Retire Rich

It seemed the word "circuit breaker" is the vogue now on most financial markets around the world.

The PSEI gapped down to -12.4 % (from previous close 5335.37 to 4673.58) at the opening when PSE resumed trading on Thursday after two days it halted trading. The decline again triggered the circuit breaker's 10% decline threshold for the third time this month. The trading halted right after the opening bell and resumed 15 minuted thereafter.

When the trading resumed the index continued plummetting down to 4039.15 level or a staggering -24.29% decline from Monday's closing price. The market recovered slightly from the day's low and closed to 4623.42 level (-13.34% decline).

This week alone the market went down -20%. That's two trading days alone this week---the worst trading week we've seen in recent history. And yet the COVID-19 virus still in the rising trajectory, yet to reach its peak.

So where we will go from here?

On another front, the oil price succumbed to its lowest at USD20 per barrel.

Screenshot from PSE advisory.

How shortened trading hours affect OFW traders? Eh di lalong napuyat!

PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon issued a public advisory through a memorandum to shortened the trading hours. The advisory was issued on Sunday, 15 March 2020 consistent with the COVID-19 preventive measures as stated above.

As an OFW, in a time zone, which is 5 hours behind from Philippine time---trading is tougher and more challenging now. Under normal trading hours, I used to get-up at 4:30AM. You know how it feels to wake up during this particular time. Because of the shortened timing, I need to get-up at 3:30AM starting 17 March 2020. This is a must for me if I have an open position to monitor.

So guys alam na this. If you want to trade, you need to sleep early and wake up early or find a strategy na hindi ka mapuyat. You know it's tough doing your day job without enough sleep.

Other OFWs in other parts of the world might not have the chance to catch the trading hours. So yong iba mukhang mapipilitang maging long term investor.

Anyway, good luck to all of us trading OFWs. Try to adjust accordingly and may the odds be with you.

Below is the full text of the advisory.

Market indices at the end of  12 March 2020 trading day.

The answer is to trade and catch the bounce. But how? Here's how.

In my previous post, I mentioned that this is the time to test strategies that you either developed or learned. In this case, I tried to test, apply and practice the "Fish Ball" strategy, which I learned from Trader's Lounge.

So let me walk you through. Note that this is how I understood from my readings and learnings at Traders Lounge. You may join the FB group, subject to their Admin's approval, read and interpret the strategy yourself. Click this link to go there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/504058690117433/

For the purpose of testing the strategy, I used my Investagrams virtual port.

What are the conditions required for a stock to qualify bounce play?

The following are the steps to screen a stock that has strong probabilities to bounce.

1. During non-trading hours, open Investagrams.
2. Look for a stock that's trending/rallied for 3 or more days and then made a sudden drop for one or two days (long red candles) with none or just having a short bottom tail/wick. 
3. Once you identified this stock put it in your watch list. 
4. Get ready to trade the bounce during the next trading day. 

Setting up the "Fish Ball" strategy.

My answer is to stop trading.

Maybe my above answer is not for you. It depends on your profile as a stock trader. I consider my self a quickie trader. I do not sit on a stock position for a long time. A swing or a bounce is enough for me. I sell quickly once my favorite progressive support line (a type of moving average indicator) is breached.

So far, whenever I entered a trade on any particular setup, my support line was breached. So, as you can see (above picture), I don't have any position.

I had a total of eight trades for the month of January and February 2020. I lost all eight. Minimal losses on each trade. My trading system/strategy protected me.

As you can see the global financial market is down. Most likely the reasons are the following:

• Trade War (between China and the US).
• COVID-19.
• Saudi Arabia, Russia Oil price war. 

After a few glitches from BDO, I still able to continue this challenge. I'm now in the third month! What about you?

