Saturday, May 6, 2017

The 5 Steps required to make your right decisions


Every now and then, we make decisions. Some are just small decision with minimal future effect, while some are significant and will change the history.

While we are aware that make the right decision is important, all of us cannot escape from having numerous occasions of making decisions which we regret later.

Patrick McDaniel of WiseInsights.net has written a report called "The Scientifically Proven 5 Step Process To Making Better, More Successful Decisions" which you can freely download here.

Below is my summary of what I've learnt from McDaniel's report.

1. Be open minded to all possibilities and options

  • If you have bias, your favoured choice could be a disaster.
  • Listen carefully to your inner self, or your God's guidance.
2. Expand your choices
  • Do not rely solely on single option, because that single option has 65% chance of likelihood leading to a bad decision.
  • Instead of looking through binoculars and fixating on the single, apparent option before you, it is better to take a 360 degree, 3-dimensional panoramic view of the situation and your possibilities.
  • Ways to increase your perceived options including:
    • Talk to others
    • Consider your opportunity costs
    • Remove the current option and think about what other way you could have
    • Mix and match possible options
3. Expose your bias
  • Don't be fooled by your own confirmation bias by:
    • Arguing the opposite with yourself
    • Seek a contrarian
    • Ask tough questions of your favoured option
    • Run a test to dip your toe in the water
4. Escape your emotion
  • Beware of your exposure effect (automatically and instinctively cling to the familiar).
  • Your fear of loss can be irrational.
  • You can be more rational by:
    • Prospecting the future
    • Defending your decision
    • Counselling others
5. Prepare for the worst
  • Beware of overconfident bias.
  • Run a premortem.
  • Set a tripwire, which could be time based or situation based.

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Hush Puppies Apparel warehouse sale 2017 @ Puchong

Redina Malaysia Sdn Bhd located at Jalan TPK 2/3, Taman Perindustrian Kinrara, Puchong, Selangor is having the Hush Puppies Apparel warehouse sale now, offering discount as high as 80%!

As usual, they have put up a big red Hugh Puppies balloon on top of the air of the location for you to locate their direction when you are near to them. You will also see banners along the roadside of Bukit Jalil Highway (a.k.a. Puchong-Sungai Besi Highway or Federal Route 217).

This promotion started on 28 April 2017 and will end on 7 May 2017. The opening time is 10am - 7pm daily.

 
If you purchased more than RM200 in a single receipt, you will get a free drinking bottle as gift.

If you pay using your Public Bank credit card, you will immediately get an additional 5% discount for all the items in your receipt. If your payment is above RM400 in that receipt, you can also claim a set of Easy Lock container at the Public Bank booth near to the entrance.

Items on sale are apparels for men, women, children and todders, which include Hush Puppies shirts, casualwears, pants, innerwears, underwears, socks, etc. There are also accessories, bags, luggage, stationeries, bed & bath, etc.

For the apparels, I found that for this round of Hush Puppies apparel warehouse sale, there are more items for women and girls than for men and boys.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

HLeBroking 1Trade - stock trading account with the best of both world

There are several types of stock trading account available for HLeBroking service provided by Hong Leong Investment Bank in Malaysia.

ValueTrade is a type of cash upfront account in which you can only buy with cash in trust account, with the advantage of low brokerage fee of 0.106% (including GST) and also interest to cash in trust account above RM1,000 at the rate of slightly lower than fixed deposit rate.

PowerTrade is a type of collaterized trading account which allows you to trade up to 2x cash in trust account and 2x share collateral value.

1Trade is a hybrid trading account that combine the best of both ValueTrade and PowerTrade. For 1Trade:

  • If your purchase contract is fully covered by cash in trust account, the brokerage fee is 0.106%, same as ValueTrade.
    • If you sell within T+3, your selling brokerage fee is also 0.106%.
    • If you sell within T+4 and T+7, your selling brokerage fee is 0.1908% if the transaction amount is above RM100k, less than that the brokerage fee is 0.4028%.
  • If you purchase without cash upfront, the brokerage fee is still 0.106% for day trading. If you don't sell within the same day, your brokerage fee will become 0.1908% (transaction amount is above RM100k) or 0.4028% (transaction amount is below RM100k). There will be force selling after T+7 if you still haven't settle the contract.
  • If you do day trading, the brokerage fee for both buy and sell transactions within the same day is 0.106%.
  • Regardless how the transaction is done, the minimum brokerage fee is RM8.48 including GST.
Therefore, with 1Trade account, you can:
  • Enjoy low brokerage rate for day trading and T+3 cash upfront buying.
  • Enjoy the flexibility of 2x trading limit like other collaterized ordinary trading account, with the trade-off of higher brokerage fee.
I would advise for you to stay disciplined with ValueTrade trading account if your overall portfolio value including cash and shares is below RM300k. If it is above and you got tendency to trade stock in amount of at least RM100k in a batch, then you can take advantage of 1Trade by converting to it.

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