Monday, December 13, 2010

Jim Rogers bets on farm, shuns Wall Street

NEW YORK: Investor guru Jim Rogers says life on the farm will bring far more riches in coming years than the trenches of Wall Street.

Rogers, a commodities evangelist for more than a decade, has tweaked his pitch, saying the producers of the world whether individuals, companies or countries will become the new growth sector.

In short, Rogers told the Reuters 2011 Investment Outlook Summit in New York, being productive, saving the fruit of your labour and owning hard assets hold the keys to a bright future.

All these people who got MBAs made a mistake. The city of London and Wall Street are not going to be great places to be in the next two or three decades. It's going to be the people who produce real goods, he said

Jim Rogers Bets on China's Renminbi

Global currencies have come into the spotlight this year as struggling economies like the European Union and the U.S. have issued massive stimulus to jump-start growth. The result is that emerging-market currencies have popped as investors turned to the higher-yielding currencies leading to accusations that some countries are artificially depressing their money.
China also has come under significant fire by not letting its local currency, the renminbi, appreciate fast enough in value, meaning its goods are cheaper to buy in other countries which helps its export business. On the flip side, other countries have a harder time breaking into the wallets of the Chinese consumer because of the high import price.
Currency battles ignited even more as the European sovereign debt crisis and contagion fears spread throughout the EU. The euro plunged to levels not seen since the Lehman Brothers crisis and had many investors calling for parity with the dollar. The CurrencyShares Euro Trust(FXE) fund has fallen 8.5% year to date.
The U.S. dollar has been on shaky ground as well. PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish(UUP) is up 1% for the year while PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bearish(UDN) has lost 4%.
Although the dollar has gained as the euro suffered, expectations are that the Federal Reserve's $600 bond-buying program will lead to money printing and devaluation.
With sentiment negative on the euro and mixed on the U.S. dollar, I recently sat down with Rogers, a legendary contrarian investor, to see what currencies he would be buying and which ones he would be avoiding.
I want to get your take on what the fate of the euro will be in the next year .
Rogers: Next year? I'm not smart enough to know that; you should watch TheStreet.com ... I'm not very good at short-term trading or market timing. I own the euro; whether I own it another day or another year or another five years I don't know. I don't think it will be around in 10 years so I doubt if I'll own it then but I have to watch to see what happens.
So if you don't think it's going to be there in 10 years, why are you owning it now?
Because last summer everybody got extremely pessimistic and everybody was dumping the euro as fast as they could and in my experience when everybody's on one side of the boat you should go to the other side of the boat and so I stepped in and bought it and it went up.
undefined
Add

If You Want To Make A Fortune, Don`t Get An MBA.

“The power is shifting again from the financial centers to the producers of real goods. The place to be is in commodities, raw materials, natural resources.

Don’t go to Harvard Business School. If you want to make fortunes and come back and donate large sums of money to Balliol you’re not going to do it if you get an MBA.”

Jim Rogers

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Everyday investors wonder if market is rigged

NEW YORK — The Wall Street insider trading investigation may lead everyday investors — already rattled by a stock market meltdown, a one-day "flash crash" and the Madoff scandal — to finally conclude that the game is rigged.

"A large part of trading has to do with trust, and I don't have it," says Mark Swenson, a 43-year-old plumber from New Hampshire who refuses to buy individual stocks.

.."When a stock moves up 10 percent, you don't know why," he added. "We can pretend that everyone has access to the same information, but they don't."

Even before news broke that federal investigators were looking into whether hedge funds traded on inside information, small-time investors were pulling their money out of stocks — despite a remarkable run for the market since the spring of 2009.

Hedge funds are speculative funds which make large bets on market movements and are usually used by wealthy private investors or institutions.

Americans have pulled $60 billion out of U.S. stock funds this year, according to the Investment Company Institute, a trade group. Meanwhile, investors have piled money into Treasurys and bond funds that are considered safer investments. And at the same time, banks like Wells Fargo have reported that money is moving into checking and savings accounts.

To be sure, it's natural for people worried about their jobs or the falling value of their homes to sock cash into more conservative investments. But this has been no garden-variety recession.

It has coincided with turmoil in the stock market that goes back a decade, to the collapse of the Internet bubble and portfolio-draining scandals involving high-flying companies such as Enron and WorldCom.

More recently, investors have lived through the housing bubble, the collapse of Wall Street firms such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and stomach-churning days when it wasn't clear whether capitalism would survive. On top of that came news that financier Bernard Madoff had bilked investors out of billions.

"Virtually everyone on the Street believes there are significant improprieties, and I think there is an even more important point for the massive number of investors who are not Wall Street players," says former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, once known as the "sheriff of Wall Street" for aggressively prosecuting white-collar crime as state attorney general. "And that is for most of us, you can't beat these guys at their own game."

Some pros on Wall Street say hesitation by small investors is good news. It means that there's plenty of "dry powder" to propel the market higher in the next few months when and if the little guy finally relents and joins in the rally.

The insider-trading probe could test that theory.

The FBI this week searched the offices of three hedge funds, and some of Wall Street's most influential firms, including Janus Capital Group, have been subpoenaed in the probe.

On Wednesday, an employee of a firm that supplied market intelligence to hedge funds was arrested and charged, among other things, with conspiracy to commit securities fraud. It was not yet known whether the man dealt with the funds raided this week.

For Swenson, the allegations of insider trading are unnerving, particularly on top of the "flash crash" in May, when a computerized selling program set off a chain reaction that drove the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 1,000 points in mere minutes.

The sell-off was a reminder to some individual investors that hedge funds and other powerful traders use computer programs to make rapid-fire stock trades, giving them an advantage over the slower smaller investor.

"The hedge funds are resorting to more questionable tactics. It's mind-boggling," says Swenson, who invests largely in exchange-traded funds, which track market indexes and can be traded throughout the day, unlike mutual funds.

Spitzer says the new insider trading probes illustrate how the game is tilted against small investors.

"If you are sitting there in front of a screen, thinking your information is going to be good enough to make smart judgments that will permit you to outperform the hundreds of thousands of people on Wall Street who have access to better information and more timely information than you, you're mistaken," Spitzer says.

It's not the first time small investors have been scared out of stocks.

To combat such an impression, the Securities and Exchange Commission was established in 1934, and "circuit breakers" were instituted after the 1987 crash to stop massive selling. But all of the safeguards don't seem to be helping lately.

"If the stock markets had any reputation for integrity, they lost it in the past year," Geisst says.

Restoring small investors' confidence may depend on whether they see ample evidence that federal regulators are successfully cracking down on bad behavior, says Ross B. Intelisano, a securities fraud attorney with the firm Rich & Intelisano.

The market needs them back. Most of the stock in U.S. companies, both public and private, is held by individuals, not institutions, according to Federal Reserve data.

Small investors may be comforted to know that professional investors don't always fare better, even with the edge they have over the masses.

Numerous studies have shown that mutual funds overseen by professional stock pickers often are outperformed by computer-driven index funds.

The record for hedge funds hasn't been so impressive, either. Since 2008, when the number of those funds hit 10,000, nearly 3,000 have gone out of business, according to Hedge Fund Research in Chicago.

"The edge is hugely exaggerated," says Richard Ferri, founder of the investment advisory firm Portfolio Solutions and an advocate of low-cost index funds. "If the small investor does the right thing, he can do better than 99 percent of anyone else."

