Heroes in PDEA

Major Ferdinand Marcelino made the Filipino people proud. During these times of blatant corruption, loss of confidence on governance, abusive police enforcers, and arrogant, power drunk LGU Mayor from a 5th class Municipality; exceptions abounds, that make us, the taxpayers, hopeful for 2009.

On the news today:

The P50-million alleged bribe to a Department of Justice (DoJ) official was just one of the many bribery offers to have the three “Alabang Boys” released from the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) before Christmas.

Major Ferdinand Marcelino said the first bribery attempt began on the day of the arrest, with P3 million being directly offered to him.

He noted that after an encounter with rebels in Mindanao the battle was over. “But in the war on illegal drugs people in government whom you expect to help you are the ones who will destroy your operation,” he said.

But a second bribe attempt came, this time it was relayed through his mistah (classmate) at the Philippine Military Academy who is now out of the military service.

From P3 million, the offer was raised to P20 million. Declining the offer, Marcelino said he felt outraged and told every detail of the bribe attempt to his superior.

PDEA said last week it received information about a P50-million bribe to state prosecutors that resulted in the dismissal of the case against Brodett, Joseph and Tecson early this month.

Some state prosecutors were paid for recommending the dismissal of the charges against the suspects, according to Dionisio. Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño has denied??that he and the prosecutors who investigated and reviewed the case had been bribed into recommending the dismissal of the charges.

Sir, Major Ferdinand Marcelino make the Filipino people proud of you. Please keep up the good work.

Yuan, the New International Currency ?

For over a decade of trade, US dollars and Euro, and all other currencies flowed to China. While everyone else were spending in America, in Europe, and in the rest of the world buying Chinese products - the Chinese kept on saving, and saving. Today - they have an enormous amount of foreign exchange to the tune of nearly 2 Trillion US dollars.

Last Thursday, the semi-official China News agency said the Interior Ministry allowed companies based in the Yangtze River delta in Guangdong and Shanghai to use yuan along with U.S. dollars when trading with Hong Kong and Macau firms. The ministry appointed the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province as test zones where trade transactions with the 10 ASEAN countries can be made in yuan.

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In a related news, an Asean Monetary Fund worth 120 billion dollars is set to be approved at a regional summit in February, Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatin said according to reports Wednesday.

"The matter is being discussed through the ASEAN finance ministers meeting in Singapore at present and we should receive news soon," Rais said according to state news agency Bernama. "But we have been informed that the fund would be a reality by the time the summit is held in February," he said.

Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) group are to meet with their dialogue partners including China, Japan and South Korea, in Bangkok on February 24-26.

Photo courtesy/modified from businessweek.com

What stocks to buy in 2009?

The crisis is on, and more pain is expected in 2009. Now for people who are into stock trading, the questions that have been bugging them would be: what good stocks to get into these days? I would say, research, and research find some good stocks to invest in that can yield significantly great returns. If you have been wondering if there are winning stocks to buy, the answer is "yes". There are stocks available today that can allow us to purchase some really good stock that can provide both short term and long term gains. As the saying goes, if there are losers, surely there are winners. The trick is finding these winning stocks.

So, what are these winning stocks to invest in given this current market? To find the best stocks out there, we must look for stocks that are priced very low – those that were oversold insanely. These can be penny stock investments or undervalued stock investments. When a penny stock or an undervalued stock is purchased, then you will be able to profit with smaller stock price margins. It would only require that your stock price only increase by a few cents or dollars to gain a handsome return.

Undervalued stocks – those that were hit by panic selling i.e. oversold insanely can be priced well below their value within the stock market. It may take the market some time to realize that the price should be adjusted higher than the current price. It is best to invest during this window of opportunity as you will make the greatest return. Fact is, there are a lot of blue chips today that are oversold; and once the storms calm down in the stock market, these stocks would definitely comeback to their reasonable price levels.

Again, where do you look to find these good stocks? Perform your own research to find these bargains. Research the news, financial reports, and the stock market analyst's recommendations for ideas. Find the gems, I know it is a tedious process, but the rewards can be great.

