Singapore Exchange Seeks High-Frequency Traders

The above is the titled of an article by Jonathan Burgos on Oct 28 in Bloomberg News. It quoted Magnus Bocker, the CEO of the Singapore Stock Exchange that this is the way to go to improve liquidity and quality of the Exchange. HFT accounted for a fraction of the liquidity in the trading of equities but 30% of the trading of derivatives, according to spokesperson Loh Wei Ling. HFT is thus in the system but would now go a big way into the main activity of the Exchange.
 
When Bocker first came on board he introduced several changes to facilitate trading, to improve liquidity, efficiency and trading volumes. Among these were smaller bid size, lower commission, no lunch break, allowing computers to be plugged into the SGX and located nearby to take advantage of the proximity and benefitted from the speed to make profits.
 
“The more liquidity and the more trading generally makes the market better, lowers trading cost and helps smaller investors,” said Larry Tabb. How would this statement measure up to the reason for Bocker to want to introduce HFT as stated below?
‘Bocker is seeking more business with the daily average value of equity trades down to about S$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) this year, a 36 percent plunge from 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.’
 
And David Gerald, President of SIAS, has this to say, ‘…allowing high-frequency traders will introduce unfamiliar risks to investors .…“A knife is good as well as dangerous,….Investors must know the risks and decide for themselves whether they want to invest or not. There are many products out there which are very risky and investors have to be educated on the risks and they must make an informed decision.’
 
Comforting words indeed. But with the HFT in full play, has the nature of stock trading been changed when profit and loss are incurred by virtue of computer speed and nothing else, and with funds using their computers to trade or cheat against the small investors? What is a stock exchange? Definitely it is not meant to be a jackpot machine or a computer game.
 
Would the authorities seriously look at HFT and the nature of stock market trading, the unfair advantages of big funds with big war chests and high speed computers profiting from the innocent and unsophisticated small investors without the aid of computers and information from the computers of the Exchange. What happens to fair trading practices and a level playing field? The MAS owes all investors big and small the responsibility to ensure that it is fair game and not a loaded dice. Would the MD of MAS, Ravi Menon, care to comment on this? My personal opinion is that this is worse than Lehman Bonds and toxic notes. Is David Gerald’s warning of a dangerous knife enough, sufficient, to the unsophisticated small investors? Anyone in the govt thinks that HFT is ok and acceptable to be allowed into our stock market? HFT is like throwing some piranhas into our reservoir and then ask what happened when all the fishes were gone, like where have all the small investors gone.
 
Should all remisiers, dealers and investors be made to take a course and test on HFT, to know the risk involved and to sign a letter that they know what they are in for and would be responsible for their own tradings?
 
An easier way to increase trading volume is to open the market 24 hours. By virtue of tripling the trading hours, the volume must increase by 3 folds. Or maybe cut commission to zero where traders can trade freely.
 
Over the last few days, the volume of trades must have opened some eyes that all is not well. No, Rip Van Winkle still snoring away?

War is imminent in East Asia

 Abe warned China that it would not tolerate the ‘use of force to change status quo’ in East Asia, a reference to the Diaoyutai dispute. And Japan has been acting aggressively by scrambling fighter jets to intercept Chinese aircraft in international airspace in the vicinity of the disputed islands. Such rattling of sabre has been what the Japanese were used to in the past, and the use of force to change the status quo, like invading all the countries in East and Southeast Asia were what the Japanese did during the Second World War.
 
Japan is still acting and behaving as if it is the undisputed military power of the region and China is still the Sick Man of Asia. In today’s context, China is in a better position to warn Japan and be the provocative one. Instead, Japan is still thinking that it is their right and think they could invade and run wild into China. Abe and his military hawks better have their heads check. Japan today is on its own, encircled by Russia, China and the two Koreas and Taiwan in the South. Any outbreak of hostility will see old scores being settled. Yes, Japan can count on the Americans, and there will be a big military battle at sea if the combatants can limit the scale of the war and the theatre of action.
 
