A sophisticated investor

I read about initial public offerings, share buybacks, share splits and rights issues; I see these are financial instruments designed for sophisticated investors and I ask myself, what exactly is a sophisticated investor?

For me, I would suggest trading ordinary shares on a regular basis, trading exchange traded options, warrants, futures and foreign exchange would tend to indicate sophisticated investor behaviour.

This would include margin trading utilising leveraged strategies to supercharge profits, naturally the downside of supercharged profits could be supercharged losses should you misread the market.

Ok, so I need to do some more searching for a definition and the corporations act provided me with some answers. To be classified as a sophisticated investor you must acquire a certificate from a qualified accountant stating that you have net assets of $2.5 million AUD.

That and/or that your gross income for the past two financial years has been at least $250,000 annually. Oh wow, that is a pretty exclusive club, you would be considered wealthy by most criteria.

Now, this certificate must have been obtained within six months of accepting any wholesale offer to acquire any form of securities.

This means this class of investor that can be offered securities without the usual product disclosure requirements that apply to everyday mum and dad investors.

I have to ask, but why? This means you lose all the protections offered to standard investors and you have the ability to lose big with no recourse. 

What it also means is you have access to products offered by institutions that do not wish to offer products to the general public without having to meet normal market product disclosure requirements.

When business conditions improve more companies seek to quickly raise capital, the time and expense of issuing prospectuses and product disclosure statements to retail investors can be bypassed and capital markets are more reactive.

I am now starting to think this is falling into wealth management criteria, an exclusive club where I have no membership privileges. 

These days, I prefer to remain a fairly unsophisticated investor as opposed to my former activities as a trader where I would buy and sell ordinary shares on borrowed funds.

Because of studies and other commitments, I don't have the opportunity to engage in through market research to justify the risk of margin trading.

So remaining as an investor utilising equity instead of debt financing is a far more cautious strategy for me now. I am looking forward to early retirement when I have the time to pursue such activities.

The Singapore Sling

The Singapore Sling is my favourite gin-based cocktail after the basic gin & tonic which I really refer to as a mixed drink. I prefer this long drink to be served in a highball glass as opposed to the cocktail glass as it is sometimes done. According to legend, the Singapore Sling was first mixed around about 1915 by a Hainanese bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel in Singapore named Ngiam Tong Boon.

What I have noticed is the Singapore Sling mixed throughout South East Asia is remarkably different from the Singapore Sling mixed at the Long Bar. I have to ask myself, why not? This pre-mixed cocktail served at the Raffles Hotel costs a bomb, I nearly passed out when given the bill for two pre-mixed drinks. That's right, they don't even mix it for you, it is poured straight from a container so it lacks the romantic notion of a bartender mixed drink.

I went searching for a definitive recipe for the Singapore Sling, to the best of my knowledge this is the Raffles mix. In our home mix we generally leave out the Benedictine liqueur and unfortunately we do not count out the 6 drops of Angostura bitters, especially as the night wears on.

60 ml - a double shot of gin
30 ml - a single shot of cherry brandy
15 ml - a half shot of Cointreau liqueur
15 ml - a half shot of Benedictine liqueur
250 ml - 1 cup of pineapple juice
1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice
6 drops of Angostura bitters
Crushed ice cubes

TAG Heuer connected

I have had the opportunity to try these smartwatches on at a promotional show when I was in Manila. The TAG Heuer is an android operating system that sets the face of the watch with a Carrera dial - ok, that’s good.

TAG Heuer is a luxury goods manufacturer, you know you are paying a premium for quality Swiss engineered products and if you are good with that - no issues. The question then is, does the Connected smartwatch meet the criteria for luxury goods?

But this is when it gets tricky, the android operating system is open source software and isn't exclusive to TAG Heuer. When you purchase a TAG Heuer timepiece, you are paying for a pretty intricate movement and TAG Heuer has a distinct style. I have heard these are great a $300 smartwatch for six times the price.

So what you have here is a bunch of electronics replacing an intricate movement, an open source software program available to anybody, a body and band with the TAG Heuer marketing department and their reputation for quality and style, so maybe it is just me - I just didn’t get it.

