leftright-investment

Apple is set to eclipse Microsoft and Cisco after hitting a market capitalization of over 500 billion yesterday. While Microsoft reached this number back in 1999, they have been unable to sustain it and now trades at a market cap of 266 billion. At its current market valuation, Apple is now worth more than the country of Poland or, Microsoft and Google combined! Not surprisingly, the market is going crazy for Apple and stock prices are rising. Unlike Microsoft, I believe Apple will be able to sustain its valuation to reach even greater heights. The electronic juggernaut still has much room for growth through its core businesses - Macs, iPhone and the iPad. Their product lines have been doing extremely well even in the face of aggressive competition, and has been gaining market share rapidly. Not to forget, Apple is intending to launching Apple TV late this year and with it comes even more opportunities. Steve Jobs may no longer be at the helm but the demand for Apple products still r...

Prosecutors are now quietly leaking that they don't see any criminal activity in the demise of MFGlobal. Recall that MFGlobal fraudently looted $ 1.6 billion from customer accounts that were, by law, supposed to be segregated from the firm's own assets. Now, it turns out, prosecutors are leaking that this all seems to be an innocent mistake. Interesting, after Goldman Sachs has been blistered over and over again by the SEC and by state prosecutors for activities that no one had ever considered anything other than ordinary market-making. In the brave new Obama world, Attorney General Holder and his cronies in state law enforcement invented new criminal activities where there were none, in order to make political headlines at the expense of Goldman Sachs. But now, when former Democratic Senator and Governor John Corzine is the one whose hands appear to have dipped into the cookie jar, this all is being washed up as simply an innocent mistake. Never mind that innocent customer...

This week the Finance Society put on two events. Last Tuesday, we welcomed professionals from the Market Risk Division in Goldman Sachs for an evening event. It was great to hear more about the elusive terms Value-At-Risk and how the new Basel Regulations impacts the various financial institutions on the street. Questions flew fast and furious about the industry and a career in risk management. We were especially honored by the presence of Wu Siwen, our former president who recently graduated in 2011. On Thursday afternoon, members gathered for a resume workshop run by the board members. Meha and Susan went through the fundamentals of both resume and cover letter writing, stating things to look out for. After which, the E-Board gathered and helped the underclassmen with their resumes, giving specific pointers on how to improve them.

The shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. might want to reevaluate the stocks in their hand after last Saturday's annual letter. The 81-year-old CEO announced not only his achievements and mistakes during last fiscal year, but also that an unnamed successor of the company has been selected. Although he promised his health condition, people still kept raising question about the identity of the successor and if the company would prosper on the next generation as amazingly as it did in Mr. Buffett's hand. Belief used to be that Warren Buffett's son, Howard, is going to take his position yet the new declaration made this issue more mysterious. From personal perspective, I am curious about the future life of Berkshire Hathaway as well. As all known, Warren Buffett is always a firm champion of value investment theory created by his professor, Benjamin Graham. He chose companies with potentially large profit margin and undervalued prices to invest such as Washington Post and Coc...

Traders are already feeling the heat from the possible repercussions of the Volckers Rule. While the Volcker Rule struggles to stay alive amidst wave after wave of assaults from bank lobbyists, there is a new threat on the horizon for traders. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro is moving to impose fees on every single cancellation executed on a buy or sell order. High-frequency trading has been under fire for quite some time and the May 6, 2010 “flash crash” did nothing to assuage the criticisms. On May 6, 2010 the Dow Jones fell almost 600 points in 5 minutes (almost nine percent) only to recover minutes later. This brief crash prompted the SEC to implement circuit breakers and ban stub quotes. For Schapiro, however, that is not enough, she wants to attack high-frequency trading at its core. By levying fees on cancellation orders—which make up approximately 95- 98% of all trade orders—Schapiro hopes to induce trade that does depends on “the fundamentals of the company that’s being traded” rat...

As gas prices careen toward $ 5 per gallon, we are reminded that fossil fuels are the only game in town. For all of the waste and corruption of the Obama energy policy, it is good old drill, drill, drill that provides any hope of slowing the increase in gas prices at the pump. Obama seems perplexed. He notes that energy consumption is down. So, why are prices up? Is he aware of China and India? They use energy too. Guess what? They are going to keep pushing the demand for energy higher and higher. Even with oil at $ 300 per barrel, one wonders if Solyndra would have made it. This is the most naive administration regarding fundamental economics in the past hundred years. Somehow, they think a few windmills will get it done. It won't. Sooner or later, even the Obama crowd will realize that the US must tap its fossil fuel reservoir, potentially the largest such reservoir in the world. Higher prices at the pump has a partial offset in profits and jobs in the US energy sector...

