Ninja Master Fund. Be warned.

It took my a long while to decide if it is worthwhile doing this. Trading / investing is a very personal thing and frankly is not suitable for everyone. You have to decide for yourself if trading is suitable for you. I have long aspire to be trading full time one day and this could well be my "retirement" job one day. I have been investing and trading for many years and believe me, I also am confused sometimes whether i should be a trader or an investor. Those who have seen it all would tell you that most profits are made by sitting on positions and doing nothing. I tend to agree to that because many a times, after we sold a position for a 10% gain, we missed out on the remaining 40% run. Nevertheless, there are others who tell u that "buy and hold" strategy is dead and trading in and out using a combination of technical indicators is the way to go. I am not going into a discussion as to what is the correct method cos there is NO correct method but I have intentionally split between a Ninja Master Fund and a Starfish SRS fund to distinguish 2 different strategies as they are so different with regards to the selection criteria. For example, volume, trading set up, time horizon, technical indicators would be more important for a trading portfolio while fundamentals, yields, longer time frame would take priority in a investment portfolio.

Ok the first posting of mine will be a warning. Be warned:

1. Only trade with your excess cash. If you don't have excess cash, do not trade. Only trade with what you can afford to lose.

2. Only trade if you know how to cut loss. If you do not know how to cut loss, do not trade. This is because many a times, you will be taking a leveraged positions and a costly mistake can wipe out your entire capital. If you take a long time to recover from the heart ache of cutting loss, trading is really not suitable either.

3. Preserving your capital is essential in trading. After all, the market is always there. If you miss this trade, there will be another one coming up shortly.

4. I firmly believe that investing in properties is the fastest way to make you rich and retire earlier (if you are not an entrepreneur). If you have not made your money from investing in property yet, please don't give up. Continue to save up and make your pot of gold there. Trading the stock market, in my view, will not make you rich unless you truly know what you are doing and take an usually large positions in certain specific counters. I have heard stories of individuals who made it rich trading insider news but that, in my view, is an unethical way of getting rich. Trading has less margin of error vis-a-vis an investment in property. I can start another blog on my good and bad experiences in property investments but another time perhaps.

5. Do not blindly follow tips and that includes whatever I post here. Do not follow them at all. There are for my references to look back at the silly trades made to remind myself not to commit the same mistakes again.

6. Trading is about probability. As such, many a times, I make losses. But as long as I have money management in place, and as long as the winnings outweigh the losses, i should come out "positive".

7. Whenever I enter a position, I have my target and cut loss points in place. In addition, I may add or reduce the positions depending on my exposure and views of the market and the positions. As such, by the time you see my postings, profits and losses could have become realised. As such, there is really no point for you to follow the trades posted here cos you will be disadvantaged. The reasons for posting the trades is that instead of keeping my trading journal private, I am sharing them with you. After all, I still need to keep my trading journals, I might as well share them with you so that you can benefit from my mistakes.

8. This is not a "live" blog. Postings can be delayed for many hours or even days due to work commitments. After all, the priority is still the "hands that feed me and my family". Blogging is not my source of income. As such, when I am busy with work or going for long breaks, I will not trade at all and this usually occurs during June and December. The good thing is that with the advancement of technology, I can probably key in my stop loss prices or monitor it via iPad or iPhone.

9. Ninja Master Fund takes both long and short positions. Long positions will be via normal share trading accounts and short positions via CFDs. Sometimes, it can also take positions in the futures market via SIMSCI. It can also take positions in foreign markets but ninja master only have one life and wants go sleep well during the US trading hours, as such even though he believes that US markets are probably easier to trade and has more instruments available such as "options", he is not going to shorten his life further by trading the us market actively. Perhaps US markets will be for me after retirement.

10. Last but not least, trading is a lifelong journey. It is not the end that is most important but the journey itself that matters. Enjoy the Journey.