Today, the cities in both China and Japan are so densely populated that bombings could be so destructive beyond the imagination of anyone. The scale of destruction and death in one day could be more than the whole of World War Two. But the Japanese would not want to think so and continuously provocating China for a showdown.
 
China has replied to Abe’s threat that any act against Chinese aircraft or ships will be an act of war. This is the first time the word ‘war’ is being used in response to Abe’s threat and warning of military action. By making such harsh statements, Abe is forcing the Chinese to take even stronger stand to face up to him.
 
War is imminent and a very violent and bloody one when it starts. There is no way the two countries can limit the scale of war and the participation of other countries, notably the Americans on the side of the Japanese, and Russia, the two Koreas and Taiwan on the side of China. Historical debt will be settled and the Ryukyu island chain will likely be reverted to Chinese rule, and the Koreans will make sure their islands will remain with Korea. Russians may be tempted to expand their grasp from 4 islands to a few more in the North Sea.

A Singapore Renaissance

With our affluence and so much money floating around, in the pockets of individuals and in the govt coffers, Singapore and Singaporeans are indeed entering its golden years. We have the arts festivals, theatres and major sports events filling up our calendars and all the space available. The celebrities and rich and famous of the world are treating this island of fun as their playground.

The fun, the celebration and partying and money spending are just a few ways to show that we are at a stage like Europe in the 19th century, full of wealth and time for indulgence, that people can afford to have a lot of free time to dabble with the good things in life, to be cultured and refined and to enjoy life to the fullest. These are actually superficial in away, just fun loving. The real stuff in a renaissance is the literature.

We need to have our own literature, the really good stuff, not pray pray type, not the money not enough type. We need serious and deep thinking literature in the class of the ancient barbs, poets, historians, writers of novels, economics, the arts and sciences. We have a few good starts in the right direction with LKY writing a few books on history and politics. SR Nathan also wrote something and recently Raymond Lim also wrote something, likely to be about public administration or politics. Then we have the eminent academics like Lim Chong Yah, Wang GungWu and many others that have written their own books in their respective fields.

In the area of public administration and economics, we have so many brilliant ideas and first of its kind to teach the world, eg raising GST to help the poor, how to build public flats at practically no cost, except charging land cost at one’s convenient and selling at market price and losing big, how to populate the country with third world no talents and fake talents and still going strong, how to reduce the citizen population to improve the citizen core, how to pay the world’s never heard of salary to fight corruption and with the people agreeing to it, how to keep the people’s savings for as long as the govt wants and without protest from the people, and so many many other great ideas like making things compulsory for the people to pay, and more. These will definitely make it to the best sellers list and becoming classics for the civil service in many countries, a must read for their civil servants.

We need more. If all the ministers past and present were to write about their specialties, their achievements and their wisdom, we would have a good collection of the best literature by the best talents money can buy. And Heng Swee Kiat could start a new revision in the syllabus for the schools using our very own text books by our very own intellectuals. We would be original, our children on completion of the school system will be thinking original and quoting from our very own kind. There would not be any need to quote western philosophers, historians, scientists or economists as if they were gods. Out from their mouths will be wisdoms from the likes of LKY, Goh Keng Swee, not sure if he has written any books, Rajaratnam, Nathan, Raymond, and maybe Ngiam Tong Dow. Of course we must not forget to quote from Chan Heng Chee, Kishore, Simon Tay, Barry Desker, and yes, military strategies and stratagems from our very own generals. We could have our own versions to rival Sun Tzu or Clauswitz.

When that day comes, it will be our Renaissance, a Singaporean Renaissance. And some of them will be recipients of Nobel prizes for literature and the arts, and their books could be standard text for reading in schools and universities around the world. Then we can forget about Shakespeare, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Socrates, Orwells, Obama, Bush or Clinton…. All the retired or semi retired ministers should start thinking and writing their memoirs for the benefits of our future generations on their great works and their contributions to the well beings of four young.

Where can you find kampong spirit?

