Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Electronic password protected money saving box

To encourage my kid to save pocket money with fun, I have bought him an electronic password protected money saving box.


This money saving box is designed to store both coins and notes. It is quite large, about 7 x 4 x 4.5 cubic inches.

It operates with 3 AA size batteries, to be inserted into its bottom compartment.

Coins are dropped from its top aperture, just like most ordinary piggy bank. Bank notes are to be inserted from its front aperture. Interestingly, this saving box will roll the bank notes into it, with similar effect of automated parking machine.

It has a revolving vault door with password protection, working similarly to a real safe. The password can be changed too.

On top of it is a small LED light, when switched on in darkness, can provide good enough illumination for putting in the coins and slotting in the bank notes.

Christmas and new year is around the corner. At the price of around RM60, perhaps this is a good choice as present to the kids.




Friday, November 25, 2016

Clean and sanitize my washing machine with Xin Juke tub cleaning powder

Washing machine is commonly used in modern household to help us wash and clean our clothes without much hassle.

Over time, external surface of the inner tub of the washing machine will develop many of these contaminations, which might in turn contaminate the clothes in it:

  • Residue of detergent
  • Lint
  • Dirt
  • Mildew
  • Fungal
  • Allergens
  • Bacteria (including staphylococcus aureus, escherichia coli, etc.)

Therefore, it is advisable to regularly clean and sanitize your washing machine.

You can DIY your own homemade washing machine tub cleaning formula by washing it with the following one-by-one:
  • Baking soda powder (1 tea cup + full tank of water)
  • White vinegar (2 tea cups + full tank of water)
  • Bleach (1 tea cup + full tank of water) 
I use Xin Juke tub cleaning powder for this purpose, one 90 gram packet at a time. Each 90 gram packet cost RM3.90 only. This washing machine cleaning power is suitable for both the top loaded and front loaded types of washing machine.


Using Xin Juke or other similar washing machine cleaning solution can save some hassle, time, and water used. The Xin Juke doesn't cost much too, although some other brand of similar solution might cost a lot.

The steps for using Xin Juke in top loading washing machine are:
  • Dissolve one to two packets of the powder into warm water of around 40~80 degree Celcius.
  • Fill up the washing machine with near full tank water.
  • Pour the Xin Juke solution into the tank. (Alternatively, you can combine the above 2 steps and skip this step, if you can fill the washing machine with warm water. The temperature is suitable to fully dissolve the Xin Juke powder)
  • Put in one to two pieces of cleaning cloth so that the washing machine not running with empty tub.
  • Operate the washing machine for about 10 minutes.
  • Stop the washing machine and let the cleaning solution to work for 3 to 4 hours in still water (but not too long until more than half a day)
  • There might be dirty substances floating on top of the water. Remove them.
  • Continue the washing cycle until it complete. You can use the "tub cleaning" washing cycle if your washing machine support this mode.

The steps for using Xin Juke in front loading washing machine are:
  • Pour one to two packets of the powder into the tub and close the door.
  • Put in one to two pieces of cleaning cloth so that the washing machine not running with empty tub.
  • Fill up half the tub with water, preferably warm water.
  • Operate the washing machine for about 10 minutes.
  • Stop the washing machine and let the cleaning solution to work for 3 to 4 hours in still water (but not too long until more than half a day)
  • Continue the washing cycle until it complete.
The steps are different because once the front loading washing machine is filled up with water, you can't simply open its door!



Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Stock fundamental ranking and screening with James O'Shaughnessy Trending Value

James Patrick O’Shaughnessy is the founder of quantitative money management firm O'Shaughnessy Asset Management, LLC.

In 1996, he wrote the best selling book "What Works on Wall Street", which has now evolved to its 4th Edition.



In the 3rd Edition of this book published in 2005, O'Shaughnessy unveiled the Cornerstone Growth stock screening method, which is based on the following criteria:
  • Market capitalization >= $225 million
  • 3-month average daily share volume >= 100,000
  • Price-to-sales ratio <= 1.5
  • 3-month total return greater than the median return of Russell 3000 companies
  • 6-month total return greater than the median return of Russell 3000 companies
  • Trailing 12-month EPS > 0
  • Rank by highest 12-month total return
Subsequent to that, the 4th Edition of the book, published in 2011, introduced the improved Trending Value growth stock screening method, which claimed to achieved 21.19% annualized return over the 46-year period between 1964 and 2009.
Trending Value uses “value composite” (VC) instead of just the Price-to-sales ratio to measure stock undervaluation, which O'Shaughnessy described as "the top stock-market strategy of the past 50 years".

The value composite is composed of 6 value factors:
  • Price-to-Book
  • Price-to-Sales
  • EBITDA/EV
  • Price-to-Cashflow
  • Price-to-Earnings
  • Shareholder Yield
Listed companies in a stock market are divided into 100 groups (percentiles) based on the 6 value factors above. If a company's price-to-book ratio is in the lowest 1% of the dataset, it gets a score of 1. For some ratios it's the other way around, for instance EBITDA/EV. If a company belongs to the highest 10%, it gets a score of 1. If a value is missing, it gets a score of 50.

The same calculation is repeated for each of the ratios and then their values are summed up together. Companies are again divided into 100 groups based on this score. This final result is the so-called value composite.

A value composite of 1 means that the company belongs to the 1% cheapest companies according to these factors.
In the next filtering process, only the top 10% stocks ranked according to this value composite score are selected. Then these stocks are further filtered by a momentum factor, i.e. the 6-month price index. The result is an extremely cheap group of stocks that have been on the rise during the last 6 months.
O'Shaughnessy tested 3 different value composite scores as follow:
  • VC1: based on the first 5 ratios only, excluding shareholder yield. By using this ratio his backtests showed a return of 17.18% annually.
  • VC2: based on all 6 ratios. O'Shaughnessy uses this ratio in his trended value screen since his backtests showed an improvement in overall annual compound return of 12 basis points to 17.3%, a reduced standard deviation and downside risk.
  • VC3: same as VC2 but the last ratio is replaced by buyback yield. Some investors are indifferent whether a company pays out a dividend or want to avoid these since they can be very heavily taxed. This VC generates an even higher return of 17.39% annually but with a slightly higher standard deviation compared to the VC2.
At the time of writing,  ValueSignals website ranked KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLMR.PK) with the following scores:
  • VC1: 1
  • VC2: 1
  • VC3: 1

The value factors of KLMR.PK compared with the entire market, the Industrials sector, the Transportation group, and the Airlines industry, respectively, is as below:


However, KLMR.PK only ranked at 4,842 in Magic Formula screening method:


Anyhow, it still has a respectably high Piotroski F-Score:



ValueSignals website provides a very handy and straightforward online service for systematic value investing to perform quantitative stock screening, stock comparison and stock information, currently covering as many as 33,600 stock counters listed in 44 countries around the world.

Beside O'Shaughnessy Value Composites, ValueSignals website is also able to perform screening (including multifactor cross-screening) of:
The screening can be performed across all stock counters, or limited to within certain regions,  countries, industries, etc.

As a user of ValueSignals, I recommend this website to all serious value investors and fund managers to boost your stock screening and selection process.

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