We need to persevere whatever hindrance that comes on our way just to come up with our end goal. I'm having a hard time in the second month getting the one-time password from BDO. I made a video out of that experience, which you can view by clicking the link here: https://youtu.be/7k4DTJq4sG4

Well, in spite of the problem, I still able to continue. For the February 2020 salary, I have no problems saving 10 percent from it. I was able to access my BDO account smoothly this time. So, on the very same day, I got my salary, I transferred the savings to my COL Financial account (screenshot above).

As an OFW living off from my monthly paycheck, it is essential that I will have even a small amount of money set aside on a monthly basis. In this challenge, I oblige myself to save at least 10 percent. Then I invested the amount to a high dividend-paying stock or preferred stock.



I choose high dividend-paying stock because of the COVID19 virus the entire world is battling made companies stock price plummet. As a quick trader, (this is how I call myself as I hate to sit on a stock for an extended period of time) it seemed to me that the possibility for a stock price of a company to rise is less. So, for now, I opt to stop trading and just watching how the market move.

I still maintain a separate broker account intended for trading and from time to time if an opportunity exists to trade---I trade. In January 2020, I'm 0 wins out of 3 trades. In February 2020, 0 wins out of 5 trades. Damn, I did not do any trade this month so far.

The best thing to do, for me, in this situation is to save more money for capital. So what are you waiting for? Join me and take the "save 10% from your salary challenge". Months pass by so fast and it will never come back! I'm now in the third month. I hope I can continue this challenge until December 2020 to get my goal.

I was able to resolve the issue with my BDO one time password problem. So I was able to open my account again and save 10% from January salary.

Above is the video narrating the problem. Next up will be month of February salary.

Hopefully, I will be able to continue till December 2020 on this challenge so that I can buy that something I wanted to buy, which I'm targeting at the first quarter of year 2021.

The BDO "One-Time Password" (OTP) problem I'm facing is a recurring problem. It has been my problem since they removed the "challenge question" option during log-in.

Don't get me wrong. OTP is good. It is an added security measure to your online banking transactions. It is being used almost every online transaction nowadays. The problem is: If you're not receiving an OTP from your registered number. As far as BDO is concern, yes! I'm not getting their OTP lately.

How I solved when I encountered this problem the first time?

I contacted BDO and I got the OTP working. Then, I subscribed to BDO's mobile app OTP generator. The problem came back, when I replaced my phone and deactivated the mobile app generator. I cannot receive again an OTP through my registered number. So, I called them again and changed my registered number and it works. Yah! Gumana lang ng dalawang buwan tapos ayaw na naman magbigay ng OTP.

The above video is my rant regarding this problem. Bear with me.

Have you encountered the same problem? How you solve the problem? Let me know by commenting below.

[Update: I received a test text message with a certain code from BDO. The message also said that If I received a call I need to tell the operator some code. But so far I did not receive any call from them. I tried to log in and I received an OTP. So it's okay now.

However, when I tried to login from the BDO app, no OTP came. In other words, I can not subscribe again the mobile app OTP generator. Anyway I'm okay with it as long as when I login from website I should receive OTP.] 

What's up mga Kababayang OFWs? We are at the end of the month na naman. Make sure not to forget our "Save 10% from your Salary Challenge."

I planned to invest in Retail Treasury Bond (RTB) the savings that I will be getting from January 2020 salary.

So ano nga ba tong RTB? 

Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) are medium to long-term investments issued by the Philippine government. They form part of the Government’s program to make securities available to small investors. 

What are the terms of offering?

• Issuer:                                  Philippine Government through the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr)
• Maturity Date:                     February 11, 2023
• Issue & Redemption Price: At par (or 100%)
• Interest Rate:                       4.375% (subject to 20% final withholding tax except for tax-exempt institutions)
• Interest Payments:              Quarterly
• Minimum Investment:        Minimum of PhP5,000.00 and in integral multiples of PhP5,000.00

Sources: 

I will write a series of posts about the meaning (in simple terms) every jargon involving the stock market. I might do also YouTube videos on some how-to things also involving the stock market. Example: How to open a stocks broker account? Or how to open a Philippine bank account? Like BDO.