FIRE SAMURAI

Overstock.com , Inc. [Nasdaq: OSTK] is an online retailer and technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its leading e-commerce website sells a broad range of new home products at low prices, including furniture, décor, area rugs, bedding and bath, home improvement, and more. The online shopping site, which is visited by tens of millions of customers a month, also features a marketplace providing customers access to millions of products from third-party sellers. Patrick Byrne (founder and former CEO) bought Deals.com in 1999 and rebranded the international retailer to Overstock.com. In its early years, Overstock.com gained a reputation for bargain prices and “steals,” which led to early success earning $25.5 million in year two and $80 million in year three. In 2002, Overstock.com went public and earned nearly $100 million in gross revenues. Between 2011 to 2019, Overstock’s revenue grew at a CAGR of 4.14% - not very exciting is it? As with many online retailers. Overstock...

Buy the business, not the stock Never only invest in a stock but invest in the business. You are investing in a business and not just the ticket symbol of the company. O nly invest in a business you understand. In other words, before investing in a company, you should know what business the company is in. Timing the market is futile One thing that Warren Buffett doesn't do is to try to time the stock market. He has a very strong opinion on the price levels to buy and sell for individual shares, but he does not know if will go up or down. Majority of investors  do just the opposite and try to time the market and try to make short term investing decisions because of this. So, never try to time the market. In fact, nobody has ever done this successfully and consistently over multiple stock market cycles. Investing Is More Luck Than Talent When you try to time the market, you have two critical decisions to make. First, you need to know when to buy, at or near the low point in the marke...

Many times we ask ourselves "Why do some people make money easily while I have a difficult time doing so?". I already have a few friends who are making tons of money after huge investment in crypto and I have another friend who has made tons of money in options trading. I am still struggling and I have been asking myself why. What am I lacking compared to them? I believe it is the amount of effort and time that my friends have placed to master the art of trading and investing -that make them successful. They will only focus on one thing and continue to sharpen that skills and knowledge relevant to that instead of jumping from one to another. For my case I have dabbled in the futures market, day trading, options, some crypto....all with mild or no success.  It is time for a change.  I have to put in more effort to be a more of a successful investor. knowledge without action is meaningless. We must Do the right things and DONT Do some things that may hinder our progress to be s...

  I am adding more funds into my TD Ameritrade Singapore account to increase my account's trading size.  I dropped TD Ameritrade an email about the funding procedure and here is their reply : You may refer to our full wire details below and initiate the wire at your bank. You may refer to our website for more funding information. https://www.tdameritrade.com.s g/why-td-ameritrade/account-ty pes-and-funding.html Do take note of the following when wiring your funds over.         · We cannot accept third party wires. Funds must be wired from a bank account that is registered under your own name.         · Funds sent to Wells Fargo Bank MUST be sent denominated in US Dollars. Funds received in non-US dollar denominations will be returned to the sending account         · Deposits directed from a currency exchange will not be accepted and will be returned.     ...

  This is probably the most difficult question to answer: When Should I Sell a Stock ? I remember creating this flow chart diagram for my own reference a few years back which I'd like to share it on this blog. So when I ask myself again - Should I still keep the stock or should I just sell it? ....I'll refer back to this diagram.

I started to take notice of Palantir after reading about it on some private investing forums. After doing some research and background study on the company and its founders (Peter Thiel, Alex Karp) , understanding its unique moats (big data analytics technology and US government connections) and realize it's future growth potential, I decided to invest in Palantir when the Stock was around the $10-$20 range a few months ago. That was before news got out that ARK Invest Fund started to invest in Palantir. Palantir entry into the stock market was rather muted since they went for direct listing instead of the usual IPO route. Back then it was called Silicon's most secret unicorn for a reason and even it's listing in the stock exchange was considered quite secretive. However all that changed when ARK Invest came in and more people knew about Palantir. The stock price of  Palantir went up significantly after that.  Holding as of 27th Jan 2021 (source:  link ) Peter Thiel who ...

H aving a strong dividend portfolio is important to every investor. Dividend investing  is a tried and proven method of wealth accumulation that offers a strong hedge against inflation over time. However finding good dividend stocks can be quite a challenge and it is easy to fall into dividend yield trap.  What is a dividend yield trap? A dividend yield trap is when an investor seeks a high dividend yield company, but the increase of the dividend yield could be due to the increase in dividend payout or the decrease in stock price. If the stock price decreases due to some fundamental issue with the underlying business, then the investor could be investing in an underperforming company. So the key to building a solid dividend investment plan is to only buy stocks that meet certain investment criteria. Here are the 9 Main Criteria For Picking Dividend Stocks :  Criteria 1 : Strong Cash Flow A company with strong cash flow allows it to scale its operations and develop new pro...

It is crucial for investors to start with the right expectations when it comes to stock investing. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time and effort to be consistently successful in stock investing. Many beginners they move into investing and expect quick results in a short term of time only to realize that stock investing isn’t as easy as they initially thought. Even some experienced investors that have been in the market for a long time may feel flustered after many years of fruitless returns. When I started out my investing journey, I searched for books to gain some knowledge on investing and i was looking for more ways to increase my passive income. Some investing related books that I highly recommend for every investors  to read are : Peter Lynch’s One Up On Wall Street  and Learn to Earn , Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor, and Secrets of Millionaire Investors by Adam Khoo. Reading investing books can greatly help investors to be prepared for the real batt...

The US Stock Market seems to be back to being bullish after Joe Biden’s exciting win over Donald Trump. Plus the news of Pfizer’s 90% effective Covid-19 vaccine also helped to move Dow Jones to greater heights. However as a value investor it is always better to stay cautious especially during this uncertain time.   Here are the Five Stages of Bubble that every investor should be aware of:   Stage 1:  Displacement – This occurs when investors get too excited and blinded by some new paradigm, such as a new innovation in technology or interest rates that are historically low. This gives investors more confidence in the market and signals a buy opportunity for them.  Stage 2:  Boom – Prices will rise slowly at first, following a displacement, but then it gains some momentum due to the increase of buyers in the market, which sets the stage for this phase called BOOM . You will start to see a big spike in the number of investors as well as a huge volumes o...