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Malaysian tourists trapped in Hat Yai flood

BANGKOK: Hundreds of tourists including Malaysians are still trapped in the Hat Yai district of Songkhla province as the district is still inundated between two and three metres while the death toll in the country due to floods rose to 104 today.

Floods hit the southern part of the country since yesterday and apart from Hat Yai, two other districts in the South – Pathalung and Nakhon Si Thammarat have been declared flood disaster zones while Pattani and Narathiwat provinces have also been hit by floods.

The affected tourists are stuck at hotels and railway stations in Hat Yai. However, their exact number has yet to be ascertained.

The Bank of Thailand today announced that 121 of its branches in the South have been closed temporarily due to the floods.

A total of 162 schools comprising 127 schools in Songkhla, 22 in Narathiwat and 13 schools in Patani have also been closed temporarily.

Thailand's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said the 104 dead were from the northern, northeastern, eastern and central provinces of Thailand.

Apart from the newly-hit southern Thailand, floods still remained in 21 provinces in the northern, northeastern, eastern and central parts of Thailand and close to one million people have been displaced.

However, the flood situation in 17 provinces including Chiang Mai, Sa Kaeo, Samut Prakan and Nakhon Pathom has eased.

Chairman of the Tourism Council of Thailand, Konkrit Hiranyakit, said about 500,000 tourists visit Hat Yai annually and half of them come from Malaysia.

He said the flood was expected to drive away at least 120,000 tourists in Hat Yai this year with tourism losses estimated at 1.2 billion Baht.

"It is going to take at least three weeks to restore the situation in Hat Yai. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva visited flood areas in Songkhla today," he added.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

The Fed is dead, maybe by 2012

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — OK, so Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the “Black Swan” author, actually said: “The Fed won’t exist in 25 years.” Warning: It’ll happen much sooner, fallout of the coming Second American Revolution.

It’s inevitable: Wall Street banks control the Federal Reserve system , it’s their personal piggy bank. They’ve already done so much damage, yet have more control than ever.

Tea-party activists in their own wordsTea-party activists talk to Russ Britt on what their movement represents.
Warning: That’s a set-up. They will eventually destroy capitalism, democracy, and the dollar’s global reserve-currency status. They will self-destruct before 2035 … maybe as early as 2012 … most likely by 2020.

Last week we cheered the Tea Party for starting the countdown to the Second American Revolution. Our timeline is crucial to understanding the historic implications of Taleb’s prediction that the Fed is dying, that it’s only a matter of time before a revolution triggers class warfare forcing America to dump capitalism, eliminate our corrupt system of lobbying, come up with a new workable form of government, and create a new economy without a banking system ruled by Wall Street.

Read 'America on the brink of a Second Revolution.'

Let’s reexamine the timeline closely:

Stage 1: The Democrats just put the nail in their coffin confirming they’re wimps when they refused to force the GOP to filibuster Bush tax cuts for billionaires.

Stage 2: In the elections the GOP takes over the House, expanding its strategic war to destroy Obama with its policy of “complete gridlock” and “shutting down government.”

Stage 3: Post-election Obama goes lame-duck, buried in subpoenas and vetoes.

Stage 4: In 2012, the GOP wins back the White House and Senate. Health care returns to insurers. Free-market financial deregulation returns. Lobbyists intensify their anarchy.

Stage 5: Before the end of the second term of the new GOP president, Washington is totally corrupted by unlimited, anonymous donations from billionaires and lobbyists. Wall Street’s Happy Conspiracy triggers the third catastrophic meltdown of the 21st century that Robert Shiller of “Irrational Exuberance” fame predicts, resulting in defaults of dollar-denominated debt and the dollar’s demise as the world’s reserve currency.

Stage 6: The Second American Revolution explodes into a brutal full-scale class war with the middle class leading a widespread rebellion against the out-of-touch, out-of-control Happy Conspiracy sabotaging America from within.

Stage 7: The domestic class warfare is exaggerated as the Pentagon’s global warnings play out: That by 2020 “an ancient pattern of desperate, all-out wars over food, water, and energy supplies would emerge” worldwide and “warfare is defining human life.”

In this rapidly unfolding scenario, the Fed cannot survive. Why? Not because the Fed is at the center of America’s economic problems, beyond repair, a dying institution. But because the Fed is a pawn of Wall Street’s Happy Conspiracy, which is incapable of seeing the train wreck that it set up.

This out-of-control, conspiracy of greedy Wall Street bankers, corporate CEOs, corrupt politicians and Forbes 400 billionaires will, in the near future, trigger the third catastrophic meltdown of the 21st century, a collapse that paradoxically can transform America into a new, stronger post-capitalist economy … but only after a revolution and brutal class warfare. But few will talk about what’s coming.

Warning: Never trust the American Treasury Secretary
So who can you trust to tell us the truth? Taleb says it’s very simple. His “simple metric” was made clear at a recent “Washington Ideas Forum” in a piece by Atlantic editor Nicole Allan: Unfortunately most fail Taleb’s test. Most get it wrong. Many lie, exaggerate, speak half-truths or, worse, say nothing.

Here’s Taleb’s “simple metric for judging whose economic opinions are worth his time: ‘Did someone predict the crisis before it happened” in the past? “If the answer is no, I don’t want to hear what the person says. If the person saw the crisis coming then I want to hear what they have to say” about future crises.

Taleb target No. 1: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who spoke just before Taleb at the forum. Of course, experience tells us you really can’t trust anyone in government. All politicians fudge the numbers, cherry-pick data to suit their personal goals, biases and political rhetoric.

Remember Hank Paulson, Wall Street’s Trojan Horse inside Washington? Earlier he had made over half a billion as Goldman’s CEO. Back in July 2007 before the meltdown he bragged to Fortune that this is “the strongest global economy I’ve seen in my business lifetime.” Never trust anything “leaders” like him say. Never.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Fed Needs to Pump Trillions More Into Economy

The Federal Reserve needs to pump at least $6 trillion to $7 trillion more into the U.S. economy to have any meaningful impact on sluggish growth, former Bush economic adviser Marc Sumerlin told CNBC.

Sumerlin, co-founder of The Lindsey Group, a Washington DC-based economic advisory group, also said that the U.S. would fall back into a recession if the Bush tax cuts aren't extended beyond this year.

The Fed has hinted for weeks that it is ready to buy up more debt in the credit markets to help spur the economy, which is still recovering from the financial crisis of 2008. The U.S. central bank has already spent over $1 trillion since early 2009 to keep credit markets liquid in what has become known as quantitative easing, or QE. (For a fuller explanation, click here.)

Although the Fed hasn't indicated how much more money it might pump into the economy—which has been labeled QE-2—Sumerlin's recommendation goes well beyond what most other economists expect or even recommend.

"U.S. households have $70 trillion in assets," Sumerlin explained during a live interview. "And the Fed essentially needs to buy enough Treasurys and mortgages that you can get a bid on all those other assets. And when you have leakage in the international system it takes a pretty big amount to be successful. To me, it starts to get interesting at six to seven trillion dollars."

Sumerlin's comments, which came around midday, helped push stocks lower.

“To get someone who was part of the former economic council saying the Fed will need to step up big and do $6 trillion in (asset purchases), was a bit of a shock and created a bit of nervousness,” Marc Pado, market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald, told CNBC.com.

Few economists expect the Fed to commit that much new money to helping the economy, and many think any further quantitative easing wouldn't have that much impact anyway.

Pimco co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian, for instance, told CNBC earlier Thursday that further monetary easing by the Fed and other central banks probably won't work.

