StarHub Loses EPL


Singapore has only two pay TV operators: StarHub and SingTel.

So StarHub has lost the rights to screen the EPL as well as ESPN Star Sports to SingTel.

But if StarHub loses, who is the winner?

In my view, there are no winners. StarHub loses. SingTel loses. The consumers (i.e. the man on the street who loves football) loses. There are no winners in this case.

StarHub currently has 530,000 pay TV subscribers versus SingTel's 100,000 subscribers. Will losing the rights to EPL make StarHub a loser? Not necessarily so.

Cable TV does not constitue a large percentage of StarHub's revenue and probably does not contribute much to its profits. It is bundled together with other services (like the mobile services) and that is what makes it "profitable". SingTel by winning the bid at such a high price is most probably not going to break even or make any profits. They have won boasting rights but not profits in any sense.

So if SingTel is not winning and StarHub is not winning, the consumers have to be winning right? Wrong.

Most consumers would not be switching over to SingTel's Mio TV just because of the sports channel. Not all who subscribe to cable TV watch football or sports for the matter. My parents have cable TV but they certainly do not watch sports. So they will definitely not be switching over to SingTel's Mio TV.

Most households in Singapore I believe do not watch sports. Sports are usually followed by males ranging from their 20s to 40s. At these age group, very few of them have their own homes. And those that do would probably have to consult the wife who will have to forgo the many other wonderful channels that StarHub provides.

FREE STREAMING OF LIVE FOOTBALL MATCHES

What will be the alternative? They will most probably turn to free online streaming casts of these football matches which they can easily obtain over the internet. The images might not be of that high quality. But what is one to do?? Or they could head down to the pubs and hope that the pubs do subscribe to Mio TV.

So StarHub loses, SingTel loses and the consumer loses.

How on earth did we get ourselves into such a Lose-Lose situation I wonder?


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Why is Xiaxue so Popular?

Okay. Xiaxue (the blogger) is pretty popular in Singapore right?

Apparently 20,000 readers read her blogs.

But why on earth are people reading her blog which is filled with expletives and scantily cladded pictures of herself? Why is everybody reading it?

Is it because of the way the new generation sees things? Is it the things that they like to read about her personal life and what she does everyday?

By the way, Forbes Magazine dubbed her review of the iPhone as "Worst iPhone Review so Far".
So stop reading Xiaxue's blog and read my blog instead.
Financial Freedom. It's yours. Come get it!

James Sun - Millionaire by Thirty


This James Sun was one of the finalist in Donald Trump's Apprentice.

One of the amazing things is that he is a multi millionaire at the tender age of 23. He made his fortune in the stock market whereby using a capital of $5000 (at age 18), turned it into $2 million by age 23. Now that is pure genius if you ask me!

He should have won the apprentice just by that alone. When someone is able to generate like 400 times returns in 5 years, you should award him a Nobel Prize.
Enough said.
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Is Money Evil?

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." - Matthew 6:24



The verse quoted above from the bible refers to a simple truth. That NOBODY can serve two masters. You can only be a servant to God or a servant to Money. It is impossible to be a servant to both God and Money. Noone has done it and noone can do it. This verse never meant to say that money was evil. Rather, it states that the allegiance one has to God needs to be total and absolute.

The reason for this was given in the earlier verses when it says "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Our hearts ought to focus on the treasures in heaven and not the treasures on earth.


Money is neither good nor evil. It is the man who pursues it that makes all the difference.

Save Electricity Save Money

Electricity tariffs are going up again in Singapore.

From Oct 09 onwards, electricity charges will go up by 12.5 per cent due to higher fuel prices. Prices will be driven up to 21.69 cents per KW hour instead of the current 19.28 cents. This is slightly below the previous high of 22.93 cents for January to March this year.

Out of 1.2 million households, 17131 households had problems paying their bills last month. So what can we do to save electricity and thus save money?

Here are a few tips from the experts:

1. Set the temperature of your airconditioner to 25 degrees Celsius or higher.

2. Do not leave electrical appliances on standby mode. Switch off power sockets at the main.

3. Use a fan instead of the airconditioner on cool days.

4. Choose energy efficient light bulbs and applicances (energy labels with 4 ticks).

More energy saving tips for just these two appliances below could save you a substantial amount of money each month. Check out this link for other tips.

Air-conditioner

1. Close curtains and blinds during the day. Especially for windows that face the west.

2. Run the aircon about an hour before bedtime and switch to the fan.

3. Set the timer by turning off your aircon an hour earlier before you wake.

4. Clean the aircon filter to improve efficiency.

5. Service you aircon regularly to improve overall efficiency.

Computer

1. Switch off the computer if not in use for more than 30 minutes

2. Enable your computer's energy saving mode.

3. Switch off the TV. You only have 1 pair of eyes so do one thing at a time.


So start saving electricity. You will not only save yourself money in terms of electricity bills, but you can also help save the earth.


