Trading madness or irresponsibility?

Matthew Lynn, a Bloomberg News columnist, wrote an article in the Today paper about high speed trading to the fine tune of picoseconds, just to take advantage of the next guy who does not have technology as an aid. Now what is a picosecond? This is Matthew’s definition, ‘a picosecond is one trillionth of a second, or …a picosecond is to one second what one second is to 31,700 years.’ This is the direction the stock market trading is heading to. Hey, wait a minute, what is a stock market, a jackpot machine, a casino or a game of chance? ‘A stock market has two core functions. It exists for companies to raise capital needed to invest in their business. And it should help ordinary people to make a decent return on their savings by investing in those enterprises.’ I quote Matthew. And this is nothing new. Why are the regulators allowing themselves to be led by the nose by the big funds to change the nature of stock trading from investment to one of pure gambling, by odds and speed? Mathew added that ‘at a certain point, you have to step back and ask whether this is a road we really want to go down, and whether it performs any useful function.’ He concluded by saying that ‘The stock exchanges should call a halt – and tell the traders that if they only want to hold their investments for a picoseconds, they might be better off going somewhere else. Like a racetrack.’ I would like to add that it is highly irresponsible for stock exchanges to allow this to happen as it not only gives the hedge fund an unfair advantage over other traders, which is a fundamental principle it must uphold, such trading methodology will eventually lead to the destruction of the stock market itself. High speed trading and many other variable methodologies are undermining all the cardinal principles of stock markets, eg churning, creating a false market, uneven playing field, buying and selling without change of ownership etc etc. The rot has started and its natural ending is the demise of the stockbroking industry if this deceptive trend is not stopped.

Relying on cheap labour unsustainable

Eureka! Eureka! Singapore has finally discovered that relying on cheap foreign labour for economic growth is unsustainable. The govt is now advising the companies to change their business model to raise real productivity instead of just employing more and more cheap labour. The govt is doing the thinking again, to help the unthinking Singaporeans, this time to increase their productivity by other means. This is good news or bad news? If companies are not going to import more foreign workers, will it affect our economic growth? What about the businesses that are dependent on foreign workers, like those in Geylang? I think it will also affect property prices and rentals. Maybe not. I don’t think the spending power of cheap labour really help much to generate economic activities and growth. The only businesses they provide, other than in Geylang, will be public transport and loitering in the casinos and all the public parks. They would also provide more jobs for themselves as cleaners, to clean up the litters they left behind. If lesser cheap workers are imported, the casino operators will be most happy, the local commuters will also be happy. Not sure if the public transport providers will be happy as the trains and buses will be less crowded and their revenue will be affected. Singaporeans and Singaporean businesses will have to make adjustment to live with the presence of lesser cheap foreign workers.

A Japanese lesson

By the time the last head is counted, there could be tens of thousands of Japanese dead after the one in a century 9 on the Richter scale earthquake. The flooding water that rushed to the shore and inland, flooding everything in sight was 10m high. Yet, the Japanese were calm, stoic, as if it was just part and parcel of living in Japan. No panic, no kpkb, no screaming and crocodile tears. They put up a brave front despite the destruction and loss of life. Coming home to Singapore, you should look at the faces of the lucky Singaporeans who escaped death while holidaying in Japan or missing a connecting flight to America. There were grief, fear, and some were sobbing. What a frightening experience and a narrow escape from death. Come nearer to Orchard Road, we had the once in 50 years flood of 2 feet deep water. What a disaster! What a comic disaster. It was just an afternoon monsoon rain that could help to clear the longkangs of the debris that needed a strong flushing. Boo, boo, boo, crying all round and blaming everyone and the govt for not preventing a flash flood caused by two hours of tropical rain. Singaporeans must grow up, learn to take disasters in their stride. The two feet of flood in Orchard Road should be time for a little fun in the rain. Throw some soap powder into it and have a free foam party. Enjoy and have fun the next time when it floods. No need to kpkb on spilling a glass of water. Learn from the Japanese. The next campaign for nation building, clap and have fun in Orchard Road when it floods. Enjoy the blessing of water from the sky. Take a bath or have a party. There are worst calamities than a little flood. And for those who are hell bent to have a nuclear plant here, because no choice, too many people and oil too expensive, the Japanese lesson will help them build a better nuclear plant that will never fail. If the local super talents here are not good enough, the foreign talents will swarm here to say aye aye, they can build one for us and guarantee it will never fail. They will not live long enough to see it fail for sure. By then they would have taken the money and gone.

The 4th Dimension

A clash of life forces at the frontier of two dimensions.

Need for a major restructuring of the workforce

Singaporeans should be grateful that 106,600 PMET jobs are being taken up by the Filipinos. This is the same as the thousands of construction workers and maids doing jobs that Singaporeans did not want to do. What Singaporeans should do is to retrain themselves for higher paying jobs. Not retraining PMETs to do lower level jobs. If this is the case, then someone’s ass need to be kicked. There are plenty of high paying jobs in Singapore that Singaporeans should aspire to do. Those jobs that Singaporeans are no longer competitive, should go to foreign talents. We should welcome the Filipinos and the rest to be our PMETs. Singaporeans can then seek jobs that these foreign talents cannot do and pay better. I am looking at Members of Parliaments, mayors, town council chiefs, President, or other political jobs. These are high paying jobs that Singaporeans should aspire to do. There may not be that many now but more can be created. We can have more MPs, more mayors, vice mayors, PMs, dep PMs, asst dep PMs, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and even Senior Presidents, or executive Presidents etc etc. And of course there are plenty of directors to be appointed in public and private companies. Singaporeans are barking at the wrong tree to fight with cheaper foreign talents to be PMETs. There are better and higher paying jobs waiting for Singaporeans in govt and in politics.