"The risk is that this may be ineffective again," he said. "In fact, the big story of the last year and a half is every time we have had a policy action, outcomes have fallen short of expectations."

Raoul Pal, global macro analyst for the Global Macro Investor, who appeared with Sumerlin on CNBC, also questioned the wisdom of further easing.

"There is no evidence that it's ever worked in the past, so there is no real evidence that it will work now," Pal said. "So I think it's a high risk thing for them to try and do. I also don't believe you can get the money in the system. Even if it's $6 trillion, I don't think it's going to get in the system because there is no velocity of money. So all you end up doing is buying the Treasurys off the banks who will keep the money at the Fed."

As for extending the Bush tax cuts—which Congress has put off voting on until after the November elections—Sumerlin said "we will have a recession" if they are allowed to expire.

"Because we're growing too slowly," he said. "If you look at the quarters when the tax cuts went in, there was very substantial growth. People forget that the third quarter of 2003, we grew at 7 percent when the tax cuts—the full marginal rates—took effect. Running that in reverse causes the opposite to happen."

Dollar crunched again

The U.S. dollar dropped to its lowest level since January, even as a prominent Federal Reserve official cast doubt on the assumption that the Fed will move toward another round of asset purchases at next month's regularly scheduled meeting.

Trade trauma ahead?
The U.S. currency fell to 81.8 yen, its lowest since April 1995, and was trading at $1.39 against the euro. The dollar index tumbled to 77.2, matching a low last seen in January.

The latest declines came after Friday's weak jobs report seemingly boosted the case for a return to so-called quantitative easing, in which the Fed buys Treasury bonds to push down interest rates. Private nonfarm payrolls rose by 64,000 last month, showing a tepid recovery continues but falling short of expected 75,000-job gain.

The figures "are well clear of a 'double-dip' signal for the economy but they are consistent with continued disinflation which supports the case for an expansion of Fed QE at the November FOMC meeting," Tullett Prebon economist Lena Komileva wrote in a note to clients.

But James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said in an interview on CNBC Friday that the push toward more easing isn't a "slam dunk" and stressed that members of the Federal Open Market Committee will decide only after reviewing more data on the economy.

Bullard also noted the potential drawbacks to another round of QE, reflecting comments made in recent weeks by other regional Fed presidents.

"This is unchartered waters... (inflation) may get away from us if we are not careful," Bullard said.

Among the chief risks of still looser Fed policy has become apparent in recent weeks with the outbreak of hostilities in currency markets. A weaker dollar pushes up the value of rival currencies, making it harder for growth-strapped countries to export their way out of their problems.

The great fear should the Fed commit to another round of QE, Komileva said, is that it will end up "exporting deflation to the rest of the world through weak domestic demand and global currency majors' strength against the dollar

Monday, October 4, 2010

French rogue trader Kerviel faces verdict

PARIS (AFP) - – A French court will pass verdict Tuesday on rogue trader Jerome Kerviel who faces up to four years in prison for covert stock trades that Societe Generale bank says cost it almost five billion euros.

Kerviel's lawyer has called for the 33-year-old to be acquitted, blaming the bank for the 2008 rogue trading scandal that almost destroyed it, while prosecutors have demanded four years' jail plus one year suspended.

The verdict hearing at Paris's main courthouse starts at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) and is set to last about an hour.

Kerviel has admitted regularly exceeding trading limits and logging false transactions to cover his gambles, but said this was common practice among traders and that his bosses turned a blind eye as long as earnings were high.

At the last trial hearing in June, his lawyer Olivier Metzner asked how a "normal boy" like Kerviel could "end up here", facing years in jail on charges of breach of trust, forgery and entering false data into computers.

"How do you create (people like Kerviel) if not for financial gain?" he said, referring to the bank.

Kerviel's former employers and the state prosecutors bringing criminal charges have branded him a liar who knowingly misled his bosses and put Societe Generale and its employees in peril.

His defence has always been that his bosses knew of and approved his risky deals, which he says were visible to his colleagues and bosses on the trading desk.

On discovering the risky deals in January 2008, Societe Generale was forced to unwind positions worth 50 billion euros (69 billion dollars) -- equal to nearly all its shareholder capital at the time.

The bank has admitted failings in its controls, for which it was fined four million euros in July 2008, but insisted at the trial that managers could not have tracked all Kerviel's trades when he logged false data to cover them.

Societe Generale's lawyers said it wants 4.9 billion euros in compensation from Kerviel. He could also face a fine of 375,000 euros.

The trial heard from more than 30 witnesses but shed little light on what motivated Kerviel, who said simply that he "tried to do his job in the interests of the bank."

"Why did he do these things? Hoping for a bonus? To become a star?" state prosecutor Philippe Bourion asked in June.

"That's the only mystery the prosecution will not be able to solve."

PAS to pick 'non-smoking candidate'

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia's conservative Islamic party will field only a candidate who does not smoke in an upcoming by-election, reports said Sunday, as the party seeks to boost its Islamic image.

The Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), which is a part of the opposition alliance, said the candidate it will pick for the poll in northern Kelantan state must display good Islamic character and the person must be a non-smoker.

"I will reject smokers from the start. They are not only ruining their health but also wasting money," PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times paper.

He also told the Malay newspaper Berita Minggu that the candidate must also pray regularly and be a non-gambler. No date has been fixed for the by-election, but PAS has said it will field a candidate to contest the poll.

There are no clear religious edicts banning smoking, but Nik Abdul Aziz has said previously that some Muslim scholars consider smoking as forbidden.

In 2007, PAS said it was planning to field in national polls only non-smoking candidates or those who were willing to kick the habit.

The Islamic party has also asked its candidates to take on oath promising to divorce their wives if they to defect to other parties.

How to invest in gold and key price drivers

Reuters - Gold surges to a record above $1,313 an ounce on Wednesday after a spate of lacklustre U.S. data fuelled expectations the Fed may move towards further quantitative easing to help the economy, undermining the dollar.

Following are key facts about the market and different ways to invest in the precious metal.

HOW DO I INVEST?

SPOT MARKET

Large buyers and institutional investors generally buy the metal from big banks.

London is the hub of the global spot gold market, with more than $20 billion in trades passing through London's clearing system each day. To avoid cost and security risks, bullion is not usually physically moved and deals are cleared through paper transfers.

Other significant markets for physical gold are India, China, the Middle East, Singapore, Turkey, Italy and the United States.


FUTURES MARKETS

Investors can also enter the market via futures exchanges, where people trade in contracts to buy or sell a particular commodity at a fixed price on a certain future date.

The COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange is the world's largest gold futures market in terms of trading volume. The Tokyo Commodity exchange, popularly known as TOCOM, is the most important futures market in Asia.

China launched its first gold futures contract on Jan. 9, 2008. Several other countries, including India, Dubai and Turkey, have also launched futures exchanges.

EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS

The wider media coverage of high gold prices has also attracted investments into exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which issue securities backed by physical metal and allow people to gain exposure to the underlying gold prices without taking delivery of the metal itself.

Gold held in New York's SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed ETF, rose to a record high of 1,320.436 tonnes in June. The ETF's holdings are equivalent to more than half global annual mine supply, and are worth some $54.9 billion at today's prices.

Other gold ETFs include iShares COMEX Gold Trust , ETF Securities' Gold Bullion Securities and ETFS Physical Gold, and Zurich Cantonal Bank's Physical Gold.

BARS AND COINS

Retail investors can buy gold from metals traders selling bars and coins in specialist shops or on the Internet. They pay a small premium for investment products, of between 5-20 percent above spot price depending on the size of the product and the weight of demand.