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of watching my beloved Liverpool F.C take home the Carling Cup, their first trophy in seven years. Yet the manner in which they won, relying on a missed penalty kick by the opposing second-league team Cardiff seemed too close for comfort. It was the first trophy won by the team following its sale to John Henry and his Fenway Sports Group. And with this new owner, came a new policy of spending, akin to the “sabermetrics” strategy outlined in Moneyball . In the past two transfer seasons, Liverpool has spent over £ 150 million on new players. Yet they currently place seventh in the Premier League, and barely won the Carling Cup. This is the inherent flaw in association football. As a public, we criticize our respective governments for deficit spending and rising national debts; yet the moment our teams begin cutting costs to even out the balance sheet, we riot. Even for the likes of Manchester United, who have seen tremendous success for the past...

Becky Quick and Joe Kiernan took Warren Buffett to task this morning on CNBC for his hypocritical stance on income taxation. Joe suggested, as has Governor Christie recently, that if Warren is so intent on paying more in income taxes why doesn't he write a check. Buffett's response: his writing a check would not solve our deficit problem. Interesting answer. Neither would putting a surcharge on "millionaires and billionaires." Raising taxes on the rich would not put a dent in the deficit problem that the US faces. It doesn't matter whether just Buffett pays up or whether he is joined by his rich buddies. It won't move the needle. So, why won't he write a check and show the way if he believes that is the "right thing to do." Why? Because, Buffett is a hypocrite. He wants to appear to be the good guy, knowing full well that all he has to do to avoid income tax is shift his assets around and have no taxable income at all and pay no taxes wh...

Inner Circle: Sports Investment Banking Date: Thursday, March 1st, 2012 Time: 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Location: Tisch 200 Are you interested in sports, entertainment, and finance? Come listen to David Becker, Associate at Inner Circle Sports, a leading global investment and advisory merchant bank focused on the sports, media and entertainment industries. David Becker is responsible for sourcing and executing M&A advisory, capital raising, valuation, consulting, restructuring and investing transactions in the global professional sports industry. Co-sponsored with STEBA.

In 2008, we have seen the catastrophic effect from the subprime mortgage loan in US. Even now, US is still struggling to fully recover from their worst financial crisis since Great Depression. The problems doesn't build in one day, in fact, it took years to snowball the problem. And, yet Malaysia seems like wanting to catch up with them by supporting the subprime loan. But, the unique part of our version is " using EPF monies "? When news first broke out last month that EPF would be channelling RM1.5bil for a special public housing scheme, alarm bells sounded off for many contributors. Maybe EPF already knew the result for last year performance, it announced later that contributors are getting a decade-high dividend rate of 6%. Salute to EPF. Since EPF are doing so good even without the said "loan", then, why EPF have to take the risk to loan out to this scheme? Afterthat, EPF published a statement claiming that the money is loaned to the Government, not to ind...

On February 29 th the European Central Bank will release the results of its second Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) which provides low-interest loans to Europeans banks. Since the announcement of the first LTRO in early December, the S&P 500 has rallied over 8%. Analysts estimate that $668 billion will be dished out, higher than the previous round. The impact on the market likely will be negligible as this announcement has been planned while the first announcement was a pleasant surprise. The ECB has indicated that this likely will be the final round of easing to avoid making regional banks dependent on cheap capital. If this is the case, then the market might be headed for a drop from their current highs as another catalyst will be needed to push markets higher. After previous central bank interventions between QE I and QE II and between the end of QE II and the start of first LTRO, the S&P has lost about 20% which is a trend that does not bode well for the market. ~ Ra...

Leading Canadian economists and government officials warned in a recent quarterly economic review that escalating consumer borrowing in the country may lead to financial instability in Canada. As a matter of fact, in the third quarter of last year, household debt was at 150% of personal disposable income. Economists believe that this increasing risk is only underpinned by the rising home prices that are largely due to immigration and high demand for homes by the immigrants. From a macroeconomic perspective, I share the same concerns. Assuming the rising house prices is truly due to the large influx of immigrants in recent years, a slight change to Canadian immigration laws may greatly affect the housing prices in Canada. Under the domino effect, the current household debt situation, if affected by the housing price, can lead to a drastic downturn for the Canadian economy. On the other hand, the specificity rule states that an efficient government policy acts directly as possible on...

