Spencer Li

Epic 1-Month Road Trip Across 9 US States & Canada!

us trip 2 040918

Roughly 3 months ago, I embarked on a one month road trip across the US and Canada, and here are the list of places I covered:

San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Salt Lake City, Jackson Wyoming, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountains, Arches, Canyonland, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Devil’s Tower, Mount Rushmore, Lake Tahoe, Colorado National Monument, Les Vegas, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Toronto, Niagara Falls, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth (Texas)

To see the full photo albums for this trip, please visit: https://synapsetrading.com/travel-log/

It was a great chance for me to test out my new forex trading signals which allowed me to trade on the go, and I must say the results were pretty stunning.

US States & Canada

 

Here are some photos from the trip:

some photos from the trip

some photos from the trip 2 some photos from the trip 3


Once again, to see the full photo albums for this trip, please visit: https://synapsetrading.com/travel-log/

Enjoy! 😀

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Spencer Li

Interesting Revamp of Invest Fair 2018

2018 08 25 11.14.35

This year, I was invited to speak at Invest Fair again, and I was glad to have the chance to share about my strategies and the latest investment opportunities. 😀

As with past years, the turnout was pretty awesome, and this year they had a lot of interesting new booths including crowd-funding and Cryptocurrencies.

Interesting Revamp of Invest Fair

Interesting Revamp of Invest Fair 2

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Spencer Li

Interview with InsideINVEST: Advantages of Daily Leverage Certificates (DLCs) for Retail Traders

soc gen dlc

Interview with InsideINVEST

Daily Leverage Certificates (DLCs), since its launch in 17th July 2017, has been gaining attention in the local scene. InsideINVEST talks to Alvin Li from Societe Generale and Spencer Li, a well known trader in the local community on what to expect of DLC.

 

Retail Investors will tend to think of DLCs as a complex product. How will you simplify it for retail investors?

Alvin: DLC has been introduced to the market for one year. From our discussions with investors over the past year, I think many of them actually find this product easy to understand. A 7x Long DLC moves 7% for every 1% increase in the underlying asset (before costs and fees). I think it is intuitive enough.

Spencer: At first, investors may take a bit of time to understand the features of the product and how its prices are linked to the underlying index. But once they get the hang of it, they will find it a simple and useful product to capture moves in the general stock market. Also, since it is not traded on margin, investors will not risk losing more than what they put in.

 

What are the significant new developments of DLCs since its launch about 1 year ago?

Alvin: We first started by launching 10 DLCs on SGX July last year. The first batch of DLCs includes 3 times and 5 times leverage, long and short on three equity indices, namely Hang Seng Index, Hang Seng China Enterprises Index and MSCI Singapore Free Index. Then earlier in Jan this year we expanded the leverage to 7 times. Nowadays most of the trading activities are on the 7 times.

 

In your view, what kind of investors are best for trading of DLC?

Spencer: Because of the daily compounding effect, DLCs are better for short-term trading, and for strong trending markets, hence it would be a perfect fit for intraday trend traders. This means that a trader does not need to know the specifics of every stock; all he needs to know is the general direction of the local stock market (via indices) to profit from it. In addition, this also protects the trader from the volatility of individual stocks.

DLCs can also be used to hedge any short-term downside risk for an investment portfolio. If you anticipate a market correction coming but do not want to sell your stocks, you can use the Short DLC to hedge and protect your portfolio from any losses.

 

What is the one key feature of DLC that appeals to retail investors?

Alvin: I think DLC is simple as mentioned before. Also, the fact that it is listed on the SGX makes it a transparent product. Compared to CFD that is over-the-counter, different CFD provides may show different price, but if you trade DLC there is only one price at a time, because it is listed on the exchange. We also publish our costs and fees on our website on a daily basis which makes the product more transparent.

 

What is your trade plan for DLC and what are the risk involved?

Spencer: As mentioned previously, DLCs are good for short-term trend trading, and it allows traders to go both long and short, by buying a Long DLC to express a bullish view and buying a Short DLC to express a bearish view.

One popular strategy is to apply a multiple timeframe approach, for example if the daily chart of the Singapore market (MSCI Singapore Free Index) is bearish, one can then zoom in to the 5-min or 15-minue intraday chart to find good short entries, and take a short trade by buying a Short DLC.

And because of the leverage involved, not much capital is required, so it allows traders who are very confident of the trend to make larger bets with a small amount of capital to maxismise returns. Of course, this will increase the risk as well, which is why a trader needs to be good in analyzing the trends, and applying proper risk management.

 

How is the market response to DLC so far and are we expecting further enhancement to the product in the next 1 year?

Alvin: I think DLC has received very good tractions over the past year. It has traded over S$ 3 billion since its launch. And the outstanding value (position held by investors) has also been on a steady uptrend. We are now working on expanding it to single stock counters, on both Hong Kong and Singapore stocks, subject to regulatory approval.

 

To sum up, what is the one piece of advice that you will give to retail investors, encouraging them to add DLCs into their portfolio?

Alvin: I think understanding your product is the most important to successful trading and investing. I would suggest investors, especially those who have not traded the product before, go to our website dlc.socgen.com to learn and make sure you understand the product. I would also suggest they proactively give us feedback so that we know what they want and how we can do better.