KEY PRICE DRIVERS:

INVESTORS

Rising interest in commodities, including gold, from investment funds in recent years has been a major factor behind bullion's rally to historic highs. Gold's strong performance in recent years has attracted more players and increased inflows of money into the overall market.

U.S. DOLLAR

Despite the recent drop in the usual strong correlation between gold and the euro-dollar exchange rate, the currency market still plays a major long-term role in setting the direction of gold.

Gold is a usually popular hedge against currency weakness. A weak U.S. currency also makes dollar-priced gold cheaper for holders of other currencies and vice versa.

This link sometimes breaks down in times of widespread financial market stress, however, as both gold and the dollar benefit from risk aversion. Their ratio turned positive in late 2008 and early 2009 after the Lehman Brothers crisis.

OIL PRICES

Gold has historically had a correlation with crude oil prices, as the metal can be used as a hedge against oil-led inflation. Strength in crude prices can also boost interest in commodities as an asset class. More recently this correlation has weakened, with gold prices continuing to rise in the last two years as oil prices retreated from record peaks.

FISCAL AND POLITICAL TENSIONS

The precious metal is widely considered a "safe haven", bought in a flight to quality during uncertain times.

Financial market shocks, as seen in the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and more recently in the case of burgeoning euro zone debt problems, tend to boost inflows to gold.

Major geopolitical events including bomb blasts, terror attacks and assassinations can also induce price rises.

CENTRAL BANK GOLD RESERVES

Central banks hold gold as part of their reserves. Buying or selling of the metal by the banks can influence prices.

On Aug. 7, 2009, a group of 19 European central banks agreed to renew a pact to limit gold sales, originally signed in 1999 and renewed for a further five years in 2004.

Annual sales under the pact are limited to 400 tonnes, down from 500 tonnes in the second agreement, which expired in late September . Sales under the new pact have been low, however.

HEDGING

At the beginning of the 21st century, when gold prices were languishing around $300 an ounce, gold producers sold a part of their expected output with a promise to deliver the metal at a future date.

But when prices started rising, they suffered losses and there was a move to buy back their hedging positions to fully gain from higher market prices, a practice known as de-hedging.

Significant producer de-hedging can boost market sentiment and support gold prices. However, the rate of de-hedging has slowed markedly in recent years as the outstanding global hedge book shrank.

The world's biggest gold miner, Barrick Gold, cut its gold hedges by about 3 million ounces to eliminate its entire hedgebook in the fourth quarter of last year.

SUPPLY/DEMAND

Supply and demand fundamentals generally do not play as big a role in determining gold prices as those of other commodities because of huge above-ground stocks, now estimated at around 160,000 tonnes -- more than 60 times annual mine production.

Gold is not "consumed" like copper or oil.

Peak buying seasons in major consuming countries such as India and China exert some influence on the market, but others factors such as the dollar and financial risk carry more weight

Sunday, October 3, 2010

I'll work till I die

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Gone are the days of golf and gardening into the golden years. Many older workers are working well into retirement and it's not just because they have to, it's because they want to.

Bob Alper, who has supported himself as a full-time comedian since 1986, says even at 65, retirement never crossed his mind. "I live for the moment when I can get up on the stage and make people laugh," says Vermont-based rabbi-cum-comedian who performs 60-70 shows a year at colleges and synagogues across the country.

In 1998, 11.9% of workers 65+ remained in the labor force. In 2008, it was 16.8%. This year, 18% say they will continue working. And by 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 22% of older workers will continue to punch a clock.

Even the wealthy are reluctant to retire from the workforce, according to a report released on Sunday by Barclays Wealth. Half of the high net worth respondents over 65 surveyed said they will always be involved in commercial or professional work of some kind.

Dubbed "nevertirees," many wealthy individuals will never stop working, the report said, even if they have little financial need to do so. Like Alper, they want to keep doing what they are doing for as long as possible.

7 secrets to a richer retirement
"There was a general upward trend of labor force activity among older workers before the financial collapse," explained Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. "People were getting healthier and living longer."

Mark Miller, author of The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security, said boomers began viewing the retirement years differently well before the recession took hold. "Many were committed to staying engaged. ... The whole idea of working longer, even for a handful of years, can be tremendously beneficial to your mental well being."

25 Best Places to Retire
But the current dour economic climate has also forced many older workers to push back their retirement plans out of financial necessity.

In the recession's wake, home valuations, stock portfolios and retirement accounts have been depleted. Meanwhile, the cost of health insurance has increased dramatically, leaving many workers with no other alternative but to hold on to the jobs they have.

"The economy has now made working longer a real imperative," Miller said.

That's the case for Chuck McCabe, 65, who opened several tax preparation firms in Virginia nine years ago.

"I expected I would retire at a normal age but the business took a lot longer to get to a point where it would be marketable. Now I really can't retire until the business is valuable enough for me to sell it." McCabe, who has cashed in his 401(k) to make payroll, estimates that it will be least five years until he can consider retiring.

McCabe's wife, Marilyn, also 65, even passed up her own retirement after a career in human resources to work alongside her husband and help build his tax practice. "She'll be working with me until we sell the business," he said. "I think she would like to be retired now."

Like the McCabe's nearly half of those ages 65 and older report being behind in terms of retirement preparedness, according to a recent survey by TD Ameritrade.

"We are entering a stage, given the heightened longevity and our changing economic circumstances, that people will continue working," according to Marcia Wagner, managing partner of The Wagner Law Group, a Boston-based law firm specializing in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Wagner admits she has no plans to ever retire either -- but, like Alper, by choice. "I will work till I die because I like what I do."

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Bail Out by Ah Long

KUALA LUMPUR: Illegal money-lenders have expanded their activities to the courts by offering bail to people charged with criminal offences.
Court officials claimed that they have received information on their activities. The moneylenders either acted as professional bailors or
loaned money to people who needed it to post bail.

Notices have been put up at court premises to advise the public not to be deceived by these moneylenders.

“All court directors in Peninsular Malaysia have received a directive dated Aug 25 from the registrar to put up the notices,” Kuala Lumpur Court director Azizah Mahamud said.

The notices reminded the public that unlicensed money-lending was illegal.
“The public is also reminded to be wary as the court has never appointed any agents or individuals to settle any cases on the court’s behalf.

“If there are any offers of such services from Ah Long or touts, a report can be lodged with either the court or the police,” she said. Sources highlighted a recent case where two “professional bailors” stood surety for a foreigner in a
criminal case in the Sessions Court at Jalan Duta, here. The court was later informed by the “bailors” that the accused had absconded and that they wanted their money back.

“The judge forfeited the bail money and also disallowed the two bailors from standing bail in a different case,” the source said. Acting Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Datuk Nooryah Md Anvar said she
had not received any reports on the matter.

“To my knowledge, no such reports have been lodged with the police on the loan sharks’ activities in the court premises,” she told the New Straits Times.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau head Datuk Michael Chong also said he had not received any such reports from the public.

