Life Hacks for Polymaths

Wisdom, Knowledge, Adventure, hacks for polymaths ... Life

Welcome polymaths !

Ever get the feeling that you seem to don't know what to do with your life because there are just so many things that you want to do ? I know, I've been there, so welcome to the club.

My name is Zigfred Diaz and I am a polymath. After more than 6 years of bloging about almost anything under the sun and having sort of a "blogging identity crisis." I've finally embraced who I am and decided to turn my main blog into some sort of guide for people with so much interest. Feel free to poke around.

When you should sell your mutual fund investment

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I received a  question  in one of my comments from a certain Albert Awat from Tarlac City, Philippines in my post entitled “Questions and answers on the Philippine stock exchange” The question does not directly pertain to the Philippine stock exchange but it is with regards to his mutual fund investment. The question is as follows: “ . . . good day sir, am an investor of (Names of mutual fund withheld) which are now doing well as far as navs are concerned. sir, am now thinking of selling all my shares from the said mutual funds since my investments are now negative16.38%,plus2.65% and negative23.40%, respectively from almost 24% to 29% dated March 17, 2009. please guide me to understand the market since the stocks are now soaring?further, pls help me where should i find the philippine stock exchange index (PSEi)from 2005 to present to help me understand the stock market and/or mutual fund. thank you very much and more power.” I love to answer questions from readers of this … [Read more...]

What is the best Portfolio diversification strategy

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This is the fourth blog post that I have written in response to several questions asked by an accountancy student from the University of the Philippines Visayas (Cebu Campus) regarding the Philippine stock market. As I have said before, I have responded via a blog post because the answers I am giving are quite lengthy not to mention the chance and opportunity to inform the public about value investing and investing in the Philippine stock market. The previous questions and answers to such questions are found in these posts: “Questions and answers on the Philippine stock exchange” “The best asset allocation strategy to follow.” “Determining the best rate of return for investments” Actually this is a series of questions that were raised in a comment. To appreciate and learn more from her questions, I suggest that you read the previous posts. The next set of questions is as follows ". . . Now, we’re down to the portfolio diversification and security selection . . . Which … [Read more...]

Determining the best rate of return for investments

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I have answered several questions from a student from the University of the Philippines-Cebu regarding investing in the Philippine stock market. So far my answers are contained in the post entitled "Questions and answers on the Philippine stock exchange" and "The best asset allocation strategy to follow." As I have previously noted, since the question asked requires somewhat lengthy answers, I have decided to turn it into a series of blog posts for several reasons. First, so that I can have something to post in my blog, secondly, for keyword ambush :-) and thirdly to somehow share knowledge and awareness to the public with regards to the stock market and value investing. One of the questions asked was that if assuming a 20 % rate of return in the stock market is practicable. Here is my answer to the question. Dear Enji Rate of return or otherwise known as “rate of return of investment” is defined by Wikipedia as “the ratio of money gained or lost (realized or unrealized) on … [Read more...]

The best asset allocation strategy to follow

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My previous posts entitled “Questions and answers on the Philippine stock exchange” were followed up by another set of questions sent by the same person. The questions propounded also requires a lengthy answer and hence I am responding with three different blog posts on her recent questions. In this post I am going to answer the question on Asset allocation strategy. The question is as follows: ". . . We are given 1,000,000 pesos as the capitalization for the portfolio. We decided for an asset allocation of 65% stocks, 25% bonds, and 10% cash, based on a moderately aggressive risk tolerance. Time horizon: 5 - 7 years Expected return: 20% (??? is it practical?) Objective: Capital preservation and growth Strategy: Lump-sum or one-time investingJust wanna ask for your opinion of the above investment plan esp the allocation." My response on asset allocation strategy is as follows: Dear Enji, Asset allocation in a nutshell as defined by Wikipedia “ . . refers to how … [Read more...]

Questions and answers on the Philippine stock exchange

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I received a question in my post entitled “Applying value investing in the Philippine stock market” and I wrote such a long response to the comment that I decided to turn it into a blog post. The question is as follows: “Im still a student and ive been searching for philippine large-cap value stocks.. we have a project on constructing a financial portfolio just wanna ask if whats the best valuation method to determine if a stock is a value stock? and how are the phil stocks classified into large cap, or small cap? US has this $5 billion range ive been looking for that same sort of classification applicable to the phils . . .” - Enji My response is as follows: Dear Enji, It seems that you have two questions here. The first one is concerning classification by Market Capitalization in the Philippine stock exchange and secondly is with regards to the best valuation method to determine “value stocks” in the Philippine stock exchange. I do not dub myself as an expert, but let me … [Read more...]