The Great Singapore Sales 2009

The Great Singapore Sales 2009 is around the corner, 29 May to 26 Jul 2009 (such a long time).

It’s not advisable to go for a spending spree, especially if someone is financially tight.
But if you happen to be in Singapore and is searching for some bargains that you think you need or wish to re-sell for some profits, try the website.

The information in "Promotions", "Events", "What’s on Sale" and "Coupon and Ads".
There is a "Tourist Privilege Card" in the "Tourist Specials" section.

Now that there is a first case of A(H1N1) virus in Singapore, will the Great Singapore Sales 2009 achieve its goals ?

Singapore Exchange – buying-in by CDP

Just to have a glimpse the magnitude of buying-in (related to naked shorts) in Singapore Exchange market.

CDP buying-in information
For everyday, it comes with 2 files. One is during the morning (at about 10:30), showing "buying-in securities"; one is after the market closed, showing "buying-in executed on".

Just take a look at how much are the $ amount of naked shorts (intentional or accidental) that translate to buying-in:

21 May: $290k (with CHARTEREDSC 124k unit buying-in, $ value = $247k, amazing)
20 May: $467k
19 May: $516k
18 May: $424k

Wow !

Investment books from Princeton University Press

Princeton University Press is a useful resource for books.

Books reviews, table of content, sampler chapter in PDF format and sometimes podcast/vodcast are available for books published by Princeton University Press.

Its blog is a good way to get updated news on Princeton’s new books launches, authors’ interviews and other activities. I added the blog to my Investment Bloglist.

There is also a new book email newsletter where you can select the field you are interested in. New books email updates will be sent to your email Inbox. The available fields directly applicable to investment will be Economics and Finance.

McKinsey: What next 10 questions for CFO ?

Saw an article: What next 10 questions for CFO ? on McKinsey..

It gives a glimpse on what a CFO is going to do to survive recession and financial crisis..
  • What shape will a recovery take?
  • Have you restructured enough?
  • Is your supply chain sufficiently flexible?
  • Do you have a short list of acquisition targets ready?
  • Should you restart conversations with potential alliance partners?
  • Are you ready to divest newly underperforming businesses?
  • Do you have the financial resources needed for an upturn?
  • Have you taken advantage of the buyers’ market for talent and other resources?
  • Do you know what risks a recovery might bring?
  • Can you sell your recovery plan to investors?

Singapore website: InSing

Came across this Singapore website InSing.

Its Food & Drink, Shopping, Things To Do could be useful to reduce information cost to get good deals on food, drink, shopping and activities in Singapore.

I like this Events Calendar and also the Fast Finder (for searches on food, drink, shopping and activities in Singapore)

Just wonder how complete is the information and how it gets the information.

2008 Harvard Business Review – McKinsey Award


Harvard Business Review – McKinsey Award is "to recognize practical and groundbreaking management thinking by asking a panel of both business leaders and scholars to determine the two best articles each year in HBR".

website

Some insightful resources in the website:
McKinsey Award current and past winners, excerpt of articles and interview videos.

I like the full list of McKinsey Award winners.

Wow, since 1959. It’s like a rundown of important management gurus, management ideas in McKinsey’s view.

2008 McKinsey Award winners are:

1st place (shared):
"Can you say what your strategy is ?"
"When growth stalls"

2nd place:
"Reinventing your business model"

Youtube Education – video resources for E-learning (on finance, business, management courses too)


Youtube has a video channel for Colleges and Universities:
Youtube Education

You can click on Directory to see which are the Universities/Insitutions have their educational video put online.

Some examples of resources for finance/business/management:
Harvard Business School

Columbia Business School

Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania

Yale Courses

Result of Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP) (a.k.a. Bank Stress Test)

On 7 May 09, Fed released the results of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP).