Good luck.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year To You and Your Family

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Manny Pacquiao - Ricky Hatton in a duel on May 2, 2009

There it is...the fight everyone is looking forward to:

Manny Pacquiao is headed for a showdown against fellow brawler Ricky Hatton in a duel that will most likely take place on May 2 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas’ Thomas and Mack Center, Internet reports bared Sunday.

Meanwhile, from his cushy retirement perch, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is considering fighting the Filipino ring hero in a bout, where the “Pretty Boy” hopes to “beat his [expletive],” the boxer’s confidante revealed.

Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Council lightweight champion, will be gunning for a fifth weight crown against Hatton, who holds the International Boxing Organization junior welterweight belt.

“My guy is on board,” Pacquiao promoter and Top Rank chief Bob Arum told Steve Lillis of England’s News of the World. “I think Ricky’s on board and I am very upbeat.”

Steve Kim of SecondsOut.com said the match is a “done deal.”

So...at least boxing fans all over the world has something to look forward to in 2009.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Photo courtesy of gasti.files.wordpress.com and www.virginmedia.com

South Korean lawmakers brawl

It will be the time to vote PACMAN, Manny Pacquiao to Congress once brawling like this would be allowed. Definitely, he's one of the guys who would be able to ensure that the interests of those marginalized are protected.

In South Korea, lawmakers sledgehammer their way into a parliamentary meeting room barricaded by the ruling party over a free trade agreement bill with the United States, last Thursday.The opposition lawmakers were incensed by the ruling Grand National Party's move to submit the agreement to a committee on trade, thus setting in motion the process for approval in the legislature.

Yup, they do railroad a bill there, the way our Congress railroads bill inimical to GMAs continued stay in power.

Watch the brawl how they do it there. I am not wishing or recommending that this happen in the Philippine Congress, but if it does, it would be the time to campaign for Manny Pacquiao to win a congressional seat :). More about this, here's the link.

How to use candle sticks in trading.

It is a matter of getting used to it, really. IMO, using the traditional line graph provide less information than candle stick chart, thus, I use candle sticks when looking at trends lines etc.

Candlestick chart is a style of bar-chart used primarily to describe price movements over time.It is a combination of a line-chart and a bar-chart, each bar represents the range of price movement over a given time interval. It is most often used in technical analysis of equity and currency price patterns.

So? For example, if you want to learn how to Trade the Hammer Hanging Man Candlesticks, then watch the video below:

Looking for immensely rewarding vacation?

Many of my friends had a great and wonderful Thanksgiving; and I am certain they will have great and wonderful Christmas holidays in a few days. However, those friends that have been longing to go on vacation due to the hectic and stressful environment we have had for the past months, then maybe it is about time for a jamaica all inclusive resort vacation. What is it? It is about getting our sanity back, getting our focus back. It is about relaxation and being in the finest beaches with comfortable accommodations. It is also about enjoying our life while we still can.

The beautiful place that we can visit for romantic vacations is Jamaica. This is because Jamaica is one of the richest and one that has the most varied landscapes in the Caribbean including waterfalls, springs, rivers, and streams all flowing from the mountains down to the sea, and having said that, you can enjoy various types of water sports activities from river rafting to snorkeling. Also, if you are planning to go for caribbean weddings; you easily and comfortably can because SuperClubs professional wedding planners can help you in all the ways that you want your wedding to be.

Thanks and learnings from 2008

I want to acknowledge and give thanks to the 2008 sponsors of this blog:

1. Adsense
2. Loudlaunch
3. Linkworth
4. totallymoney.com
5. paydayloanaffiliate.com
6. badcredit-loan.com
7. financeglobe.com
8. shopinsuranceonline.com
9. personalcashadvance.com
10. serioushomebasedbusiness.com
11. ukwebloans.co.uk
12.nationwidecash.com
13.iKobo

PS: For those wondering how much, I earned around 4K US$ from sponsors excluding adsense in 2008.
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Learnings:1

I've repeated this many times already. When it is June and December, buy peso and sell the dollar, and pocket the profit. This will work so long as there are OFWs, and so long as the Philippine economy is hugely dependent on their remittances, nuf said.

Learnings: 2

a. When investing, diversify and diversify.
b. When investing passively in the Philippines, buy land and lots, I repeat, lands and lots. When buying land and lots, think of location, and location. Did I say including beach front lots or resorts?
c. Spend less than what you earn.
d. Share your blessing and give to charity.