“However, when people are desperate, they will do anything including borrowing money from loan sharks,” he said.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Langgu_Trang_Koh Lanta_Hatyai




Basic FKLI/FCPO Trading Rules

Trade what u SEE not what u want to BELIEVE.
Identify POSITION, STOP LIMIT and PROFIT level you before trade
after enter the position, PLACE STOP LIMIT and PROFIT LEVEL
If stop limit is triggered, TAKE A BREAK and take it with pride.
REPEAT the trading rules once STOP LIMIT and PROFIT LEVEL are filled.
To be a successful trader, u must OBEY the trading plan and control the EMOTION.
Cut your LOSSES short
Lets your PROFIT run
Add only to WINNERS
Never add to LOSERS

this trading rules will be my guideline for my own FCPO pre - analysis and post - analysis.

no1: cut your losses short
no2. lets your profit run
no3. add only to winners
no4. never add to losers.(or avg down)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

How to make your kid more money smart

Help your kids make a list of money makers (bonds, mutual funds, etc.) and money losers (those really nifty sunglasses you never wear).
Teach your child to make a pros/cons list before spending money on an expensive item.
Ask your kid to think about something he recently bought that he really wanted. What were his feelings about the item before he bought it, and what his your feelings two weeks later? Was it worth the money?
Ask your kids what interests them about money? What bores them about handling, saving, or spending money?
Discuss an emergency fund of money and the reasons it's important. How could kids benefit from starting an emergency fund of money ?
Would you take out a loan for a pair of jeans? If you buy jeans with a credit card and don't pay off the balance each month, that's what you're doing.
Have your kids collect letters of recommendation from their babysitting, lawn mowing, pet sitting or other jobs. They'll come in handy when putting together college portfolios.
Have regular conversations about money skills and financial literacy – what is it, why do we need it, how do we get it, where do we keep it, how does it relate to the things that are important to us?
Ask your kids...does a free kitten come with hidden expenses? If so, what are they?
Make financial literacy fun by teaching money trivia along with money skills! For instance, the dollar bill lasts 21 months before it wears out. The five dollar bill has the shortest life, at 16 months.
As an incentive to save money, match your child's savings dollar for dollar...or fifty cents for each dollar saved.
What is your best money habit? Share it with your kids.
Discuss with your kids some things money can't buy.
Discuss with your kids which is more important...buying a video game or paying back lunch money borrowed from a friend.
Discuss with your kids the advantages and disadvantages of saving money.
Create a list of Above-and-Beyond Jobs your kids can do to earn extra money.
Kids LOVE to have their own savings account; it makes them feel "grown-up." If you child doesn't have one yet, take time to open one...and consider seeding it with a few dollars. This is a great way to get them in the healthy habit of saving and thinking about achieving financial goals.
Do your kids want fancy designer labels? Have them pay the difference between what you're willing to pay and the cost of the designer label.
Teach your tween/teen how to fill out a check by having them write the next one.
Give your 6-8 yr old $2 and your 9-13 yr old $5. If your 6-8 yr old still has it after a week and your 9-13 has it after two weeks, double their money. Great delayed gratification practice!
Discuss being rich in compassion, understanding, empathy, friends, knowledge... How can we use money to help us show these things we value?
Talk about a financial goal you set and the steps you took to achieve it. Then have your kids create their own money goals.
Discuss needs versus wants with your kids.

Bill Gates Top Forbes 400

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., plays bridge as part of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual shareholder meeting weekend in Omaha, Nebraska, May 3, 2009.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive officer of Facebook Inc. Photographer: Noah Berger/Bloomberg
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., remains the richest American with estimated assets of $54 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the 400 wealthiest Americans.

Warren Buffett, the chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., ranks second in the U.S. with $45 billion, according to the list published yesterday. Gates, 54, and Buffett, 80, were Nos. 1 and 2 last year.

The number of list members whose wealth declined this year is 85 compared with 314 in 2009, while wealth increased for 217 members. The total worth of the 400 rose by 8 percent to $1.37 trillion, still below the 2008 total of $1.57 trillion.

“They’ve recovered, but we’re still so far off from 2008,” Luisa Kroll, global wealth editor for Forbes, said in a telephone interview.

Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 26, who is tied for No. 35 on the list, saw his wealth jump 245 percent to $6.9 billion, the largest percentage increase of anyone on the list. “Very few are at an all-time high, with the exception of how phenomenally well Facebook is doing,” said Kroll, who is based in New York.

California has the most people on the list, with 83, followed by New York, with 64. Texas has 45 members and Florida has 26.

Sixteen new people joined the list this year, including Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook who left the social networking site in 2008. He has a net worth of $1.4 billion, tying him for No. 290. Moskovitz, 26, is the youngest person on the list.

The oldest is philanthropist David Rockefeller Sr., 95, who is tied for No. 153 with $2.4 billion.

Raj Rajaratnam, 53, founder of Galleon Group LLC, who is under indictment for insider trading and is due to go to trial next year, dropped off the list along with 33 others. Rajaratnam has denied the charges.

42 Women

There are 42 women on the list, led by Christy Walton, 55, and 60-year-old Alice Walton, of the family that controls Wal- Mart Stores Inc. They rank Nos. 4 and 8. Jim Walton ranks seventh with $20.1 billion and S. Robson Walton is No. 9 with $19.7 billion.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is ranked 10th with $18 billion. Bloomberg, 68, is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

The other members in the top 10 are Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison, 66, at No. 3 with $27 billion. Charles Koch, the 74- year-old chairman and CEO of Koch Industries Inc., tied for fifth with his brother David Koch, 70, with $21.5 billion.

The cutoff for the Forbes 400 list is back up to $1 billion after falling to $950 million last year. Forbes also released a separate list of the world’s richest people in March.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The New Poor

Patricia Reid is not in her 70s, an age when many Americans continue to work. She is not even in her 60s. She is just 57.

But four years after losing her job she cannot, in her darkest moments, escape a nagging thought: she may never work again.

College educated, with a degree in business administration, she is experienced, having worked for two decades as an internal auditor and analyst at Boeing before losing that job.

But that does not seem to matter, not for her and not for a growing number of people in their 50s and 60s who desperately want or need to work to pay for retirement and who are starting to worry that they may be discarded from the work force — forever.

Since the economic collapse, there are not enough jobs being created for the population as a whole, much less for those in the twilight of their careers.

Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older. Nearly half of them have been unemployed six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate in the group — 7.3 percent — is at a record, more than double what it was at the beginning of the latest recession.

After other recent downturns, older people who lost jobs fretted about how long it would take to return to the work force and worried that they might never recover their former incomes. But today, because it will take years to absorb the giant pool of unemployed at the economy's recent pace, many of these older people may simply age out of the labor force before their luck changes.

For Ms. Reid, it has been four years of hunting — without a single job offer. She buzzes energetically as she describes the countless applications she has lobbed through the Internet, as well as the online courses she is taking to burnish her software skills.

Still, when she is pressed, her can-do spirit falters.

"There are these fears in the background, and they are suppressed," said Ms. Reid, who is now selling some of her jewelry and clothes online and is late on some credit card payments. "I have had nightmares about becoming a bag lady," she said. "It could happen to anyone. So many people are so close to it, and they don't even realize it."

Being unemployed at any age can be crushing. But older workers suspect their resumes often get shoved aside in favor of those from younger workers. Others discover that their job-seeking skills — as well as some technical skills sought by employers — are rusty after years of working for the same company.

Many had in fact anticipated working past conventional retirement ages to gird themselves financially for longer life spans, expensive health care and reduced pension guarantees.

The most recent recession has increased the need to extend working life. Home values, often a family's most important asset, have been battered. Stock portfolios are only now starting to recover. According to a Gallup poll in April, more than a third of people not yet retired plan to work beyond age 65, compared with just 12 percent in 1995.

Older workers who lose their jobs could pose a policy problem if they lose their ability to be self-sufficient. "That's what we should be worrying about," said Carl E. Van Horn, professor of public policy and director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, "what it means to this class of the new unemployables, people who have been cast adrift at a very vulnerable part of their career and their life."

