A Night of Stocks Stuck in Mind

The Stock Market Seminar that I took interest into was promptly attended by Angeline and me last night, along with mostly students (surprisingly), therefore not making it too intimidating. Prior to the event, I have personally been thinking whether only the ‘wealthy’ would come, or those who have already been monitoring the daily financial charts because of the stocks they currently own. I can’t even afford a job to buy me a single share at the moment, so that immediately grew the apprehension in me. Our main objective in coming really was to provide ourselves with whatever handy information there is on stock investing and trading, which may prove to be a good primer and backgrounder on the kind of work that we are to venture in Seoul. Being able to add the said event to our list of “Seminars Attended” in our resume was a second goal. We weren’t doing anything anyway, being the jobless dudettes that we are, so we might as well shell out a reasonable 500php for this seminar. Off we then went to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) headquarters in Ortigas.

Main speaker of the night was Mr. Fernando Gaite, Jr., former GSIS vice president, current professor of Finance at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and a proud signatured tux coat owner, for being the self-acclaimed ‘wise’ stock investor that he is.

I’ll make the next few lines of the post the very random, doodle-type-- very much like how I jotted on my notebook while listening to the main speaker at the seminar. At least people know I was a good student inside the ‘classroom’.

1.) $1M (44 million php at current exchange rate)- amount to have to be technically considered a millionaire (contrary to what Filipinos know that you need just a million pesos, hehe)

2.) F= p(1+i)n- formula to get the future value of an asset

3.) ½ of 1%- tax rate imposed on buying stocks (which is very low compared to the high rates put by the government, say on buying real estate as investment)

4.) PLDT stock is almost a mirror of the PHISIX (PSE Index).

5.) PHISIX- the Philippine Composite Index, stock market index of the Philippine Stock Exhcange. Very much like the DJIA, S&P 500, and NASDAQ.

6.) Current sunrise industries in the Philippines: OIL and MINING

7.) 5 to 7 years- typical duration of Philippine market in its rise and fall

8.) MV greater than NAV- buy stocks ; MV less than NAV- sell stocks

These tips on being financially equipped are my favorite:
1.) Save 1000php monthly.
2.) Buy real estate on installment.
3.) Secure life insurance.
4.) Buy equities from 13th month pays and other money windfalls.
5.) Savings reaching 50,000php should be invested in treasury bills before shifting to equities.
6.) Buy jewelry only after 40.

Now here is a funny explanation given by the speaker on that last tip, and this basically applies to women, since we are the ones who would usually drool on the bling:

"You buy jewelry after 40 because that's the only time you can afford such luxury anyway. Women don't necessarily need to buy jewelry early on in their lives since they have boyfriends or husbands who will buy for them. By the time they reach forty, these women will have to support themselves in buying their own to still look pretty and compete with other women, because most probably, these women's husbands are already buying jewelry for other younger women."