Charts and Trading Volumes.
One of the keys to successful trading, in addition to dollar cost averaging and diversification, is the use of charts and knowledge of trading volumes of a particular stock.

Charting can be really straightforward, if you don't complicate things. It's there to tell you the current trend of the stock in the market, the current trend of the market in the industry as a whole, the current trend of the nation as well as global trends. Another useful information of charting is the ability look back at the situation exactly a year ago. This gives you information about supply and demand with regards to the time of the year. For example, demands normally go up during holiday seasons and therefore, a high quarterly profit is expected. Investors will get worried if the profits are lower than expected, which in turn affect the pricing of the stock. Apart from holiday seasons, seasonal disruptions, like natural disasters, etc, may also be reflected in the charts. Charts however, do not hint on the price of stocks. Instead, they're only used to highlight certain seasonal trends in the most generic manner.

Trading volumes of a particular stock reflects investors' interests in the stock. Large trading volumes tend to cause big changes in the stock because of numerous changes of hands, while low trading volumes tends to result in a gradual change and at the same time shows that investors do not see anything really exciting about the stock at that time. This however, does not dictate whether a stock will rise or fall.

Using information from both charts and trading volumes, things perhaps have become clearer. The charts mark the trends, while the volumes reflect investors' interest. If trading becomes active when the stock is on the high end, the price of the stock is likely to fall as investors try to sell the stock. On the other hand, if trading becomes active when the stock is on the low end, the price of the stock is likely to rise as investors see the opportunity. Like any other method of predicting market trends, this method also has its own limitations, as many other factors still have to be considered. Examples of such are current inflation rates, the economic conditions, particular high impact events, etc. In other words, this is also talk cock lahz. Americans and their TV programs really all dua pao one siaz. Bleah.

Other basic methods of investing are perhaps to short when the market is turning bearish and to long when it is turning bullish. Note, the keyword is turning. Once the market has pretty much stabilized in its new equilibrium, this method is no longer valid. However, the next question is when is the market stabilized? Also, when will it start its bear or bull run? Unfortunately, no one knows. The key is probably to react quickly to the change when it starts. Not many people can do that, because not many people can accept losses. Typically, the fear of losing will result in even greater losses in the realm of equities.

Work.
Work has pretty good progress today! I'm happy. At least, I know where I'm heading towards now, and how things can be done. I always like this feeling, the feeling of knowing where I'm going. At work, or life in general, this truth always holds. Do you know where you're heading?

Anyway, apart from work, a nice conversation today further lifted my spirits. So good day today! When things turn well, everything goes well together. When things are bad, just believe that the good days awaits you when you turn the corners. Shall cherish this happy feeling, cos you never know when you're going to lose it again. =)



Big spike in rabies cases. (From ST)
PARIS - CHINA has seen a more than twenty-fold jump in the number of human rabies infections over the last decade, a Chinese study released on Thursday says.

Transmitted by animal bites that attack the nervous system, the rabies virus causes over 50,000 deaths worldwide each year, mainly in poor countries, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A team of researchers at Sun Yat-Sen University's School of Public Health in Guangzhou, Guangdong led by Dr Lu Jia-Hai reviewed data from more than 22,000 infections in China between January 1990 and July 2007.

Their findings, published in the Britain-based journal BioMed Central Infectious Diseases, show that rabies cases increased from a low of 159 in 1996 to 3,279 in 2006.

The report did not say how many of these were fatal.

Most patients were children and teenagers, and contracted the disease after being bitten - usually in the head or neck - by a dog, the study found.

The highest density of cases occurred in south-western and southern China, especially in highly populated areas.

The four provinces most affected 'lack strictly enforced measures to eliminate dog rabies or an ample supply of modern cell culture vaccines for humans', noted Dr Lu.

Worst-hit was Guangdong province, where 62.5 per cent of patients did not receive proper treatment for their wounds, 92.5 per cent did not get needed vaccinations, and more than 90 per cent failed to receive any anti-rabies antibodies.

'In China, human rabies was largely under control in the period 1990-1996, owing to nationwide rabies vaccination programmes', Dr Lu said in a statement.

'The recent increase in incidence has been high enough to trigger a warning sign for control and prevention'.

He called for a mass campaign to carry out the mandatory vaccination of dogs. -- AFP