Securities Investment

Attended a talk on Securities Investment at the Singapore Exchange Auditorium today, and found out more about investing in various financial products. The speaker was a full-time remisier with Singapore's largest stock-broking firm, and gave such talks to supplement his income.

We were introduced to various products which are considered as securities, some of which are listed below:

1. Stocks

2. Warrants

3. Options

4. Reits

5. Derivatives

6. Blue Chips

7. Penny Stocks

8. Exchange Traded Funds

Two types of exchange traded funds were mentioned, Diamond, which is pegged to the Dow Jones, and Spider, which is pegged to the Straits Times Index (STI). The STI consists of 49 counters which reflect the Singapore stock market, and it is provided by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH).

From the chart in the photo above, we see that the STI experienced a downturn from 2002 to 2003, and has increased steadily since, implying better times for remisiers. When investing in stocks, high risk is associated with high returns. Found the talk interesting, as the speaker shared his experience on investing in Reits such as CapitalMall. Had difficulty staying awake one hour through the talk, and decided to leave during the tea-break.

Autobiography of a Physicist

Received a short autobiography by Hong Kong physicist Bambi Hu today. Professor Hu recently celebrated his 60th birthday, and a scientific conference was held in May last year to mark this occasion. The proceedings of this conference will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Modern Physics B (IJMPB), of which I am the desk editor.

Have not met Prof. Hu personally, and may have the chance to do so during C.N. Yang's 85th birthday conference in November. That would be a great time to discuss the possibility of expanding his autobiographical sketch into a book.

IPPT Improvement

Took my IPPT at Bedok Camp II today, and saw some improvements compared to my 23 June attempt.

Station	My Score	Passing Score
Sit Up	32	30
Broad Jump	203 cm	212 cm
Chin Up	5	5
Shuttle Run	10.7 s	10.8 s
2.4 km Run	12:05 min	12:40 min

Pleased with my chin up and shuttle run results. However, the SBJ remains a major bugbear, possibly due to my flat feet. Fortunately, the friendly fitness specialist passed me some important tips for this station:

'Arm movement is as important as leg movement before taking off. With knees bent, swing arms backwards. Extend knees as you swing your arms forward. Take off should be timed just as the arms cross the hips. When in the air, arms should be raised, and it is advisable to go for height.'

I felt that landing was important, and preferred landing forwards. As the 7th Brigade track was under maintenance, the 2.4 km run was conducted around the 3rd Singapore Infantry Regiment camp instead.

Planning to go for one more attempt before my IPPT window closes on 20 October. As my other stations are fine, I wonder if it is possible to be excused from SBJ on the basis of flat feet. Guess that the best person to check with would be Fadzil.