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CFD - Certificate For Death

I read this article from IMSavvy's website. I am pretty adverse to using leveraging to buy shares. Contracts For Difference might only work for some people. For others, it might just become a Certificate For Death (CFD).

Pasting the article written by Goh Eng Yeow (with what i think some newbie investor might be thinking about when they read this article in RED):

________________________________________________________________
GAINING exposure to a blue-chip company need not mean buying its pricey shares listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Really? You mean there is another method? I am a beginner in investing...let me know..anyway this IMSavvy website is designed to increase our financial knowledge right?

Investors are making a beeline for an increasingly popular financial derivative product known as Contracts for Difference (CFDs), which enable them to 'own' these blue chips without having to stump up the full price of the stock. Wow. So you mean i can buy shares like DBS. Cool!

Brokerages jostling for a slice of the action include local houses such as Phillip Securities, CIMB-GK Securities and Kim Eng Securities and foreign outfits like IG Markets, Saxo Capital and CMC Markets. Good..think maybe i should open an account with one of these brokerages..

A CFD works like a share margin trading account. When an investor buys a CFD on a blue chip like DBS Group Holdings, he need put up just 10 per cent of the cost of owning the stock. Wah! DBS 13.00 means i only need 1.30. Shiok!!
The CFD tracks the share movements. If the price goes up 10 per cent, he would have doubled his initial outlay. But if the price drops, he will have to top up the account with more cash, or risk having his contract sold by his broker to settle the loss. Wah Double My MONEY!!!

CFDs are not traded on the SGX. Unlike warrants, for instance, they have no maturity date and an investor can cash out at any time. So good ah? Like that buy shares for what. I going to buy CFD liao

They are popular because investors can immediately track their gains or losses by glancing at the prices of the shares whose CFDs they have bought.

This is unlike covered warrants whose prices are determined by a complicated formula relating to factors like 'time-decay' - the remaining months left in the contract - and market volatility.
The range of assets linked to CFDs also goes far beyond the Singapore market.
Besides trading local blue chips, an investor can trade foreign currencies like the US dollar, commodities like crude oil, as well as widely watched indexes like the Straits Times Index and the Hang Seng.

For some CFD players, business growth has been phenomenal. 'Since 2007, the number of accounts opened has doubled every year. Currently, we have about 11,000 accounts,' said IG Markets managing director Peter McDermott.

His typical customer is a working professional aged between 25 and 55. About 40 per cent use CFDs to trade foreign currencies; another 35 per cent trade shares.

Given the market volatility in the past two years, trading in widely watched indexes such as the Straits Times Index and the Hang Seng has also become popular.

Drawing a parallel with London, where CFDs form about 35 per cent of all trades, Mr McDermott believes the local CFD market can grow further.

But this will not necessarily result in a loss of business for the SGX, as CFD players would have to 'hedge' their risks by buying the underlying shares of the CFD on the SGX.

Still, CFDs pose a big threat to the 'extended settlement' (ES) contracts which have been offered by the SGX since February and work on a similar principle.

A stockbroking director said remisiers prefer to sell CFDs, rather than ES contracts, as there are fewer administrative hassles, saying: 'With ES, you have onerous account opening requirements and the margin requirements are stringent.'

Some traders complain that only a few hundred thousand ES contracts are traded daily and investors are put off by the lack of liquidity. 'With a CFD, the spread between a buy and sell quote may be as small as one cent. But with an ES, it can be as wide as two or three cents. That increases the trading costs sharply,' a dealer said.
Okay.. Tomorrow i go open account ...buy CFD for DBS..lalalala HUAT HUAT loh!
______________________________________________________________
Good luck to all who get into this financial instrument. Certainly not for the faint hearted and not for the newbie investor.
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Ris Low's Bipolar Disorder



So after so much controversy, Ris Low has surrendered her crown. She first made the headlines when she won the Miss Singapore World. After being slammed by netizens over her poor command of English, she was later found to have committed credit card fraud when she was 18.

The reason for her stealing offences was apparently bipolar disorder.

So enough of slamming her already. Let's look into bipolar disorder instead and see how it can affect one's behavior.

Bipolar disorder basically causes shifts in one's mood, energy, thinking and behaviour. It can lead a person to be in a state of mania and then swinging back to depression. These are not your ordinary mood swings and can alternate between the two extremes.

During a manic episode, a person might impulsively quit their job, charge up huge amounts on credit card and feel rested after sleeping for just two hours. During a depression episode, the same person is too tired to get out of bed, self-loathing and may be even suicidal.


The author is a perfectly normal human being who feels that he might be displaying some of the symptoms of bipolar disorder.

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