It is very difficult for stocks to crash when valuations range from almost Global Financial Crisis levels (e.g. Italy, Spain and China) to mid levels (e.g. S&P500, STI, etc). Any correction from now till end of 2012 will probably be no more than 20%.
AUDUSD and AUDSGD has turned up again. I was hoping for AUDUSD to fall to 1.00. For AUDSGD, I expected it to fall to 1.25. Both levels didn't occur before the turn around. AUDUSD turned around at 1.025 and it is now above 1.03. The same happened for AUDSGD. It stopped at around 1.27 and shot up.
Obviously the ECB announcement to bail out Spain and Italy, and China's S$180 billion stimulus has buoyed stock markets.
I do not think however, that the return risk ratio of changing from SGD to AUD is worthwhile because I am expecting a downside risk of 1.17 max. The extra 3 percentage point extra of yield that I get for investing in AUD Hedged bond funds cannot offset the potential 9 percent loss in currency. Why would AUDSGD or AUDUSD fall? There is a risk that the commodity down cycle is not over yet, at least for the next 6 - 9 months. If this be the case, RBA may cut rates two more times, which will of course add downward pressure on the AUD.
I strongly believe in the "Getting Paid While You Wait" investment philosophy. I'll stay invested in the following funds:
1. Schroder Asian Income Fund SGD 6% annual dividends, paid monthly.
2. First State Dividend Advantage SGD 4% annual dividends, paid quarterly.
3. AllianceBernstein Global High Yield SGD H, 6.5% annual dividends, paid monthly.
4. AllianceBernstein American Income Portfolio SGD H, 4.8% annual dividends, paid monthly.
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Did Apple Rip Off Creative Tech's iPod Design? How Much Are Balconies Worth?
Apple Ripped Off Creative Technologies' iPod Design? Such Hypocricy
A posting on Guardian's article says,
A posting on Guardian's article says,
"I would like to bring everyone's attention to another software company that got involved in litigation with Apple. Creative Technologies Singapore.
To put it simply, the ipod interface that got Apple out of the red into a multi-million to current multi-billion dollar business used portable meda player technology of Creative.
Creative sued Apple, and actually won. What happened in the end? Well, Apple paid Creative $USD100 million, but the damage was done. Apple had misused the patent to their own global advantage. The USD$100million was worth it for the global exposure the company had with the sales of its 1st generation I-pod and the billions of dollars of sales that came after. Now, Creative is back languishing in the shadows, and it even had to resort to be a component supplier for Apple to survive.
This is how Apple removes the competition. Ruthlessly.
http://news.cnet.com/Creative-sues-Apple-over-iPod-interface/2100-1047_3-6072488.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2006/aug/23/applepays100m
What are Balconies in Apartments Worth?
This came from a forum site presumably from the US.
"Outdoor space is calculated in different ways, depending on the type of space you're discussing. In my opinion, I believe that terraces you can look out on to from inside your unit are far more desirable than roof terraces you have to walk up a flight of stairs to access. I don't think there's a huge difference between a garden vs. a terrace, as that is purely a matter of choice - some people really like enclosed gardens where you dig down into the earth and plant large or very permanent greenery, while others love terraces higher up where your view (hopefully) is open sky and unobstructed.
In general a wrap terrace of decent square footage (read: useful - not four foot deep by 30 feet wide juliet balconies), perhaps 200 square feet minimum (something like 8 x 25 feet) is a good basic starter terrace. A medium sized terrace to me is something like 10 x 35 feet. Really generous terraces (over 500 square feet and well laid out) that wrap a unit are most desirable.
My calculations for a wrap terrace of this type are to take comp calculations of the price per interior square foot and muliply by a factor of .2 (20%) to .5 (50%) to arrive at the price per square foot the terrace is worth. Things like how high you are, the light, the views, the layout, how well planted and structured, the flow from inside to outside, the noise level, the quality of the unit and the building itself, location, privacy, etc. all contribute to being on the high end or low end of the 20%-50% multiplier."
20 - 50% square footage is about right. In Singapore, developers sell you 500 sq ft of internal space, with 50 sq ft of balcony and around 50 sq ft of bay windows / planter boxes and aircon ledges. The total area that they claim to sell you is 600 sq ft for S$1m. This works out to S$1,667 psf. However, planter boxes / aircon ledges are totally non livable areas. Balconies, if you don't have a view, probably counts for only 20% of the internal sq ft. If you have a totally blocked view, it probably counts for 50%. But if you have a pool view, but there is a block just 20 - 50m away, this is not a fantastic balcony and probably accounts for only 30% max of internal sq ft.
Chances are, in Singapore, the balconies usually lead to some pool view if you're lucky, but in most cases, you look directly into your neighbour's living room. So I'll take 30% of 50 sq ft which is 15 sq ft. The actual livable area is only 500 + 15 = 515 sq ft . So how much are you really paying for the apartment in Singapore? S$1,942 psf. That's 16% higher than the agent's rough calculation. I often ask agents at show flats this question and they often claim they don't know or that the information is unavailable. When I bring a long a measuring tape, they usually stop me or told me that the show room is not "really" representative of the actual unit.
Here's another website that has an even stricter valuation of balconies.
"That said, most will probably agree that a balcony is considered a nice to have feature for a condo. As for the question on how much value it will add to the unit, I would put it around 1-3% (with some exceptions). A lot depends on:
• The size of the balcony
• Its general usefulness
If the balcony adds a materially big amount of square footage, buyers will obviously perceive more value than a smaller balcony. If the balcony is big but faces another building, the value is naturally less than a big balcony facing the Sound.
If there are two units with an equally good view and one of them comes with a balcony, the value can increase as much as 3% even at the high end. It will be hard to imagine someone paying for more than a 4% premium for a balcony.
In summary, the lowest value blaony is one that has no view and is small (this will yield a small 1% premium, if any).The highest value balcony is the one that is big and has a view which can possibly fetch as much as a 3-4% premium."
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