Press release, Statement by Bernanke and Overview of Results (pdf file)


Some highlights:

1. SCAP Buffer

Page 9 of the Overview of Results (PDF) shows the summary for all 19 Participating Bank Holding Companies (BHC). Of particular interests are SCAP Buffer (total, as well as for individual banks). Total $74.6B extra needed. Refer to Pg 9 of the file for SCAP Buffer needed for individual banks.

2. Deadline (from the Joint Statement)

have until June 8th, 2009 to develop a detailed capital plan, and
until November 9th, 2009 to implement that capital plan.

3. Capital Plan (Excerpt from Joint Statement)

[three main elements:

3.1 A detailed description of the specific actions to be taken to increase the level of capital and/or to enhance the quality of capital consistent with establishing the SCAP buffer. BHCs are encouraged to design capital plans that, wherever possible, actively seek to raise new capital from private sources. These plans should include actions such as:


  • Issuance of new private capital instruments;
  • Restructuring current capital instruments;
  • Sales of business lines, legal entities, assets or minority interests through private transactions and through sales to the PPIP;
  • Use of joint ventures, spin-offs, or other capital enhancing transactions; and
  • Conservation of internal capital generation, including continued restrictions on dividends and stock repurchases and dividend deferrals, waivers and suspensions on preferred securities including trust preferred securities, with the expectation that plans should not rely on near-term potential increases in revenues to meet the capital buffer it is expected to have.

3.2 A list of steps to address weaknesses, where appropriate, in the BHC's internal processes for assessing capital needs and engaging in effective capital planning.

3.3 An outline of the steps the firm will take over time to repay government provided capital taken under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP), Targeted Investment Program (TIP), or the CAP, and reduce reliance on guaranteed debt issued under the TLGP. ]


4. Mandatory Convertible Preferred under the CAP (from Joint Statement)

A BHC may apply for Mandatory Convertible Preferred (MCP) in an amount up to 2% of risk-weighted assets (or higher upon request).

In addition, (in simpler term) to consider requests to exchange outstanding preferred …for new mandatory convertible preferred issued under the CAP.

5. Redeeming Preferred Securities Issued under the CPP (from Joint Statement)

(In simpler term) Supervisors will decide on redemption; banks will have to show they are financially "strong" but it's still up to the supervisors to decide on redemption of outstanding CPP preferred stock. :-)

Question now will be:
How will the banks with shortfall raise capital ?

(My previous post on SCAP)

Report from Center for Public Integrity - Subprime 25: Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown ?

On 6 May 2009, Center for Public Integrity has published a investigation report titled :
Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown – the top 25 subprime lenders and their Wallstreet Backers

This Subprime 25 Interactive List is cool.
You can click on the sheets (#1 to #25) to see name, status of company, its CEO, total high interest loans.
Click on "Read More" for more "interesting" information for e.g history, summary, parent companies, bailout money, political contributions etc..

The Subprime 25
These are the top 25 subprime lenders, responsible for 7.2 million "high interest" loans made from 2005 through 2007 (72% of high-priced loans reported).

The articles and glossary from the report are extremely good reads to understand root causes of the subprime crisis.

The "Data" are informative. (Click on Data)
Maps show regions of high interest loans of different percentage points above treasury securities);
Charts & Graphs are really interesting. There are charts showing increasing % of income goes to housing; increasing financing of Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) and the top underwriters.

Then there are the interesting parts:
  • charts showing political contributions by securities and investment companies, real estate companies to parties (Democrats or Republicans) and
  • top recipients of contributions by securities and investment companies, real estate companies for 2003-2004 and 2007-2008;
  • top recipients of contributions by AIG in 2008 Election Cycle.

Guess who was the top recipient: 2003-2004 George W. Bush; 2007-2008 Barack Obama.
Haha, wonder what the analysts are trying to imply here :-)

I put the Widget of Subprime 25 on my blog for a limited period :-)

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer:
The opinion post on this blog is personal and is not an inducement to buy or sell any investment products. The author of this blog will NOT be held responsible for any losses incurred due to the reliance on any content of this blog for investment decisions.