Smoking kills you if you are unaware

A recent Facebook post by a former high school friend was less than confronting, she was informed by an emergency doctor that she is dying and needs to give up smoking. She also added on her post, it's hard. What I was unable to determine from her post was, is being confronted with death hard or giving up smoking is hard?

She is about 45 years old and from my estimates smoking from about 15 years of age; so she has been smoking for around 30 years. Is she really finding it difficult giving up a 30 year habit or the threat of premature death brought about by 30 years of smoking difficult? 

We all stack on the kgs as we age due to metabolic factors, you can exercise for a lesser effect in your fourties as opposed to your thirties and twenties. At some stage, you need to take your health seriously as you don't bounce back as you did in your early twenties. I really hope she does give up smoking and gives herself the best chance at a long life, I fear the damage has already been done. 

What I do know is she has never exercised a day in her life, she always ate poorly and was extremely lazy. As far as I can tell, she was always grossly overweight; she has been obese all her adult life. This lifestyle coupled with smoking doesn't promote a long life so whilst it may appear I am somewhat belligerent with her medical issues, this isn't the case. However, I do ask myself, what did she think was going to happen?

Why do we accept deforestation?

We are constantly lectured on climate change brought about by global warming. As a population, we are constantly berated about the effects of carbon on the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels, yet we destroy the greatest carbon absorbing resource on earth with hardly a mention. 

We want to implement carbon trading, carbon taxes and other similar blunt instruments yet discount the impact of deforestation and the ability of trees to absorb the very carbon we are more than happy to tax. Are we going about this the wrong way?

The Simon Katich dumping

How badly was Simon Katich shafted by Cricket Australia? Yes, there was an aging team with Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey electing to play on, but we all know the real reason why Simon Katich was dumped was his 2009 altercation with future test captain Michael Clarke at the SCG. It had nothing to do with form, if anything, it was Ponting's form that was on the wane - he was finished.

The decision to axe the most accomplished test batsman of the previous three years was highlighted when Katich also lost his Cricket Australia contract at the time of his dumping. I have to question the abilities of chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch, he was unduly influenced by Clarke who appeared unwilling to play with him after it was reported Simon grabbed Clarke by the throat. It has been said of Katich that if you don't get on with him then you just aren't a good bloke. He is that type of guy - I don't doubt that for a minute.

When Simon Katich retired from leading the Perth Scorchers T20 team in 2014, his cricketing career has come to an end. He played on a long time after his test axing for Lancashire, New South Wales and the Perth Scorchers. He took up a post as the development coach for Greater Western Sydney football club missing Perth Scorchers champions league T20 campaign in India, the side really missed his leadership ability. Now he has some experience in coaching Aussie rules football, let's hope he brings some of his experience back to coaching cricket.  

A drunken useless passenger

I stepped onto the wide body aircraft and weaved my way past people busily stuffing their luggage into the already crammed overhead lockers and made my way to my window seat. I had to climb over a gentleman sitting in the aisle seat who was unwilling to get up and let me through - no problems.

As I squeezed past, the unmistakable odour of stale alcohol struck my senses and nearly laid me out; this was a 9.10 flight and this guy was clearly heavily intoxicated. That is way too early in the morning to be this drunk and he wasn't just topping up.

While we were still boarding and he became very chatty; I was thinking at least an empty seat separates us, maybe someone can come and sit in the seat and act as a buffer. I was in no mood for chatting, I had caught the 1:10 flight from Perth to Singapore after spending the previous day at work.

At around 4:00 the breakfast service starts ready for the 6:30 arrival, no time for sleep. This was the three and a half hour flight from Singapore to Manila, I was hoping to get an hour or possibly two of sleep before my Friday night out in Manila - this was looking less likely now.

The middle seat passenger arrives, after a robust discussion with the steward and my new friend, he shuffles into the middle seat complaining heavily and proceeds to tell me all about the injustice of airline seating.

I learnt that he flew from the UK to Singapore where he devoured as much alcohol on the plane as possible. They must have cut him off at some stage because he rummaged through his carry-on luggage, opened his duty free and consumed the bottle of whisky mid-flight.