IPhones Sale in Wal-Mart Stores

This is confirmed. Iphone will be sold in Wal-Mart Stores from $99 to $299 this December. Yay....

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone, with two store representatives saying the world’s largest retailer will carry two models of the Web-surfing handset this month. Employees in the cell-phone departments at five California stores, contacted by phone today, said Wal-Mart will offer iPhones by the end of December.

Bloomberg says:

Analysts say Apple may offer a discontinued 4-gigabyte version through Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart and sell it for $99. Apple currently sells two models at $199 and $299.

“A $99, Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst for Kaufman Brothers in San Francisco. “One of the key things Apple needs to do to drive broader iPhone adoption is to build a more complete product line” with low- end, mid-range and high-end products, Wu said in a Dec. 5 note.

Newspapers are in trouble

I was never expecting to read headlines like this:

From NYT:

The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.

The company has retained Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement, said James M. Follo, the Times Company’s chief financial officer.

And there is another, from dealbook:

The Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection in a federal court in Delaware on Monday, as the owner of The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs baseball team struggled to cope with rising debt and falling ad revenue.

Let us wait and see.

Hosted TFS

Only the smart business man/woman would likely survive in these times of economic downturn that is why many businesses have explored and have taken advantage of the benefits offered by SAAS (software as a service). You don’t have to acquire expensive hardware’s and pay the cost of its maintenance, instead you can just rent software and server at a fraction of its cost, and you can get it customized, and access it anywhere you are.

You can never be smarter than getting a hosted team foundation server, and tfs hosting now to ensure a seamless business operation and to tighten up your bottom line in this time of economic crisis. If you get a hosted tfs now, then you can be very organized, track and increase your sales, hold virtual meetings, synchronize your devices, etc.; the benefits are immeasurable. In fact, www.phase2.com offers a 30 day guarantee - if your business operation have not improved, then you will receive a no questions asked full refund. So, what are you waiting for?

Cheap Bulk Coffee

To be honest, its difficult for me to start the day without having first my cup of coffee. I am a coffee drinker, when stressed, when busy, when I have to worked late at night, when entertaining visitors, etc. I got to have my cup of coffee to get me going. My palate or even my nose can tell a good coffee.

It’s great to know that we can buy bulk coffee with Intelligentsia. They offer the best cheap bulk coffee beans, and you can access them and place your order via the internet at this site: www.intelligentsiacoffee.com. What I like most with them is that whenever possible, they seek growers and importers that are known to be both environmentally and socially responsible. Now this is something I would love to drink daily, a cup of coffee that were produced , with the environment and social responsibility in mind, apart from really tasting great. Intelligentsia’s cheap bulk coffee are roasted daily in a vintage German roasters and as a result, you will not find a fresher, more flavorful cup anywhere in the market. Remember, you can get them now by ordering online.

Predicting America: 2009-2012 and Gerald Celente

In an article forwarded to me via email, he says:

• Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
• "We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas….we're going to see a fundamental shift take place….putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".
• The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.
• The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."
• "There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It's not going to come yet, but it's going to come down the line and we're going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."
• "The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That's going to be the big one because people can't afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You're going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop."
• "It's going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we're going to see many more."
• "We're going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It's going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It's going to come as a shock and with it, there's going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people's minds weren't wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody's comprehension.

What's you take?

Workshop Band

The American rock band Firehouse that popularized songs in the 80's like “I Live My Life For You” and “Love of a Lifetime” has noticed a Workshop cover of their song “I Live my Life for You” on YouTube. Workshop is a Pinoy Band.

Take a break, relax, and listen to a nice song. Here is a youtube of the song “I Live My Life For You”, check it out.

Stock Market Trading: How to make a killing out of it - Now.

It is, of course, difficult to tell.

What I do, most of the time, when Stock Market Trading is follow the trend. If the stock market is bearish, I sell; if it is bullish, I buy.

We know the general trend in past months and weeks in the stock market is bearish, but look at this: Shares of Hartford Financial Services was $80 a share at the beginning of 2008 and fell to around $5 the other day. The company says they have enough cash to weather more turmoil in the markets, if that is the case, how low can they get? What do you think?

