On... KEN

"When crypto 20x in the next Bull Run, I'm going to sell everything so that I can accumulate more when the bear market arrives. How about you?" That was what I was asked in Discord. Myself? I'm just going to hold my long term stack. Why? Because my long term stack sits in my Balance Sheet instead of my Income Statement. First, we have to understand what a Balance Sheet and Income Statement is. That is how I basically run and report my portfolio. A Balance Sheet is the financial balances of an individual or corporation. It is where Assets and Liabilities are recorded. An Income Statement is a statement of Profit and Loss. So, how is my Networth recorded in this regard? My long term holding goes into the Balance Sheet. And my day-to-day trade goes into the Income Statement. I consider long term holds as Assets and this portion of portfolio is not touched unless there is a need of additional cash or an emergency situation. My day-to-day trade is considered as Income. So,...

My wife was shopping for air tickets recently and she told me what she was going through and she asked me, "Should I take the risk?" Little did I know, shopping for air tickets and investing/trading has a lot of similarities. In fact, I told her she sounded like a stock investor. "Should I take the risk?" is something that I ask myself daily. A little background on what actually happened. She was planning for a holiday next year and was thinking of visiting Taiwan. Apparently, she was scrolling though the different dates and came upon an unbelievable deal. It was only during a certain travel period, so she started following the price and sales. Since the travel period is still sometime away, it is a risk to buy now in case she can't get time off. Here I want to discuss two similarities/lessons with trading and things that I have to go through everyday as a trader. First similarity/lesson - Prices change and you need to keep your eye on the ball. Just like the ai...

I have started a weekly money lesson with my son at the age of 8. Is 8 too young? It might be. Im not sure, but Buffett started investing at the age of 10. I figured, I would give my son about two years to learn the basics about money and should he wish to invest, by the age of 10, he would have the fundamental knowledge to do so. So far, I have covered 6 lessons with him. I will update the blog roughly every time we cross the 5 lessons milestone. It will be a short summary of the topic we covered. Who knows, we might compile it into a book of sorts in the future. Lesson 1 - What is Money? Money has three intrinsic properties. It is a medium of exchange; a unit of account; and a store of Value. We talked about the importance of money in our lives. Lesson 2 - Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Maslows have a classification of Human Needs. With the most important to the least important in the following order:- 1. Basic Needs ( Food, Water, Shelter ), 2. Psychological Needs ( Intimate relati...

NFTs are cool but Ordinals may be even cooler.  Wait, aren't they the same thing? Very close but not really. There are a lot of overlaps for sure but I mostly treat them a bit differently - At least in my investing strategy. For comparison, my investing strategy for ETH NFTs and SOL NFTs are similar. When I was a young boy, which was many moons ago, I used to collect stamps. Bear in mind, my thesis on stamp collecting is based on my personal logic, not referenced to any study or research on stamp collecting. Stamps are considered a collectible ( at that time at least ), and a used stamp is more valuable than a fresh one that you buy at the post office. There are also special collections that were released from time to time. And those were also considered valuable. When I grew up a bit more, I started collecting comics. Most of them to read and to enjoy the art. But from time to time, I would buy something that I considered rare. I bought issues 1 to 10 of Spawn because my thesis d...

I had wrote that Cash is Trash . But now, I also say that Cash is King. What's going on here? With all things financial, there is always a paradox. And the role of cash is one of them. Forget about what I said about cash being trash and see why I say it is king and you judge for yourself on the Role of Cash. Cash is actually a Call Option without an Expiry. How powerful is that? For those uninitiated, a Call Option is basically a Contract which gives the buyer the rights to buy a Financial Asset at a certain strike price within the contract expiry date. Now, a Call Option without an expiry date - that's Powerful! Let us take an example that I often come across. During the 2008 Financial Crisis, one of the biggest laments of investors was not that their investment had plummeted and crashed. Of course, that hurt a lot. But a savvy investor know that the crash is temporary and when things eventually clear, the price will rebound. However, without enough Liquid Cash on hand, you wi...