As the flight stewardess handed the inflight menu out, he complained loudly they didn't serve beer on the flight. I stupidly pointed out that Singapore's very drinkable Tiger Beer is served on Singapore Airlines flights.

So he immediately proceeded to order a beer even though they were not serving yet, the ever helpful Singapore Airlines dutifully obliged. Naturally this was followed by another can and in short time, a third can of beer.

The meal cart appeared and breakfast was served, I asked for a glass of red wine with my brunch, yes it was still morning, well before midday, but what the hell, I was on holidays. A glass of wine with lunch is acceptable - maybe even a second.

Naturally my neighbour ordered a beer with his meal that slipped right through his hands as the stewardess handed it over. As the can rolled around on the floor, she handed him another - I was becoming a little uneasy now.

He glanced over at my glass of red wine and proclaimed loudly that red wine was a great idea and was poured a glass of red wine. So here he was clutching a glass of red wine in one hand and a plastic cup of beer in the other.

He alternately sipped from the left and right hands and forgot about his meal. Three more of these mixed beer/wine orders arrived before he finished the red wine decided to set his beer down on his table, one presumes to start eating brunch.

I can only presume his coordination was somewhat impaired as he knocked the full beer all over his tray table and onto the guy in the aisle seat. Beer was running everywhere and the staff had to clear the tray tables away before he could get up.

Somehow I remained immune to the beer bath from my vantage point of the window seat, I found some humour in the situation as I handed my napkin over without looking at him, so there wasn't even a need for an expressionless face.

When he stood up the beer had soaked into his lap giving the appearance that he had pissed himself, the look of horror on the other passenger's faces was hilarious. Everyone in the immediate area was well aware how drunk this guy was, he was pretty loud.

The seat cushion was also soaked, the faces of the people who walked up and down the aisle could see the huge wet stain on the seat cushion and his wet groin, the expressions of disgust was laughable as he exited the toilet.

There was no secret as to where all these alcoholic beverages were going. He was escorted to the rear of the aircraft where the staff presumably found this gentleman a dry seat - one hopes the rest of his flight was dry too.

A dry martini

It took me ages to get my martini right, all my cocktail books informed my a 2:1 gin/dry vermouth mix was correct - yet, my martini tasted terrible. I was reading the MASH novel by Richard Hooker who wrote extensively about life in The Swamp.

This is where I found the best example of the Gin/Dry Vermouth 5:1 ratio; after that - my martini really grew in stature. Naturally, no party at home was complete without a martini mixed up and served in the classic martini glass. Purchasing the martini glass was a feat in itself, I searched for ages to correctly present my martini mix at parties and I am glad to say we succeeded.

Embracing mLearning

As training and development practitioners embrace technology to deliver just-in-time training ensuring workers remain productive, delivery methodologies have expanded to mobile devices. Any traditional educator knows students of all ages will not put their mobile phones down during traditional lectures and tutorials so the question is, do we fight mobile phones or embrace the technology to deliver training?

The proliferation of mobile phone technology has led to the latest incarnation of learning methodologies; mLearning is mobile learning and defined as learning through social and content interactions across multiple contexts using personal electronic devices on demand. As mLearning is asynchronous learning, lessons are accessed by learners on-the-job at their time convenience when required.

Utilising portable technologies allows the for the creation of learning tools to aid informal learning focusing on the mobility of the learner through formalised processes outside of the classroom. As such, mLearning differs from eLearning insofar as the emphasis is on chunking bite-sized learning interactions with micro-lessons utilising interactive tools such as short videos, images, charts and diagrams.

Learners are empowered to take control of their own learning needs utilising andragogy principles of motivated adult learners. Hopefully businesses and individual learners embrace mLearning to create quality learning interactions and outcomes.

A quarter of a decade recession free

Australia just recorded a pretty substantial event, we have just completed twenty five years recession free. During the last quarter of a century, as a country we have navigated through financial meltdowns, commodity price downturns, the tech crash and the Asian currency crisis.