Forced early retirement imposes an intense financial strain, particularly for those at lower incomes. The recession and its aftermath have already pushed down some older workers. In figures released last week by the Census Bureau, the poverty rate among those 55 to 64 increased to 9.4 percent in 2009, from 8.6 percent in 2007.

But even middle-class people who might skate by on savings or a spouse's income are jarred by an abrupt end to working life and to a secure retirement.

"That's what I spent my whole life in pursuit of, was security," Ms. Reid said. "Until the last few years, I felt very secure in my job."

As an auditor, Ms. Reid loved figuring out the kinks in a manufacturing or parts delivery process. But after more than 20 years of commuting across Puget Sound to Boeing, Ms. Reid was exhausted when she was let go from her $80,000-a-year job.

Stunned and depressed, she sent out resumes, but figured she had a little time to recover. So she took vacations to Turkey and Thailand with her husband, who is a home repairman. She sought chiropractic treatments for a neck injury and helped nurse a priest dying of cancer.

Most of her days now are spent in front of a laptop, holed up in a lighthouse garret atop the house that her husband, Denny Mielock, built in the 1990s on a breathtaking piece of property overlooking the sound.

As she browses the job listings that clog her e-mail in-box, she refuses to give in to her fears. "If I let myself think like that all the time," she said, "I could not even bear getting out of bed in the morning."

With her husband's home repair business pummeled by the housing downturn, the bills are mounting. Although the couple do not have a mortgage on their 3,000-square-foot house, they pay close to $7,000 a year in property taxes. The roof is leaking. Their utility bills can be $300 a month in the winter, even though they often keep the thermostat turned down to 50 degrees.

They could try to sell their home, but given the depressed housing market, they are reluctant.

"We are circling the drain here, and I am bailing like hell," said Ms. Reid, emitting an incongruous cackle, as if laughter is the only response to her plight. "But the boat is still sinking."

It is not just the finances that have destabilized her life.

Her husband worries that she isolates herself and that she does not socialize enough. "We've both been hard workers our whole lives," said Mr. Mielock, 59. Ms. Reid sometimes rose just after 3 a.m. to make the hourlong commute to Boeing's data center in Bellevue and attended night school to earn a master's in management information systems.

"A job is more than a job, you know," Mr. Mielock said. "It's where you fit in society."

Here in the greater Seattle area, a fifth of those claiming extended unemployment benefits are 55 and older.

To help seniors polish their job-seeking skills, WorkSource, a local consortium of government and nonprofit groups, recently began offering seminars. On a recent morning, 14 people gathered in a windowless conference room at a local community college to get tips on how to age-proof their resumes and deflect questions about being overqualified.

Motivational posters hung on one wall, bearing slogans like "Failure is the path of least persistence."

Using PowerPoint slides, Liz Howland, the chipper but no-nonsense session leader, projected some common myths about older job-seekers on a screen: "Older workers are less capable of evaluating information, making decisions and problem-solving" or "Older workers are rigid and inflexible and have trouble adapting to change."

Ms. Howland, 61, ticked off the reasons those statements were inaccurate. But a clear undercurrent of anxiety ran through the room. "Is it really true that if you have the energy and the passion that they will overlook the age factor?" asked a 61-year-old man who had been laid off from a furniture maker last October.

Gallows humor reigned. As Ms. Howland — who suggested that applicants remove any dates older than 15 years from their resume — advised the group on how to finesse interview questions like "When did you have the job that helped you develop that skill?" one out-of-work journalist deadpanned: "How about 'during the 20th century?'"

During a break, Anne Richard, who declined to give her age, confessed she was afraid she would not be able to work again after losing her contract as a house director at a University of Washington sorority in June. Although she had 20 years of experience as an office clerk in Chattanooga, Tenn., she feared her technology skills had fallen behind.

"I don't feel like I can compete with kids who have been on computers all their lives," said Ms. Richard, who was sleeping on the couch of a couple she had met at church and contemplating imminent homelessness.

Older people who lose their jobs take longer to find work. In August, the average time unemployed for those 55 and older was slightly more than 39 weeks, according to the Labor Department, the longest of any age group. That is much worse than in August 1983, also after a deep recession, when someone unemployed in that age group spent an average of 27.5 weeks finding work.

At this year's pace of an average of 82,000 new jobs a month, it will take at least eight more years to create the 8 million positions lost during the recession. And that does not even allow for population growth.

Advocates for the elderly worry that younger people are more likely to fill the new jobs as well.

"I do think the longer someone is out of work, the more employers are going to question why it is that someone hasn't been able to find work," said Sara Rix, senior strategic policy adviser at AARP, the lobbying group for seniors. "Their skills have atrophied for one thing, and technology changes so rapidly that even if nothing happened to the skills that you have, they may become increasingly less relevant to the jobs that are becoming available."

In four years of job hunting, Ms. Reid has discovered that she is no longer technologically proficient. In one of a handful of interviews she has secured, for an auditing position at the Port of Seattle, she learned that the job required skills in PeopleSoft, financial software she had never used. She assumes that deficiency cost her the job.

Ms. Reid is still five years away from being eligible for Social Security. But even then, she would be drawing early, which reduces monthly payments. Taking Social Security at 62 means a retiree would receive a 25 percent lower monthly payout than if she worked until 66.

Ms. Reid is in some ways luckier than others. Boeing paid her a six-month severance, and she has health care benefits that cover her and her husband for $40 a month.

And she admits some regrets: she had a $180,000 balance in her 401(k) account, and paid $80,000 in penalties and taxes when she cashed it out early. She did not rein in her expenses right away. And now, her $500-a-week unemployment benefits have been exhausted.

She has since cut back, forgoing Nordstrom shopping sprees and theater subscriptions, but also cutting out red meat at home and putting off home repairs.

In order to qualify for accounting posts, she is taking an online training course in QuickBooks, a popular accounting software used by small businesses. She recently signed up for a tax course at an H&R Block tax preparation office in Seattle.

And she is plugging ahead with her current plan: to send out 600 applications to accounting firms in the area, offering her services for the next tax season. Eventually, she wants to open her own business.

With odd jobs and her husband's — albeit shriveled — earnings, she could stagger along. For now, she stitches together an income by gardening for neighbors, helping fellow church members with their computers, and participating in Internet surveys for as little as $5 apiece.

"You don't necessarily have to go through the door," Ms. Reid said. "You can go around it and go under it. I can be very creative. I think that I will eventually manage to pull this together."

Friday, September 17, 2010

RM2 firm creates land deal history

Urusharta Cemerlang (KL) pays RM210 million, or RM7,209.80 per sq ft, to a company controlled by Singapore's property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng for a vacant land in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur



A RM2 company is the buyer of the country's most expensive piece of land.

On Wednesday, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (M&C), a company controlled by Singapore's property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng, sold 29,127 sq ft of vacant land in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, to Urusharta Cemerlang (KL) Sdn Bhd for RM210 million, or RM7,209.80 per sq ft.

The previous record in a reported land sale was RM2,588 per sq ft for Wisma Angkasa Raya in Jalan Ampang in 2008.

A search at the Companies Commission of Malaysia revealed that Urusharta Cemerlang (KL) is owned by Tan Sri Zainol Mahmood and Shazni Sulaiman. The two have been its directors since 2006.


Zainol is the chairman of Urusharta Cemerlang Sdn Bhd and Pavilion Kuala Lumpur Sdn Bhd. Urusharta Cemerlang owns the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur shopping mall, which is also located in the Bukit Bintang area.