So spoke Meredith Whitney, bank analyst of some note this morning on CNBC. As Ms. Whitney described our current economic plight, she marched through one set of new regulations after another that are roadblocks set up to thwart the economic future of middle and lower income Americans, while noting that the rich are unaffected by all of the new Obama Regulatory regime. Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Protection Agency are open assaults on the American middle class. It has now become much, much harder to get any kind of credit -- be it a mortgage, a home equity loan, a credit card, a pay day loan, whatever. The nanny state has decided that middle and low income Americans should take their business to the loan shark community. We've seen all of this before. In the name of protecting middle and low income Americans, the Obama Administration has put middle America into an economic straight-jacket. Credit is the life blood of any economy, but by declaring war on those who issue credit to...

The highly regarded The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2012 was held at the Kuala Lumpur convention Centre on 20 February 2012. This award is given out to honor the unit trusts and asset managers that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to peers.   For those who missed out the show, below is the list of awards and its recipients. Wait... Where is Public Mutual? Please read the full article below.

The Greek bailout announced overnight is ridiculous and will not avert plunging the Greek economy into chaos. It will only be a matter of a few months until this deal will create political conditions in Greece that will shake up the Eurozone. There is simply no way the Greek citizenry will abide this deal. Meanwhile Merkel and Sarcozy will take a victory lap for nothing. Note that on the bailing side is the IMF, of which the biggest single donor is the US taxpayer. So, Obama has stepped the US into this quicksand and dragged the US taxpayer in with him. No one wins with this outcome. But, it will look like a win to the politicians ... for a while. The only apparent winners are the French and German banks. But, their victory is only temporary until this deal unravels as it smacks up against reality.

It's the time again for Greece to convince its counterparts that they are serious in cutting budget deficits. By doing so, Greece was to put on the lifeline (bailout) by European Union (EU) once again. The discussion of whether to save or not to save Greece had been dragging for one week time now. Why? In Chinese, we say "we cannot see people die by not lending our hand". That's why China said they will help when the time arrives. The question is when is the right time? Until Greece go bankrupt? Or,  until Greece left EU? Who can save Greece? The answer to this very important question is very obvious. In Christian, they always emphasize on " we should take responsibilities on what we did ", right? So, the solution lies in Greece hands. Not the country, but, the citizen, the people of Greece. It's time for them to come back to reality. Let's take Malaysia as a benchmark, they are working fewer hours than us, yet they are earning much better than us. G...

Greece, which is scheduled to pay about 14.5 billion euros, could potentially default on its bonds as early as March 20th if its neighboring European nations and the Central Bank do not act quickly. The Hellenic Republic, if an agreement is reached, would most likely write down the value of private sector bonds up to seventy percent. Although the Greek government passed more pay cuts and reduced pensions, it will not make up for the hundreds of billions in debt due to years of over-consumption. Ultimately, the nation cannot sustain itself solely on bailout funds and bonds; it needs to cut more funds regardless of public outcry to balance out years of spending beyond their means. While the European Central Bank, which owns about thirty to forty-five billion euros worth of Greek debt, will most likely pass the next bailout fund, austerity will be the deciding factor of its fate. -Jesse Chai

Goldman Sachs Market Risk Management: Regulatory Capital and Value-at-Risk Date: Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 Time: 6:40 pm - 7:45 pm Location: KMEC 5-80 Join Finance Society this Tuesday evening as it hosts professionals from Goldman Sachs. The discussion will center around the topics of regulatory capital and Value-At-Risk (VaR), which have been extremely relevant in the news. Bring your questions and come to learn more about how these rules are affecting financial institutions in the world. Resume & Cover Letter Workshop Date: Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 Time: 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Location: Tisch 200 Join Finance Society Thursday during common hour for the Resume & Cover Letter Workshop! We will be walking through some great pointers and tips on how to make your Resume and Cover Letter effective and stand out. Be sure to bring your resumes and cover letters as members from the Finance Society's e-board will be available to sit down and go through resumes individually...