SGX, where got elephant in the room?

Goh Eng Yeow wrote a piece titled ‘SGX, where have all the investors gone?’ in the ST on 24 Oct. This is a surprising question to ask today as if it just happened. Remember all the good news when Bockers came on board, that with all the foreign big players, including the algo traders, liquidity would be all time high and broking houses could expect to do great business. He even invested $250m on a new high speed super computer for SGX to prepare for the big volume of trading transactions that it was supposed to handle. There were great promises of a highly strung stock exchange and smiling faces every where.

What is happening today, broking houses trying to break even, remisiers quitting the business, unable to chalk up even commission to pay for overheads, and the dearth of investors?  And the best part, no one knows what is wrong with the stock market.  Everyone in a state of denial. Everything is fine, just fine, nothing to worry about. This is the new normal. 

What is happening, what is happening? Now who is asking what is happening, everything is fine, really, tomorrow will be better. We have seen worst, went through many crises, not to worry, SGX shall overcome.

This is what Goh Eng Yeow concluded in his piece, ‘No doubt it is now also facing big challenges in finding new ways to draw back the investing crowd.  But I have no doubt that it will persevere and succeed.  That must be the fervent hope of remisiers sitting out the trading drought.’ I would like to type HOPE in big capital letters. Not to worry, after the darkest night, the sun will surely rise.

Did anyone see the elephant in the room? No, the market is weak because of external factors, the world economy is slowing, China is slowing down, and what else? Still in a state of denial, refusing to see the elephant? This time the crisis is for real. No amount of monkeying around will do any good until the elephant is removed.

How about having more courses, diplomas, degrees, master degrees and Ph Ds for stock brokings? When we have so well trained and qualified remisiers to help investors to trade, definitely the market will boom. Let’s train more Ph D remisiers. It will sure help, if not improving the liquidity, at least the remisiers can print Ph Ds in their name cards and call themselves investment specialists. Never mind if they are still earning less than $2000 a month.

Any suckers want to acquire a Ph D or Masters degree in stockbroking? Plenty of courses available, to earn $2,000 pm or less.