So? from $5 a share it rebounded to $14.59 on Friday, up $7.38 for the day. If you bought their shares, you could have more than doubled your money over night! Can it still go down? Yes, maybe back back to 5$, given the bearish sentiment of the stock market; but my I guess is $5 is its resistance, and the share cannot go lower than that.

I am not saying buy shares of Hartford Financial Services, they are just an example, what I am saying is search for those oversold companies, oversold senselessly - that they have no where to go but up. Shares that are worth a 100 last January, and now worth 10 or 15 a share.

The stock market is volatile. But during this time of recession, it is almost a gamble, but if you have been to a cock fight, you would surely understand where I am coming coming from i.e. if the company is healthy and can survive the recession, it surely has a great chance to come back to its January 2008 price. When, does it matter? 2 or 5 years? What is important is you're bet, for example of Hartford Financial Services , of 5 dollars would, hopefully gain 75$. However, if you lose - it is possible you could lose the entire bet of 5, but the possibility is remote. As I said, if they have nowhere to go but up - and they seem healthy - I'd buy.

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What about oil and energy related companies? Be wary because I have read somewhere that oil prices can go as low as 25 next year.

Happy Stock Market Trading.


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PS: Do not trade based on my advice, I am just a blogger, seek a professional opinion somewhere else.

Precast concrete products

For engineers, contractors, and construction companies that are looking for all kinds of precast concrete products then the place that you should visit is JensenPrecast.com. JensenPrecast.com can provide construction companies different types of precast concrete and related fabricated steel products such as sparks precast concrete, precast reinforced concrete pipe, precast septic tanks and thousands more types of precast products. They also provide recommendations and guidance on a wide range of civil engineering applications. They manufacture standard and custom precast concrete products to meet large-scale infrastructure demands for highway construction, retaining walls, electric and gas utility, telecommunications, water, on-site wastewater, and sewage applications.

JensenPrecast.com. has can be relied on because they have over 40 years of experience in the precast concrete industry, as a matter of fact they are the largest independently owned precast concrete company in the United States; and they operate twelve facilities located at Fontana, Sacramento, sparks, Las Vegas, Orland, Fairfield, Casa Grande, Tucson, Fresno, San José, San Marcos, and Honolulu, with over 1,000 employees, and more than 120 dedicated delivery vehicles. So, they can deliver all of your order of precast concrete products anywhere in United States on time.

Get New Scrub Tops This Holiday Season

When I was in college, my friends who were in the medical profession were excited when it was their first time to buy scrubs. I also remember that last years’ Christmas, an affordable, stylish and brand name scrubs were the gifts given by my mom to my sister, who was a pediatrician intern in one of the local hospital. My sister still has those fashionable scrubs until today. I am sure my sister this holiday season is hoping she will still get scrubs from my mom as gifts.

If you are a student in the medical related profession, then you may be interested to know that www.scrubsandbeyond.com are offering an extensive selection of medical scrub tops for women and men. If you want something stylish then the latest collection of fashionable, name brand scrub jackets such as landau medical scrubs, cherokee scrub pants, and vet scrubs of Scrubsandbeyond are what you are looking for. If you are interested of shopping for scrubs online, then I would recommend to you to visit the site of www.scrubsandbeyond.com. Happy shopping.

How to use Fibonacci in Forex Trading

This is the easiest method and for me, the most profitable forex trading system. In forex trading software’s and platforms, the use of Fibonacci is built in and you just drag it across your chart to determine Fibonacci levels which would help you identify entry points, exits, take profits, retracement level, among others. Because the use of Fibonacci in forex trading is very popular, my guess is, the mass usage of this method by forex traders makes it more powerful, for example, everyone would place a take profit on 38.2% and 62.8% retracement, above and below these values can be your entry points as well – because most forex traders believe it would go where it should go - and this is very common when trading US/Yen forex currency.

The video below will help you understand its use.



As a backgrounder, what are Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Ratio?

Fibonacci Numbers

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers named after Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci. Fibonacci's 1202 book Liber Abaci introduced the sequence to Western European mathematics. The first number of the sequence is 0, the second number is 1, and each subsequent number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers of the sequence itself, yielding the sequence 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.

