2009 Ending Note (Supplement)

To supplement my previous views on stock market - experience tells that "day trading" stocks, by following whatever method - you name it, momentum, trend following,... - is exhausting and may be quite ineffective over long term. I at least have not found a good way to do it. I believe that investing in a good company is worth taking a longer view - 3, 5 years or even longer, and snowballing (reinvesting dividends etc.) during the period can be more effective. In practice of course there is no company worth investing for ever. The darlings of 1950s are in no way the same as those in 1980s, and rarely one company/or even one industry in some cases (e.g., railway industry in US) survives over 50 years...

The perspective of Asia (hence companies positioned for Asia growth) is positive and I am confident Asia will outperform US and EU in the next decade (Marc Faber had strong argument in his "Tomorrow's Gold: Asia's Age of Discovery". A book worth reading although it's written before the crisis). This is the starting point for me to construct the equity portfolio. Despite there is high possibility of pull-back of global equity market in the coming year, it's no excuse not to act when there is good value investing in some good companies.

Noted that today China signed FTA with ASEAN, forming the world's biggest free trade area. It's a big step forward towards regional economic integration.