Beginning January 19, 2010, Schwab will be lowering its commission [PDF] from US$12.95 to US$8.95 per trade. That’s a whopping 30-percent off, for a total of 60-percent savings for every stock we buy-and-sell. The $8.95 fee is currently offered only to the rich (one millon dollars or more) or active traders (at least 120 times per year), so that’s great news for the other Schwab customers, who’re neither rich nor active, like me, to be included with the lower fee structure.
I don’t know how that’s going to impact Schwab, whether it will gain enough new customers to cover the loss in revenue from lowering its fees to current customers, or whether it will motivate current customers to trade more because of the lower fees. I hope it works out both ways for Schwab, for I plan to do more trading in 2010, not due to the discount, but because I will be selling my long-term holdings and regrouping my portfolio.

I am a huge fan of Tim Ferriss’s book, The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated. I bought the first edition in 2007, and last week I bought the new edition in the Kindle book format. I talked about it here. I am using the Kindle app on my iPhone to read it, but it takes much adjusting to read long text on a small screen, unlike on pages, which I would have finished reading long ago. I am sure the Kindle device will make reading much easier and more pleasant than on the iPhone, but I am not committing myself to a Kindle, yet, since Apple should be announcing its own tablet device soon, which could do so much more.

Wow, I finally got around to buying refills for my space pen. I started running out of ink a year ago, and cursed and complained each time I wrote in my Moleskine when it ran out of ink. Yet, I kept up the insanity till today, when I finally took the effort to go to Sheung Wan to buy 2 refills, which should last me about 5 years before I start cursing again. It feels so good to have rich, smooth, black ink rolling on the pages of my Moleskine. They were made for each other, and I wrote extra just to have the two rekindled.

Just updated to WordPress 2.8. Posting an entry to make sure it works with my current theme.

May 2009 be the year of recovery for all!

It’s near Chinese New Year, and if you think the global recession is affecting consumers and businesses in Hong Kong, you’d be wrong. Everywhere I go, there are tons of people. I’ve been trying to get tickets to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for two days in a row, but they’re sold out, even for a matinée. I have to wait to be served to buy underwear at Calvin Klein, and it’s not even on sale. Even Pacific Coffee at Festival Walk was full when I walked in, and this place is huge. To be fair, I read that fewer people are traveling during CNY because of the economy, so that could account for the crowds at home. Anyway, it’s great to see that things look booming during the new year, and I hope it can keep it that way throughout.

“Invest in and for the future. Right now. Pass it on.”

It’s 12:30AM in Hong Kong, and I’m getting ready to go over to my friend’s house to watch President Obama’s Inaugural Address. All the TV stations here will be broadcasting the event live. I don’t remember ever getting this excited over any president giving out talks to the public in the past. Let us all witness this history in the making.

It’s a new year. A new day. Though 2008 was a year of losses, I’m still thankful for the much that I have left. I am also thankful the global crisis hit early in my life, where I can still recover, and learn the signs to stay away from the next one. Not so lucky are those who are near or at retirement age.

Finally, I am thankful that my losses are only financial, which are not nearly as important as losses that are personal and dear to my heart. To put things in perspective, 2008 was a year of big losses, but also a year of big personal growth and gain. I am forever wiser for it.

Happy New Year! Happy 2009!

2008 has been a year of big losses for me, at least financially. I lost big on my properties, and even bigger on my stocks. Yet, I am only one of the many casualties of the global economic crisis. Never have I experienced anything that hit so swiftly, so hard. Sure, I read about it in books, and heard from elders who lived through it, but it never registered, as though it could never happen to me.

Now that I have experienced it first-hand, I can learn to respect its ferocity, its impartialness. Everyone is a target. We can’t stop it when it hits, but we can try to get out of the way early, to cut our losses.

Patience is a virtue, not a cliché. Don’t rush into decisions when they are money decisions. If you spend more time picking clothes than you do stocks, then that says a lot about your lack of taste in stocks.

Love your investments but don’t fall in love with them. It clouds good judgement. It makes you hang on when it’s time to let go.

Those are the rules I shall live by to prevent myself from becoming a casualty again when the next crisis hits.