I mean the real kind of kampong spirit when the people feel as one, think as one, to protect each other’s interest as one people, as Singaporeans? This is not the fake or synthetic kind of kampong spirit where you have to ask the people to come out to meet everyone with free chicken rice thrown in and all you get is some plastic smiles that disappear the moment each goes his separate way.

There was this sense of belonging, of being one people, being Singaporeans at the few Hong Lim Protests. And you can also feel that when the free makans and free shows and free handshakes with ministers in the Singapore day in the big cities in some parts of the world when Singaporeans were invited. There were identity and belonging.

Unfortunately these events did not last for more than a few hours. The most enduring and endearing sense of belonging, of being Singaporeans, can be found in the social media. This is where, despite being rudely called the fringes, the Singaporeans gathered to share their thoughts and views and speak as Singaporeans, to defend the rights and interests of Singaporeans.

The issue of discrimination against Singaporeans for jobs, the rude foreign cyclist bullying a local female Singaporean driver, the mad foreigner at the Woodland Bus Interchange, etc are events that brought the Singaporeans together, without being told to do so. The Singaporeans spoke out as Singaporeans against the abuses against Singaporeans and their country. They share the same ideology, the same emotions and attachment that this is my home and country, that we are one. No prompting needed. It is spontaneity, the real kampong spirit that is missing in general.

In the social media, the Singaporeans gravitate together to be with one another, to side with one another, to look out for one another, to speak out for one another. How could these kinds of feeling and behaviour be spread across the island for all Singaporeans to feel Singaporeans again? It is tough in the train when 70% of the commuters are foreigners most of the time. It is tough at work if the majority of the staff is foreigners. It is tough when many of your neighbours are foreigners, PRs or new citizens that still act, feel and think like foreigners.

Social media is reviving and keeping the kampong spirit alive and healthy.

Time for celebration

Our success story and the riches we have accumulated are coming together nicely to make merry. We worked hard, very hard, to achieve what we have today. We have grown up, from being young adolescents to young adults that wanted everything that are symbols of success to celebrating our successes. It is time to party.

We have so many things to celebrate for and we do it in very big ways. We went overseas to celebrate with overseas Singaporeans and ex Singaporeans. We celebrate National Days and a big 50 year anniversary bash is in the works for 2015. There are so many things that we celebrated and partied, the F1s, the arts festivals, the international sports events, New Year and all the various festivals, saving mother earth, saving energy, green day, lights off day, teacher’s day, mother’s day, father’s day, children’s day….founding father’s day, mother and father in law’s day….dog’s day, cat’s day.  Why not, we have the money to spend.

The latest in the news is a one year celebration to mark 50 years of Singapore India relations. There will be a series of celebration in both countries with visits of dignitaries and delegations and shows and whatever. It will be a year-long celebration that would include a Singapore festival in India and an Indian festival in Singapore.

There will also be opportunities to celebrate our relations with the Asean countries in the same way, with the Americans, our protector, our former colonial master the Brits. We forget to celebrate the crowning of a new prince, but did we celebrate the Queens titanium anniversary or moon rock anniversary? We should also celebrate our special relationship with Israel for helping us built our armed forces. Now who else shall we celebrate as there is still plenty of money in the kitty? Nevermind, we will remember more countries and occasions to celebrate while we are in the partying mood. The people will be joyous and maybe got free chicken rice to partake too.

I have had fond memories of the last few days when the British Forces were here. There were celebrations everyday and in very big ways. They needed to spend whatever funds they have accumulated in the kitties of the Officer and NCO messes. It was like throwing money away as it was not right for them to take the money along. If they didn’t spend them, the money would become OPM. The SAF officers would inherit the wealth which they did not contribute to it. They simply cleaned out every cent they had and left nothing for us. Why should there when they would not be here tomorrow?

Everything is happening in the island today in a different way. There are so many celebrations that Sinkies would be so happy and could have made them the happiest people in the world, or at least a people in perpetual celebration. Spending money is always an easy and happy thing to do, especially OPM.