Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Asia Trader & Investor Convention (ATIC) @ KL 2010

The 5th annual Asia's largest trader and investor event, Asia Trader & Investor Convention (ATIC) 2010 is coming soon.


Date: 20-21 March 2010
Time: 9.00am - 6.00pm
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, KLCC, Malaysia

It will feature more than 50 English and Mandarin investment seminars, 30 international and local renowned speakers, 40 exhibitors and 15,000-20,000 targeted investors.

Some of the feature speakers including:
  • Daryl Guppy - Founder & Director of Guppytraders.com
  • Alan Hull - Creator of the Hull Moving Average (HMA)
  • Alan Oliver - Private Trader
  • Dar Wong 黄达 - Founder of PWforex.com
  • Don Schellenberg - Founder of Master Money Traders
  • Benny Lee - Chief Market Strategist
  • Mark Laudi - CEO of Investor Central
  • Renesial Leong 梁彩桃 - Property Investor
  • G.M. Teoh - Technical Analyst
  • Dr. Jeffrey Chiew - Asia Chairman of IARFC
  • Carol Yip 叶凯蓉 - Founder of Abacus For Money
  • William Wermine - Fund Manager Rep
  • Chan Ai Cheng - General Manager of S.K. Brothers Realty
  • Stewart LaBrooy - Director of Axis REIT Managers Berhad
  • Alan Voon 温世麟 - CEO of Warrants Capital
  • Fred Tam - Principal Lecturer in CFTA at Open University Malaysia
  • Dr. Nazri Khan - Chief Technical Analyst of MIMB Investment Bank
  • Mirriam MacWilliams - Chief Trainer of Wealth Mentors Sdn Bhd
  • David Yuen - Teraoptions Management Sdn Bhd
  • David Lo Tuck Wye - Executive Director of HLG Futures Sdn Bhd
We see there are more lady speakers in this year than 2009.

This event is endorsed/supported by:
The early bird entry ticket for this 2 days event is no longer free as 2009, and is charging at RM18.00 (normal price is RM28.00).

Click here for more information about ATIC at KL 2010.

Monday, February 8, 2010

The sextuple constraint of scope, time, cost, quality, risk and resource

If you have been involved in any kind of project management, be it in business or personal, you might have known about the famous triple constraint of project management, with the following general formula:

Quality = f(Scope, Time, Cost)

It is a simple rule of concept that says:

  • To get the product with quality of your expectation, you have to at least plan carefully for the scope of work, time schedule and cost allocation.
  • In order to maintain the same quality, any change to one of the 3 factors will need an adjustment to the remaining 2 of them. The 3 constraints are inter-dependent.
  • If you want to adjust your quality expectation (either better or lower), then you can also adjust factors of scope, time and cost accordingly.
This is a very powerful concept commonly used during project planning, project monitoring and change management. It is used to assess the viability and to balance the trade-off factors.

For example, it is generally true that if you want to achieve a wide scope with little cost and time, you have to compromise on the quality expectation.

This triple constraint has been expanded to sextuple constraint in modern project management literature. They are: scope, time, cost, quality, risk and resource.
The risk factor is crucial because if it is not well managed, it will affect the other factors as well. Risk management comes in as preventive measure to safeguard the planned time schedule, cost, quality and resource allocated for the specific scope.

Resource is also an important factor. For example, with better resource on hand, you might be able to achieve the scope of quality with less time, cost and risk.

It is a good practise to always refer to the sextuple constraint for planning, managing and making changes to projects, so that our expectation is more realistic and success is viable.

You might want to use it in some of these projects which most of us will surely encounter during our life voyage:
  • Education planning
  • Wedding planning
  • Parenthood planning
  • Buying a house
  • House renovation and/or decoration
  • Travel planning
  • Retirement planning
  • ...
And of course, this is always applied to project management at work, including:
  • Software development
  • Building development
  • Business development
  • Operations planning
  • Change/Restructuring management
  • ...

    Friday, February 5, 2010

    CSC Steel made record high earnings in FY2009

    CSC Steel (5094, CSCSTEL 中钢马来西亚, formerly known as Ornasteel), a subsidiary of China Steel Corporation of Taiwan (中钢公司) which produces flat steel products, is always well known for its excellent cash flow management.

    Its unaudited 4th quarter financial result for 2009 announced today is very promising. Despite a comparatively lower revenue made during the challenging year of 2009, CSC Steel has successfully made record high in its operating profit, EBITA, profit after tax and NTA. The EPS of 24.42 sen has outperformed the expectation of all research firms, which majority estimate it to be around 20 sen only. Its cash on hand also soars to a new height of RM312 million.


    The board of directors has proposed for a 20 sen dividend, which is also a record high in DY since its listing.

    With its unaudited EPS of 24.42 sen and closing price of RM1.53 on 5 Feb 2010, its PE stood at a low point of 6.27 although its share price has risen above 50% within the past 1 year period.


    The proposed 20 sen dividend will give a high DY of 13.07%.

    The domestic steel demand and prices of steel products started to recover in December 2009 as the steel demand in China rebounded strongly after falling steel prices since October 2009. This improved market sentiment is expected to continue into the first quarter of 2010 as downstream steel industries are back to the market for re-stocking activities. The management of CSC Steel is optimistic that the first half of 2010 will continue to be positive.

    Congratulation to the 6000+ shareholders of CSC Steel holding its 373 million shares (about 7 million of its 380 million shares are sitting in its treasury account due to buy back exercise).

    Disclaimer: This article is intended for sharing of point of view only. It is not an advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of the mentioned stock counters. You should do your own homework before trading in Bursa Malaysia.


    Click here to read my other article about this stock counter, written about 2 years ago.

    Hint: Click on the "Older Posts" link to continue reading, or click here for a listing of all my past 3 months articles.