Steven Goldstein says that trading is something similar to performance sport. Some people get this and some people don't. I sit in the camp that gets it. When I saw his tweet ( Figure below ), I just thought what a coincidence, I've been having s similar thought myself. I'm not a sports person myself but I do know a little about what a sports person go through. I figured that most athlete would spend 20% ( roughly speaking ) of their time acquiring the skill and the remaining 80% executing on it and training to perfect the existing skill. Take a swimmer for example. They probably spend the first few years of their life learning the skills that is required to become an athlete in their field. After you have learned the different strokes, you are not going to learn anything particularly new. The swimmer will then continue to train every day to perfect the existing skills. They continue to train evey day to execute on what they already know. Why do I think this is similar to t...

Cash is Trash. Everyone knows that, even my mom and mom in-law who are not financially educated knows that. Of course 'Financially Educated' is a very subjective term. In this case, I'm talking about people who doesn't know anything about investing and thinks the best thing you can do with your money is to put your money in the bank ( to be fair, some people know about investing but they think its safer to put your money in the bank - Im not talking about those people ). If my mom in-law thinks Cash is Trash, then why did she keep her money in the bank? Isnt that keeping cash? In my opinion - no. I think money in the bank is not cash. This is just my opinion by the way. I've not done a research on the definition of Cash, etc. And my mom in-law and mom doesn't put al their money in the bank. They actually park a good portion of them in the EPF ( Employee Provident Fund ) - a type of retirement fund in Malaysia. I consider ( rightly or wrongly ) cash as money unde...

On a holiday recently, when I visited my parents back in my hometown, my dad asked me if I know what happened to an ex-schoolmate of mine. I shrugged, having not been in touch for more than fifteen years. He told me - "Word is, he is just loafing around". What a way to put it. I held it in as I wanted to tell him. Guess who else is loafing around? Me. His eldest son. Lmao. I guess its a matter of perspective. It could be due to a different generation but young people these days call it FIRE . Financial Independance, Retire Early. Isn't it interesting, that something that is considered an achievement by young people are taken as a negative by someone such as my dad. Now, Im just assuming that my ex-schoolmate is indeed Financially Independent. I have no clue at all about his financial situation or well being. I'm just guessing that he is doing well and because of his success, h doesn't have to work anymore. In other words, he is happily retired. Retirement turned o...

In my early blog , I've estimated AUD 15,000 per annum as a travelling budget. My recent trip to Japan already surpassed that ( AUD 20,000+ ) and that is only our first vacation this year. I might be the odd one out but travelling is really not my thing. As someone who wants to retire early and achieve financial independance; you can see how just one vacation ( family is probably planning another one or two for 2023 ), has already blown our budget out of proportion. There are many reasons why I dislike travelling. First, and most importantly of course is the budget. Travelling is not cheap. There are definitely cheaper options. But when you can afford, the tendency is to push the limit. That's probably human nature. To me, the money spent does not justify the ends at all. Second reason is that I don't really see the value ( value is subjective ). To be honest, I dont really have something to look forward to with regards to travelling. Some people want to travel to taste new...

Investing/Trading is truly the most "open game" that anybody can play. I've long thought about this and recently this podcasts just reminded me of it. Basically, its a career or money making opportunity that almost anyone can pursue. There are certain requirements of course but the barriers to entry is low. I call it a career or business opportunity that does not discriminate. What do I mean by that? Firstly, you do not need any qualifications to pursue investing or trading. In the stock or crypto market, you often see a mixture of background in terms of education. You can find someone who is just a high school leaver up to the level of a phd holder. Usually a lot of jobs these days will require to have some sort of 'paper'. Universities or colleges are becoming more of a business in providing this 'paper'. If you can't afford to attend a university, Im afraid you will be priced out of most job markets. Not the stock or crypto market though.  If you t...

2023 marks the beginning of the sixth year of my investing. 2022 was a catastrophic year for me. It started awful and continues to dump towards the end of the year. The environment was tough, with many hedge funds facing poor returns. ROI for my overall portfolio is 1.5% ( ROI since inception ). For the latest Portfolio Updates, see Portfolio Update .  There is no big changes to my investing or trading in 2022. Perhaps my planning/design has come to an end and thus after 5 years of investing, I am in the execution phase. No doubt I will make minor changes from time to time but I believe the core of the strategy is already in place. The best performer in my portfolio so far is PLS ( +82% ROI since inception ). That is not bad considering we're in a bear market. PLS is a lithium company and although Tesla has pulled back a lot from its all time high, the green energy revolution may still be in play. The worst performer in my portfolio is EXL ( -98% ROI since inception ). It has been ...