Month: June 2008

Categories
Fun

Vacation

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Last Updated on June 11, 2008 by stlplace

Interesting news: Buffett is put up a one miilion dollar bet for any hedge fund beat S&P in next 10 years. The proceeds (if Warren wins) will go to his charity.

I am going to take a week of vacation from tomorrow, and I may not update this blog during this period.

Meanwhile, I am going to read the chapter 20 of Intelligent Investor (Ben Graham). I already read chapter 6 as suggested by Warren in this year annual shareholder meeting (Q&A): it’s about knowing the risk of investments. Chapter 20 is about margin of safety.

Categories
Shanghai Composite

Shanghai melt down again

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Last Updated on June 10, 2008 by stlplace

It was not too long ago (April 18 to be exact) Shanghai Composite Index hit a low of this year. Shortly after that Chinese goverment issued new policies trying to stablize the market. Well, it looks like we need the goverment do something about the market again: on June 10 the Shanghai composite dropped 257 points (7.73%), and closed at a new low of 3072. More than 1000 stocks dropped 10% in Shanghai and Shenzhen markets (see below).

Shanghai composite index June 10 2008
(source: finance.cn.yahoo.com; full size picture here)

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Categories
Investing Shanghai Composite

Danbin on TV

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Last Updated on June 10, 2008 by stlplace

Dan Bin (但斌, blog) is the founder, CEO of Shenzhen based Eastern Bay Asset Management Co. He admires Buffett and is value minded, although I don’t agree with everything he says “such as buy China Ping’an blindly” (remembers me of Cramer). He was on Shanghai First CaiJing TV interview recently. The interview is in Chinese lasts about an hour, and the videos are in 2 parts.

Interview part 1:

财富人生：东方港湾资产管理 但斌_上(Use this link if embed player does not work)

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Categories
gadgets

Players in China Telecom re-org: foreign investment banks

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Last Updated on June 9, 2008 by stlplace

I planned to write more about China telecom re-org (revamp, reform) after the recent announcement. Now the CFA test is over, I have more time to think about this.

A few days ago I read this interesting Chinese article which describes some foreign investment banks actions after the re-org news (Appendix). Let me try to explain in simple words. The China telecom re-org is widely anticipated to happen this year, the conventional wisdom is the decesion will be made after August Beijing Olympics. Those investment banks created many warrants (European options) in HKSE with expiration date in August, thinking the annoucement of re-org will make the China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and China NetCom stocks trades in Hongkong have a big swing. They can make money from that.

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Categories
CFA

CFA testing day experience, thoughts

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Last Updated on June 8, 2008 by stlplace

(Update June 8 ) Read couple interesting blogs on yesteday CFA exam. This one from Singapore, and another one from China (in Chinese).

(Original June 7) After came back from the Hilton hotel testing center, I went directly to Schnucks store, to get the Stella Artois beer, and 3 oranges. Why 3 oranges, because I saw 4 for $3. Apparently my mind is still stuck in the CFA exam: caculation on net income, cash flow blah blah blah. When I first saw the receipt shows $2.25 for 3 oranges, I laughed to myself: under normal circumstance I would just buy two for $1.50, much easier calculation. Anyway, if you came here looking for test specific things, I am afraid you will be disappointed 🙂

But I still like to write down some of my thoughts for the test and in general.

CFA test grading
(Grading paper for CFA test, source: CFAInstitute).

1) More people attended the test than I thought
In the grand ballroom at Airport Hilton, I counted there are roughly 300 (14*2*12) people for level I and II candidates. Why so many people and what is the composition of test takers? I saw both new graduate, MBA students and professionals. I am the rare amateur. Let me quote the press release from CFAInstitute which shows growth of CFA candidates in year 2008 vs. year 2007:

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Categories
Life

Week in review 060108 to 060708

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Last Updated on June 6, 2008 by stlplace

CFA level I exam
It’s here. I have already sharpened the H2B pencils; prepared the backup battery for calculator. I will check out the test place today. Tomorrow I am going to spend the whole day for the test.

NBA final and European championship soccer
I don’t care too much about the NBA final these days. Although I like Celtics (KG, Allen, Paul) to win. The reason I don’t like NBA is the commericalization, and referees apprearent involvement. On the other hand, I have not watched European championship soccer for a long time, especially after I came to the US. This year ESPN will broadcast the soccer. Here is the TV schedule.

Vanke May 08 sales, Wang Shi apoligize
I have a Google speadsheet to track Vanke monthly sales. May 08 number was down compared to May 07. Also Wang Shi apologized more than 10 times in the annual shareholder meeting for poor choice of words in his blog.

Hillary’s bill

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Categories
China

The effect of new media

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Last Updated on June 6, 2008 by stlplace

Yesterday was a special day in modern China’s history. This is a time the leaders don’t want to talk about, and generation Y (young people born after 1980s) don’t know much about. I was a high school senior at the time, and we worried we would get into a sort of cultural revolution considering chaotic situation at that time. All right, I don’t want to get into the politics and the details of the event. All I want to say is I have lots of sympathy to the people lost loved ones in the event, and I was pleased to see the positive development in our country in last 20 years.

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Categories
Business Saint Louis

InBev come to get Anheuser-Busch?

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Last Updated on June 6, 2008 by stlplace

These days the talk of Belgium/Brazil beer maker potential takeover of Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD) is getting St. Louisians attention. Note Anheuser-Busch is not just a large beer maker based in STL, it’s also has roots in the city and the community.

InBev Stella Atois
(Bottles of Stella Artois beer pass along a production line at an InBev brewery in Leuven, Belgium. Stella Artois is one of InBev’s best known brands. Paul O’Driscoll/Bloomberg News)

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Categories
CFA

Crunching time for CFA test

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Last Updated on June 3, 2008 by stlplace

(Update) Two miners survived after 14 days of Sichuan earthquake. My inspiration.

(Original) You may notice I have not updated my blog as frequently as usual, one reason is I am busying preparing for the CFA level I exam this Saturday. Although the outcome of the test is far too early, let me offer some guidance and thoughts as I am a stock junkie. I did not realize how big the task is untill lately: in other words, I spent too much time on TV, which includes CNBC, election and NBA; I should have spending more time in Starbucks or Panera reading 🙂

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