Until recently, we had low federal debt and posted budget surpluses; that was crushed with a change in government and change in policy but we have limped out of that phase and won't see a budget surplus again until sometime after 2020. The state governments have been investing heavily in infrastructure projects with individual state debt ballooning. Noticeably, personal debt is soaring with indebtedness growing, the ability to circumnavigate further economic shocks is severely compromised.

We have had challenges along the way, we are currently experiencing an economic slowdown of sorts. The mining boom that sustained the country through the financial crisis of 2008-2009 is over, the construction boom has now transformed into the production phase where less manpower is required. The capital expenditure peaked in 2013, mining companies have deleveraged despite extensive capex programs although explorations programs being shelved.

Mining these days is a very automated industry, the iron ore mines are equipment intensive relying on computerised processes. Coal production is lower, base metals are experienced reduced demand although gold as a precious metal remains high. The workforce is transforming, higher skill-sets are required with lower staffing levels at mining operations now ensuring viability to remain competitive.

The service industries are recovering, tourism is steady and residential housing is motoring along. Some would argue the residential housing market is depressed. The financials of residential property aren't great, there has been so much speculation during the boom years driving median property prices to outrageous levels that capital city markets remain overpriced and exposed to financial shocks.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has dropped interest rates to record lows, the currency has devalued with commodity prices acting as a tool to enhance exporters; likewise, imports have become more expensive with a cost to the economy. The reduction of tariffs agreed to in numerous free-trade agreements have lowered the cost of imports whilst assisting export markets.

The fundamentals of the economy are changing, non-viable industries are closing and being shipped off-shore. Unskilled jobs are being moving off-shore along with low margin industries, the knowledge economy we hear so much has yet to transform the general economy - innovation is still some way off.

The economy is currently expanding through population growth, the principles that allowed the nation to record 25 years without a recession have been forgotten and I fear the lessons of astute management are being replaced with misguided notions of invincibility and complacency.

The residential property market has grown almost to the point of defying economic principles and our once dominant financial institutions are exposed. The country faces limited capital through savings, the remainder is sourced internationally. The skewing of scarce capital from essential infrastructure projects to residential property, an asset class not earning currency inflows is the greatest concern.

The New York Times online

The information age has allowed us to gain access to top notch newspapers that the average punter previously never had the opportunity to read, The New York Times is one such newspaper. I began reading the newspaper after a short two-week trip to New York in 2001; the internet has allowed me to access this excellent newspaper where ever I am in the world.

The editorial quality is top notch even when the information age has destroyed the revenues of the majority of newsprint bound papers. Yes, newsprint will be around for a while yet for quality investigate journalism but breaking news will be delivered online through various mediums. The art of journalism is on the wane; less and less journalists are employed full time instead opting for consulting positions and deriving income through blogging based on their reputation.

The New York Times has maintained its quality and actually increased its readership through online means with free online content up to a set number of articles over a given time frame. Naturally the online content has a subscriber base with the limited free articles allowing interest parties to view their content. As the internet matures, more and more content will be offered on a subscription only basis - until then I am enjoying their content.

Slut shaming - come on, get real

Firstly, I really disagree with this term as it is frivolous, derogatory and straight out bullying behaviour. An article in Singapore's The Straights Times identified predatory behaviour by a Uber driver tasked with picking up a passenger from Clarke Quay after a night out with friends.

The driver bragged of drinking alcohol, he wanted to take her to a private house party and then refused to let the young female passenger out of the vehicle until she handed him her phone number.

She reported the incident to both Uber and The Straights Times where her story appeared on their Facebook newsfeed. This report should have made readers aware of problems with predatory Uber drivers seeking to take advantage of vulnerable young people; instead the reaction from readers was anything but concern.

Firstly readers correctly identified the vehicle in the background was not a Singaporean vehicle and was not at Clarke Quay. To their credit, The Straights Times immediately responded and informed readers Ms Nicole Lee (23) supplied the photograph herself and it had been taken whilst she was in Thailand - good stuff.

What was concerning was the majority of the comments were asking about her hair colour, her clothes, why she was out at 4:15 am, the fact that she was drinking and why she was alone? A number of people commented that "she looks like a slut" or "she deserved it" and numerous similar comments.