Urusharta Cemerlang is 51 per cent owned by Urusharta Cemerlang Development Sdn Bhd and 49 per cent by the Qatar Investment Authority(QIA).

Not much is known about Shazni.

In the financial year ended December 31 2009, Urusharta Cemerlang (KL), which is described as a dormant company, had current liabilities of RM5,010 and posted a net loss of RM1,305.

Real estate agents are describing the latest deal as "dizzying heights" and reckon that it could take many more years to surpass the figure.

But observers are wondering how and who will finance the acquisition given that the buyer is a RM2 company.

They also questioned whether QIA will later participate in the deal and what will be built on the land - an extended retail mall or luxury residences.

A mall would make sense given the land's proximity to Pavilion. However, at such a price, there is no doubt it could take more than the usual eight to 10 years to see a return on investment should a shopping complex be built.

It might recoup the investment faster if it built and sold high-end residences. After all, the land had been initially slated for the RM500 million Millennium Residences project.

In a statement issued in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, M&C said a 10 per cent deposit had been paid to its wholly-owned unit, CDL Hotels (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, which owns the land.

The deal confirms a Business Times report early last month that a land deal was being negotiated by CDL Hotels which could fetch a record price of over RM3,000 per sq ft.

The latest deal is nearly three times the price paid per acre in several private sales of nearby land, and the highest ever in the country's history.

"This transaction has obviously set a new benchmark in the local property market. I view the transaction as a special transaction as it is a special purchaser - an adjoining property owner who probably places more value on the asset than others," said a real estate agent, who declined to be named.

It is understood that the YTL group, which owns the nearby Starhill Gallery, Lot 10 Shopping Centre and JW Marriott Hotel, had also been eyeing the land.

The deal is expected to be completed no later than the second quarter of 2012.

M&C's carrying value of the land was RM42.8 million. Based on this, the sale is expected to result in a pre-tax profit of RM164.1 million after taking into account transaction costs.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

60 tips dapat jodoh

1. Semua orang ada jodoh atau pasangan yang menanti dan biasanya ia berada tidak jauh dari anda. Jarang orang bertemu dengan jodoh yang berada jauh darinya.

2. Jodoh itu ketentuan Allah dan kita wajib berusaha. Doa, usaha yang betul dan bersungguh-sungguh disertai dengan tawakkal, insyallah akan menemukan anda dengan pasangan anda.

3. Ramai orang masih belum bertemu jodoh kerana mudah patah semangat. Teruskan usaha sehingga anda bertemu jodoh.

4. Seimbangkan hidup anda dengan sempurna agar diri anda jadi seperti “magnet” yang menarik bakal pasangan anda kepada anda.

5. Daya tarikan yang sebenar berpusat di hati yang murni. Berusahalah untuk mencuci hati anda daripada semua perasaan yang negatif terhadap semua orang di dunia ini.

6. Agar mudah orang sayang, cuci hati dengan jaga ibadah, solat taubat, beristighfar, baca Al-Quran, maafkan orang lain, meminta maaf, bersedekah dan berfikiran positif.

7. Sayangi semua orang di sekitar anda dan anda akan menarik sayang terhadap anda. Jika anda membenci orang, ditakuti bakal pasangan anda akan membenci anda.

8. Orang yang sedang mencari pasangan harus sentiasa bersedia untuk bertemu dengan pasangannya pada bila-bila masa. Justeru, kita perlu sentiasa dalam keadaan yang paling menarik setiap masa. Tanggapan pertama adalah yang terpenting.

9. Untuk lelaki, tarikan pertama ialah pakaiannya. Untuk perempuan, wajah dan bentuk badan menjadi tarikan pertama. Sediakan diri untuk menawan bakal pasangan anda.

10. Buka hati dan minda anda untuk menerima cinta. Cinta boleh berputik pada bila-bila masa. Cinta mudah datang kepada mereka yang sentiasa bersedia untuk menerima cinta.

11. Cinta datang melalui mata lalu turun ke hati. Justeru, perhebatkan hubungan mata secara memandang bakal pasangan dengan penuh kasih sayang.

12. Kita boleh berkomunikasi melalui fikiran. Hantarlah kasih sayang dan hasrat murni anda terhadap pasangan dengan gelombang fikiran ini secara berterusan hingga berjaya.

13. Ramai yang terlepas peluang dan patah hati sebab lewat menyatakan hasrat kepada bakal pasangan. Perkara yang baik disegerakan (iaitu menyatakan perasaan anda kepada bakal pasangan).

14. Tidak salah untuk orang perempuan memulakan usaha untuk berkenalan. Orang lelaki akan sentiasa merasakan mereka yang memulakan perkenalan walaupun sebenarnya orang perempuan yang mulakan.

15. Berkomunikasi dengan mesra dan bersemangat menggunakan lidah, mata, hati dan bahasa badan. Elakkan bercakap sambil lewa atau kurang sopan terhadap bakal pasangan.

16. Berbual dengan pasangan mengenai apa yang dia suka. Beri tumpuan kepada minat dan perasaannya. Elakkan sibuk memberi tumpuan kepada diri sendiri.

17. Layan bakal pasangan dengan mesra seperti kawan lama walaupun baru berkenalan. Bentuk suasana keintiman dengan segera agar bakal pasangan rasa selesa.

18. Makin mudah kita menceritakan hal peribadi yang munasabah kepada bakal pasangan, semakin mudah dia menceritakan hal dirinya kepada kita.

19. Berdoa dan latih diri agar kita pandai mendampingi orang lain dan seronok untuk didampingi oleh orang lain. Buang perangai yang menyebabkan orang benci kepada kita.

20. Beri sayang untuk mendapat sayang. Orang yang masih ada perasaan benci terhadap sebarang orang boleh menyebabkan bakal pasangan benci atau tidak tertarik kepada kita. Justeru buang semua benci.

21. Untuk wanita, jangan jual mahal terhadap bakal pasangan. Tetapi, nyatakan dengan hikmah kepadanya yang anda amat sukar untuk berkenalan dengan lelaki lain.

22. Kebanyakan lelaki mudah tertarik kepada perempuan yang simple, tidak materialistik, mudah berterima kasih dan redha dengan setiap pemberian lelaki tersebut.

23. Orang perempuan mudah tertarik kepada lelaki yang memberi perhatian, penghargaan dan penghormatan kepada mereka. Justeru, orang lelaki janganlah terlalu jimat atau kedekut.

24. Orang lelaki perlu belajar mengenal kerenah orang perempuan. perasaan, pemikiran, kehendak, keperluan, kesukaan dan kebenciannya.

25. Elakkan memberi tumpuan kepada kelemahan dan kesilapan kecil yang ada pada bakal pasangan. Jangan sesekali mengutuk atau memalukan bakal pasangan.

26. Senyuman ikhlas, wajah yang menawan dan bahasa badan yang penuh kemesraan akan menambat lelaki terhadap wanita.

27. Orang mudah tertawan kepada bakal pasangan yang ada persamaan dan ada perbezaan sifat, tindakan dan minat. Terlalu banyak persamaan membosankan. Banyak sangat perbezaan menyesakkan.

28. Orang mudah tertarik kepada bakal pasangan yang ada sikap dan sifat yang saling mengimbangi dan melengkapkan sikap dan sifatnya.

29. Walaupun belum kenal rapat dengan bakal pasangan, nyatakan yang anda sering merasa atau berfikir seperti yang dia rasa atau fikir. Keserasian adalah tarikan.