The Golden Ratio

After the first few numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, the ratio of any number to the next higher number is approximately .618, and the lower number is 1.618. These two figures are the golden mean or the golden ratio.

Fibonacci and Nature

Fibonacci and Golden Ratio appears throughout biology, art, music, and architecture. A few examples of natural shapes based on the Golden Ratio include DNA molecules, sunflowers, snail shells, galaxies, and hurricanes. Fibonacci sequences appear in biological settings, in two consecutive Fibonacci numbers, such as branching in trees, arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruitlets of a pineapple, the flowering of artichoke, an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone.

If you are interested in any forex trading online, it best that you understand the basic of using Fibonacci and other forex trading system so that you can be profitable.

PS: Use a game account first, if you cannot be profitable in your forex trading game account, then don’t open a real account at all or you are going to lose your shirt.

Use a game account if you want to learn forex trading

I got a pm from a friend asking me what is the best way to learn forex trading – so I am posting my experience, not to discourage him, but to tell him (and you) how I learned forex trading.

Many years ago, I was working in KSA. In KSA you cannot go to movies, bar, etc. and so I strived to maintain my sanity there and so out of boredom, I stumbled upon Oanda, an online forex trading company on the internet. I opened a game account; and I tried learning how to trade forex, and how to use strategies through the internet. I got addicted trading forex – it felt like I was in a casino betting on yen or euro against the dollar.

After a few months of game account forex trading, I knew what a cable was and other forex currency, what are pips and the pros and cons of leverage (my advice from experience: never use a leverage that is more than 1:20) ; and why yen is the carry trade, and how interest rates affect forex trading. I learned strategies, my favorite, and most useful: Fibonacci. More methods and strategies are out there on the web.

What is great with a game account is that you can test your knowledge, fear, and possible losses or gains, before you jump to real money trading. So, how was it? It took me a lot of downloaded ebooks, a lot of game accounts, a lot of forum posting and questions, a lot of testing various forex trading software, etc. Learning forex trading requires time (a lot of it), because in many cases, only the best, the most disciplined, not so greedy forex day traders are left standing to trade another day. Believe me, because I have been there and I have been margin called a lot of times.

One experience I will never forget was around 4 years ago (hehehe, yes I have been with trading forex for years), and I traded long Ag (silver), and yes you can trade gold and silver. I was up a few hundred pips, and I turned off my computer to eat dinner and after dinner when I checked my forex trading account – I got margin called. Silver drop like I have never seen before. Another was a long trade on yen, I made a post about it here.

All I am saying is use a game account for as long as it takes before you jump to real money forex trading. If you cannot be profitable in your online forex trading game account after a few months or even years – then never trade forex.

Yes, there is money on forex trading – provided you know what you are doing.

Stock Market Trading: What you should know (1)

As you must know trading in the stock market is not for everyone. You have to learn or at least be familiar with many things such stock market terms, stock quotes, stock prices, stock symbols, stock ticker, and software’s for online stock trading, if you are planning to do it online.

This is apart from understanding market fundamentals, how world events affect stock prices, the knowledge to make good stock picks, understanding what and who moves the market, types and kinds of stocks and its symbols, and terms link blue chips, small caps, equities, among others.

This is just for starters. Below is a video showing how to analysis of the stock market, done Nov. 28, 2008.

Stock Market: when can we start trading stocks with comfort?

In my earlier post, we presented a figure covering the last century (almost) of the DOW. There we figured that the stock market can go down below 6000 and not even break the trend, and if it does, not below 5500.

Many of us may be tempted to go into stock trading because I said in that post that: Be ready - jump when the time comes, as these kinds of lows and opportunities only comes once or twice in a hundred years.

So let me give you an overview:

Stock trading or online stock trading deal with trading stocks i.e. buying and selling of stocks for a profit. In stock trading, you or your broker (you primarily) should correctly identify the direction of stock prices. It is important to anticipate the timing of the price fluctuations because a bad price fluctuation could result in a loss in a short period of time. Timing is very important in online stock trading, which makes new investors apprehensive while taking up trading. But then, in this kind of market, I would be careful – I am not sure if we have already seen the bottom.

IMO, once the general perception of the market improved, i.e. recession is over. Get any blue chips, and wait until the market returns to 10000 or more.

This is all for now.