These comments were made by both men and women - absolutely disgraceful behaviour. What we have here is a young woman who was harassed by a Uber driver who then had the courage to speak out to warn people and was needlessly targeted and set upon by sad and pathetic people.

I don't know this woman personally but my life experiences tell me these irresponsible comments reflect the sad inadequacies of their personal lives - not hers.

She can wear what she wants, Clarke Quay isn't an area of ill repute and as an adult, she can stay out as late as she wants and she doesn't deserve such blatant hypocrisy. I would severely doubt she is anything like these pathetic comments state - people need to grow up.

The sailing life

Hanging around yacht clubs you generally come across two groups of people, sailors who like cruising and sailors who like racing, I fall into the later group. Racing can then be broken into dingy racing and cruisers, I began in performance dingies before moving onto the larger cruisers. Racing cruisers can be identified as onshore racing and offshore racing; I fall into the onshore racing category but would love to graduate into offshore racing, that however is a time luxury I can not afford at the moment.

I was formerly a member of a sailing club before graduating onto a yacht club, I loved racing performance dingies as a young guy but as I move into my late fourties approaching fifty years of age, I need to rethink dingy sailing. The advantage of the bigger boats is you don't need to work so hard, you are not hanging over the side by toestraps or providing counterbalance by hanging from a trapeze wire.

This is balanced by the need to sometimes scale the mast of the larger boat suspended by a bosun's seat to retrieve a halyard or free a jammed block. I wouldn't swap the sailing life; you need to work hard, save well, spend your spare cash well and enjoy you leisure time - I wouldn't swap my sailing life.

My operations management debarcle

Well, I really blew operations management, this was the first time I have ever failed an assignment and I'm not happy. I had to work away on a remote gold mine during an assignment period, that is bad enough normally as I was in for breakfast at 4:15 in the morning and returning home at 7:30 in the evening, the days were long and I was tired. It wasn't for that long though, it's what happened next that hurt. It's starting to sound like excuses now as plenty of people work long hours and are still able to pass.

During my stint away I developed a kidney stone, this is never great at the best of times but when in a remote area and faced with a two hour drive to the nearest medical facility, the ride can be somewhat uncomfortable. After receiving some morphine and anti-inflamatories to settle the fun down, the 90 minute ambulance ride to the regional hospital was somewhat more relaxed. Further compounding my woes, my employer just left me up there and told me to find my own way back at my expense - very poor form.

But this is where it got tricky, it took a month to work out exactly what was wrong with me and to organise surgery - that's way too long. Naturally I was juiced up the whole time and in some pretty interesting pain, a couple of trips down to the emergency department yielded no benefits as they believed I was imagining the problem - absolutely useless. Now during this period of blockage to my left kidney, my eGFR was measured at 47, that's equal to stage 3A chronic kidney disease. If you drop to 44 then you are at 3B - that isn't good.

I had to keep working during this period and when I wasn't at work I was down the doctor, medical centre or hospital getting scans. I would bring my text book, readings and tablet or laptop with me and study whilst sitting in the waiting room or hospital bed. This was not quality study time and I missed going online and missed many of the presentation recommendations as required by the lecturer, he really savaged my assignment - but no excuses.

After the surgery I headed off overseas a week later while the second assignment was planned. This involved group work and I am afraid I didn't contribute to the team as well as what I should have. Regardless, I feel the group made a reasonable presentation and I hope the marks from the second assignment will compensate for the poor marks from the first disaster.

I feel bad for not contributing to the standard I normally I expect of myself yet I shouldn't as I have carried a number of people during group work in the past, maybe it was time to bank some interest. The group assignment scored a high distinction and my combined scores allowed me to pass the unit with a 67% mark, better than I expected even if I had hoped for a distinction.

I am from an operations background, this unit should have been easy for me, instead I struggled and my confidence was severely dented. This is not the outcome I was expecting and I really didn't pull my weight during the team phase, finding out I now have chronic kidney disease certainly didn't inspire me in the short term either - just a waste of time and money really. But time to put this past me and move on to the next unit with hopefully a better result.