Spencer: There are many different products available to traders in the market, but the most important thing is to find a product that fits your trading style and personality. DLCs contain many unique features that allow short-term traders to profit from strong moves in the stock market, and I think it is a good idea to read up and learn more about this product to see if it is a good fit for you.

To help you get started, I have compiled a comprehensive database of practical trading knowledge and strategies, including many good articles about DCLs: https://synapsetrading.com/synapse-online-academy

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Spencer Li

NDR 2018: High Cost of Living in Singapore A Major Concern?

ndr 2018
ndr-2018

Image source: Mediacorp

During this year’s National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong talked about how Singaporeans will have to make some lifestyle changes and adapt to ease the pressures of the high cost of living in Singapore, as well as some of the government initiatives to help citizens cope.

Here are some of the major issues:

1. Cost of Housing

  • Currently, 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats, of which the downpayment can be made using CPF, making it affordable for most people to own a house.
  • The Home Improvement Programme aims to improve flats when they are about 60-70 years old, and will be extended to 230,000 flats in various estates. The new scheme is designed to make it easy for authorities to redevelop old estates over a long period, by subsidizing maintenance and repair costs for aging flats.
  • Owners of older HDB Flats will also get an opportunity to go en bloc before their leases run out as part of a new scheme dubbed Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS). Eligible residents will have a chance to decide whether the government can take back their flats once the leases clock the 70-year mark. This will allow the government to buy back their flats earlier, which can then be redeveloped, and the owners can use the cash from the sale to purchase a new house.
  • A 99-year HDB lease is long enough for flats to retain substantial value, and act as a good retirement nest egg for most Singaporeans.
  • For HDB owners whose lease has ended, the government will help them get a new one. Some of the oldest flats are more than 50 years old, which means that there is still 40+ more years before the lease expires.
  • Cooling measures have been taken to prevent excessive speculation of property prices in the private property market.

2. Cost of Healthcare

  • There will be a new health care package that will cater to the needs of people born in the 1950’s. Dubbed ‘The Merdeka Generation’ Package, the new scheme will cover areas such as outpatient subsidies as well MediSave top-Ups, payouts on long-term care and subsidies for MediShield Life.
  • The Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) which provides health care services for middle and lower income people will now also cover chronic medical conditions.
  • There will be new polyclinics in Sembawang, Eunos, Kallang and Bukit Panjang by 2020; and in Nee Soon Central, Tampines North by 2023

3. Cost of Utilities

  • With regard to the recent price hikes in electricity, the current prices are actually still lower as compared to 10 years ago.
  • As Singapore is not an oil producing country, fixing electricity tariffs may incur more cost in the long-run, hence is not a viable solution.
  • Instead, government initiatives such as U-Save will help lower-income Singaporeans with their utility bills.
  • Water prices are not expected to increase as ties with Malaysia are good and the ‘1962 Water Agreement’ remains in place

4. Cost of Food

  • The government is planning to increase the number of hawker centres, which is currently the main source of affordable meal options
  • In recent years, there have been 7 new hawker centres built, and we can look forward to 13 more in the coming years.
  • Will there be a new generation of hawkers to take over from the old retiring hawkers?

According to the EIU annual ranking, Singapore has been dubbed the world’s most expensive city to live in (for expats) for the fifth year running.

This could mean a stable economy and high standards of living, but it could also represent income inequality and a struggling lower income demographic.

It is a good sign that the government does not shy away from discussing such issues, and actively comes up with schemes to help citizens cope.

But the bigger question is whether such initiatives solve the root problem, or are merely stop-gap measures.

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Spencer Li

Video Interview with Spencer: The 20 Most Burning Questions

burning questions

burning-questions

In this latest video series, watch as Spencer answers the top 20 most commonly-asked questions by new traders & investors!

For those just starting out, this will be a big help in avoiding a lot of “beginner pitfalls” which 90% of all traders get stuck at.

 

Here is the full list of Burning Questions:

  1. What is the difference between trading and investing?
  2. Do you believe in the buy-and-hold value investing approach?
  3. What is your long-term investment strategy?
  4. Trading is risky, shouldn’t I just buy stocks with good fundamentals?
  5. What is your trading strategy?
  6. What products should I trade? How many different products should I trade?
  7. What is the difference between TA (technical analysis) and FA (fundamental analysis)?
  8. Do you use fundamentals in your trading?
  9. What technical indicators do you use to trade?
  10. What type of charts do you use to trade, and what timeframe do you use? What is your holding period?
  11. How much capital do I need to start trading?
  12. How can I become more consistent in my trading results?
  13. How can I predict the price of a stock? How do I know when the price will turn and start going up/down?
  14. What is a good % return per year I should aim for? How much returns can I expect from trading?
  15. When should I trade? During the day, or the night? When is the best time to trade?
  16. How do you trade the news? What news should I look at and how can I profit from news?
  17. Is trading safe? Can I end up losing all my capital and more? How do you manage your risk?
  18. If everyone uses the same trading strategies (your strategies), will they stop working?
  19. What is the difference between trading for a fund and trading your own money?
  20. How can I get started on trading and investing? Any good resources?

Click here to download for free: 

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