30. Perempuan membentuk hubungan dengan berbual dan bercakap. Lelaki bentuk hubungan dengan melakukan sesuatu kegiatan secara bersama.

31. Orang mudah tertawan kepada bakal pasangan yang mempunyai persamaan daripada berbagai segi seperti kefahaman politik, aktiviti keagamaan, sikap terhadap harta, wang dan hobi.

32. Dua orang yang amat banyak perbezaan boleh serasi antara satu sama lain jika mempunyai satu atau dua persamaan yang mendalam seperti suka kepada kucing, suka melancong atau suka ramai anak.

33. Tindakan yang serentak akan menarik bakal pasangan terhadap anda. Contohnya, serentak berpaling, serentak angkat gelas, serentak berdiri, serentak nak ke tandas.

34. Tawan hati bakal pasangan dengan pamerkan emosi yang sama terhadap sesuatu kejadian atau peristiwa – sama-sama gembira, sedih, terperanjat, benci, simpati dan sebagainya.

35. Dua insan mudah serasi jika mempunyai pentafsiran yang sama mengenai hubungan – tahap keakraban, kebebasan, kebergantungan, pemberian, pengorbanan dan sebagainya.

36. Kenalpasti ciri-ciri yang disukai oleh bakal pasangan anda. Bentuk ciri-ciri yang disukai oleh bakal pasangan anda. Bentuk ciri-ciri ini dalam diri anda dan pamerkan kepadanya yang anda mempunyai ciri-ciri tersebut.

37. Semua orang mencari cinta sejati tanpa syarat. Bakal pasangan anda akan tertarik kepada anda jika anda mengasihinya bukan kerana wajah, harta, keturunan atau glamornya.

38. Bakal pasangan akan tertawan kepada anda jika anda dapat bantu mengukuhkan imej dirinya, rangsang semangatnya dan pupuk keyakinan dirinya.

39. Keikhlasan amat penting dalam memuji atau memotivasi bakal pasangan. Jika kita didapati bohong, dia akan terus menjauhkan diri daripada kita.

40. Pujian yang berhikmah dan ikhlas bertindak sebagai magnet yang menarik anda kepada bakal pasangan. Pujian daripada kawan baru lebih bermakna dan berkesan berbanding pujian daripada kawan lama.

41. Ulang sebut perkataan, ayat atau slogan yang digemari bakal pasangan anda. Ini menyebabkan dia rasa istimewa dan dihargai dan akan tertawan kepada anda.

42. Kenalpasti keistimewaan bakal pasangan anda yang orang lain tidak nampak. Sampaikan kehebatan ini dengan bersemangat dan dia akan mudah tertawan kepada anda.

43. Untuk bakal pasangan yang popular dan sering dipuji , cari pujian yang original untuk menambat hatinya. Untuk orang yang tidak popular, sebarang pujian amat dialukan dan dihargai.

44. Beri penghargaan serta merta kepada setiap pencapaian atau kejayaan bakal pasangan. Ini membelai dan melembutkan hatinya terhadap anda.

45. Jika bakal pasangan memuji anda, pamerkan keseronokan anda dengan senyuman dan ucapan terima kasih dan bersyukur. Dia akan rasa dihargai.

46. Cari keunikan, kelucuan atau ‘kegilaan’ bakal pasangan anda. Nyatakan yang anda suka kepadanya sebab keunikan tersebut. Ini buat dia rasa istimewa.

47. Ramai pasangan sengsara bila isteri terlalu cantik atau suami terlalu handsome. Justeru, cari bakal pasangan yang setara dan sepadan dengan kita.

48. Orang yang merasa dirinya hodoh sukar untuk mendapat pasangan. Carilah kecantikan yang ada pada anda dan bentuk keyakinan diri. Hati yang suci dan keyakinan yang tinggi menyerlahkan kecantikan anda.

49. Wanita mudah tertawan kepada lelaki yang gentleman – bersopan santun, suka membantu, menghormati wanita, berani dan yakin diri.

50. Untuk jadi lebih menawan, berterusan belajar, perbaiki perangai dan peribadi, baiki kemahiran komunikasi, murnikan hati, pemaaf dan sentiasa bersangka baik.

51. Lelaki harus mempamerkan sifat kelelakiannya di samping memasukkan sifat perempuan dalam dirinya seperti lebih prihatin, memahami emosi , timbang rasa, dan gunakan gerak batin.

52. Perempuan harus mempamerkan sifat kewanitaan disamping menghayati sifat lelaki seperti minat dalam politik, sukan, memancing, dan aktiviti macho yang lain. Bertindak bijak tapi, jangan terlalu bijak.

53. Untuk menambat hati wanita, kerap bertanya tentang perasaannya, aktiviti yang dijalankannya, kegemarannya, kebenciannya atau sebarang perkara yang berkaitan dengan emosi.

54. Sebelum benar-benar rapat, orang perempuan harus elakkan diri dari bertanya bakal pasangan mengenai perasaannya mengenai sesuatu perkara, peristiwa atau situasi.

55. Orang lelaki amat pantang bila bakal pasangan menempelak atau menunjukkan kesilapan atau kebodohan lelaki tersebut. Ini cara terbaik memutuskan hubungan.

56. Orang perempuan mudah tertawan kepada lelaki yang boleh mengaku salah, meminta maaf, meminta bantuan, bertolak ansur, pandai mendengar, bersabar dan lemah lembut terhadap wanita.

57. Bila bercakap dengan lelaki, orang perempuan harus fokus kepada fakta dan sampaikan secara ringkas. Penjelasan yang berjela-jela dan memasukkan unsur perasaan akan membunuh minat lelaki terhadapnya.

58. Jika orang perempuan marah, pujuklah dengan kasih sayang. Tanya kenapa dia marah, dengari dengan teliti dan jangan komen atau cuba beri nasihat. Orang perempuan mudah sayang pada lelaki yang pandai mendengar dan sensitif kepada perasaannya.

59. Jika lelaki marah, jangan sibuk nak tanya kenapa dia marah. Pamerkan kasih sayang dan bentuk suasana yang tenang. Doakan dia dan beri masa untuk dia merawat dirinya sendiri.

60. Fahami bahawa orang lelaki bercakap secara terus terang, ringkas dan objektif. Orang perempuan sering bercakap secara berlapik, terperinci dan banyak yang tersirat.

China millionaire says 100 others will donate riches

BEIJING (AFP) - – A rich Chinese businessman said he has convinced more than 100 other industrialists to give away their personal wealth, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

Chen Guangbiao, who heads a resource recycling company, has said he will leave his entire fortune -- which state media has put at more than five billion yuan (735 million dollars) -- to charity after his death.

The pledge came ahead of a banquet for Chinese philanthropists to be hosted later this month by US billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who have called on their wealthy compatriots to give away at least half of their assets.

Chen has convinced other Chinese entrepreneurs to donate their assets as well, Xinhua reported.

"Although the pledge-makers do not want to be exposed to the media, I give my sincere respect to their charity spirit," Chen was quoted saying.

The report gave no other details.

State press reports earlier said Chen was one of only two of China's super-rich to confirm their attendance at the Gates-Buffet event in Beijing on September 29.

The invitees were worried they would be pressured to donate by Gates and Buffett, the two richest Americans, the reports said.

Gates and Buffet insisted this week in a letter quoted by Xinhua that they would exert no such pressure and merely wanted to share their philanthropy experiences with others.

China has the second-most billionaires after the United States.