Having a good rest is so important. I did some backtesting using some refined methods of technical and fundamental analysis. I found that using my methods, I am able to create lots of Alpha, even after factoring in 1% buy and 1% selling costs. From April 2006 till April 2012, I am able to achieve 12.4% per annum after transaction costs for the MSCI WOrld, vs a 7% fall in a buy and hold method. My model is able to long and short the index. In the last one year, from April 2011 to April 2012, I achieved 20.5% instead of 2.4% for buy and hold.
I have had a good rest, well not really because I had to give a seminar to 300 people last Saturday, but I had time to think in the last two nights and again for tonight. Giving me time to think is very important because I am able to reflect and reinvent myself. I am also able to analyse the problems in my investment methods and come up with solutions. It has been a very fruitful weekend for me.
In 3 weeks' time, I will be heading to Amsterdam and Paris for 15 days. I will be very relaxed, spending time to study the architecture in France and Netherlands. Amsterdam is a very beautiful country. The city is full of canal and the pace of life slower than Singapore's. But the hotel rooms are prohitively expensive. One night, even at corporate rates, cost me S$330 per night.
Paris is even more beautiful because of the architecture. I am very interested in the real estate. 5 years down the road, if I have a family, we will be thinking of migrating. But we have to be financially free first. This is a picture of the Louvre in Paris. It's a wonderful museum that you cannot finish touring in a day.
