Markets Looked Tired

After having ridden the markets for about 15%, I can say that at present levels the markets everywhere looked tired. I did say that this year the Sell In May mantra may not be good advice. Good is good, it cannot lasts forever. The current run is sustained by additional inflow of funds back into the market place. We already had very decent months in March, April, May and June. A normal market rally or rebound rally normally don't lasts that long.

I would reduce my exposure to stocks from 80% to just 20% till the picture is clearer. I looked at the market leaders board for the past week and am totally unconvinced with the market leaders. If you are not going to go up, its down, baby. Look for me at 1,000 or thereabouts.

Markets cannot keep the momentum up for so long, we still have to remember that fund managers need to go on holiday plus they need to reserve their bullets for the last quarter.



p/s photos: Misaki Ito

The More Things Change, The More We Stay The Same

What a difference 10-12 years make... well, not much of a difference really, the more things change, the more we stay the same. Events that happened in 1997 in BLUE; similar events happening now 2008-2009 in RED:

Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule; Hong Kong very happy to be under Chinese rule which basically gave them an economic lifeline

O. J. Simpson found liable in civil suit; Bernie Madoff probably committed a bigger crime

O.J. Simpson was freed later on; The ratings agencies did better, they were never charged and carry on business as usual despite conclusively being deemed as the main culprit for "starting and exacerbating the CDOs by giving them basically fraudulent AAA ratings, and later being so very slow to downgrade the same papers when the horses have bolted"

Nobel Prize for Economics is won by Long Term Capital Management stars Robert Merton and Myron Scholes; Long Term Capital Management collapsed a couple of years later and needed a big bailout by Treasury

President Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning; President Obama bars federal funding for any research on investment banker cloning

HK begins to kill all chickens within its territory to stop the spread of a deadly influenza strain; HK still killing chickens within its territory today

Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter Reynolds announces a $10bn merger; Mitsubishi UFJ bought a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley

Titanic hits theaters — other notable flix include The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential; Slumdog Millionaire hits the theaters - other notable flix include Doubt, Mamma Mia, Nixon, Red Cliff (read btw the lines on the movies selected)

Ellen DeGeneres outs herself; John Thain outs himself

Eric Clapton wins a Grammy for Change the World; Obama wins the Presidency for Change, Yes We Can

Skynet launched a nuclear attack on mankind; Facebook launched a dumbing down fad attack on mankind

The Dow Jones Industrials hit 7,100; The Dow Jones Industrials hit 7,100.

p/s photos: Misaki Ito