES, INC. (AEV) ALLIANCE GLOBAL GROUP, INC. (AGI) AYALA LAND, INC. (ALI) ABOITIZ POWER CORP. (AP) BDO UNIBANK, INC. (BDO) BLOOMBERRY RESORTS CORPORTION (BLOOM) BANK OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS (BPI) DMCI HOLDINGS, INC. (DMC) ENERGY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (EDC) FIRST GEN CORPORATION (FGEN) GLOBE TELECOM, INC. (GLO) GT CAPITAL HOLDINGS INC. (GTCAP) INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER TERMINAL SERVICES, INC. (ICT) JOLLIBEE FOODS CORPORATION (JFC) JG SUMMIT HOLDINGS, INC. (JGS) LT GROUP INC. (LTG) METROPOLITAN BANK & TRUST COMPANY (MBT) MEGAWORLD CORPORATION (MEG) MANILA ELECTRIC COMPANY (MER) METRO PACIFIC ...