A Rookie's Training Day

This movie,Training Day,directed by Antonio Fuqua, is a tightly knit movie about corruption among LAPD cops.

It provided the role for Denzel Washington to win the Best Actor award. He could be hot and trigger happy as usual, pulling no punches as he fought for his dues. Sadly, he met the bitter end as there is no honour among thieves.

Supporting him is Ethan Hawke with his sterile performance as a rookie cop that was given the baptism by fire treatment.

As for Eva Mendes, this movie showcased her comely feminine assets that was to open doors to her in moviedom and in modelling.

Good movie.

Temasek May Have Lost its Compass

Yes, you can say it again.

This financial GLC of the city-state of Singapore, has turned into a mythical chimera-part lion goat and serpent.

Combining the aspects of a hedge fund, private equity house and investment bank,it has done some financial gymnastics like flipping over shares in two China banks for a premium of 20% and then buying into another.

with a penchant for private-equity style financial massaging, it turned king-maker in the proposed take-over of the iconic Bank Danamon of Indonesia, forcing Indonesian market regulators to suggest stake caps for foreign ownership of Indonesian banks.

Finally, almost acting like an investment bank, Temasek hired big-hitting bankers like UBS finance director John Cryan to run its operations even clawing back past bonuses when performance fell short.

The consequences of this adventurism has reduced the returns to its sole shareholder, The finance ministry of Singapore. Used to receiving about 15% returns for the past 20 years, it is now receiving a paltry sum of 5% annually.

So too may its investment-bank-like pay which leans heavily on performance Temasek even claws back past bonuses when the fund fails to meet its internal hurdle rate as happened in 2010 This combination could be just what’s needed Temasek’s return to the finance ministry its sole shareholder was below five per cent in 2010 its last reported period — compared with a 20-year average of 15 per cent.

Without healthy returns,its now hard for Temasek to justify the US$155 billion fund’s existence it is operating with. If personal remains sluggish, expect the non-nonsense Singapore authority to do a complete clean-up of Temasek.

Is Khazanah also subjected to fast and hard rules or return or are they just another storage bin for GLCs premiums before selling companies underneath its wings to possibly witless but connected entrepreneurs?

Milestone: 100 Counters

If you play the odd-lots market or when shares are given in bonus issues or when you apply for rights issues,you may end up with odd lots that could not be traded on the main market.

Thank God, now we can trade on the Odd-lot market.

With about some RM30 of so of overhead costs, you can now trade on this odd-lot market.

Remember, trading on the odd lot market has its good and bad points. Often-times,to secure a good blue-chip such as Ajinomoto which is hardly traded, you have to pay a big premium because you will rarely find such 'old warrior'stocks being hived off willy-nilly! Selling in desperation will also cause you to lose a chunk of your capital value!

Taking stock today, I found I have about 100 counters of odd shares.

They range from true blue blooded gilt-edged stocks to worthless throw-aways as they are not dividend paying at all and perhaps never will.

What can you do with these odd-lots?

You can buy some more to consolidate them into tradeable lots of 100 and beyond and then sell them at will when opportunity arises.

When they give out dividends, though the smallest of chicken feed, they can amount to something. Dividend returns from some blue chips such as BAT, Panasonic,NCB, MAXIS,GAB, Carlsberg, LPI Capital, Maybank, TWS and Mesiniaga can really put the commercial bank fixed deposit rack rates to utter shame!

Other counters like REITS can also perform better than bank rates. AXIS REIT,STAREIT and PavREIT are examples of these.

If you like to attend Annual General Meetings, as odd-lot holders, you can do so and participate in the meeting by raising questions on the company's performance as well as query anything that you feel is amiss.

Some good companies provide good door gifts and luncheons as well.