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I Was Wrong about S$NEER
In my previous post “Using Interest Rates to fight Inflation”, I said that the SGD has depreciated 4% against the USD. And as the US Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) hikes interest rates further, the depreciation will worsen, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) will eventually be forced to either raise interest rates or sell our foreign reserves to defend the SGD. I stand corrected, I’m sorry.
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Using Interest Rates to fight Inflation
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) uses exchange rate, rather than interest rate, as its chief weapon to fight inflation. However, after 3 rounds of tightening efforts between Oct 2021 and Apr 2022, the SGD has actually weakened about 4% against the USD, from 1.35 to 1.40. Is there more that can be done?
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Why Voluntary GST Registration?
“What? GST can be voluntary meh? I thought only businesses with more than S$ 1 million revenue can register for GST?” This is the typical response I get when I advise small business owners to voluntarily register their business for GST (Goods and Services Tax). In this article, I will dispel some of the myths regarding GST, and why you might want to voluntarily become GST registered.
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Why and How I’m Shorting Bitcoin
Proshares launched a Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI) on 21 Jun 2022. It is a fund meant deliver a performance inverse (opposite) to the price of Bitcoin. In other words, if the price of Bitcoin (BTC) goes down, the value of the fund will increase. If BTC price goes up, the fund value will decrease. I bought into this fund on 27 Jun 2022 @ US$ 39.9762 per unit. I’m expecting it to go up to about US$ 60 in the next 6 months. In this post, I’ll explain why I’m shorting BTC, and how BITI works as a good vehicle to do it.
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9 Financial Lessons from a Board Game
#1: Good Debt vs Bad Debt #2: Stay Invested #3: Be in the Market #4: Luck is Important #5: If Unlucky Skill becomes Critical #6 Be careful if you Leverage #7 Low Income = Economic Vulnerability #8 Keep your Income High, Expenses Low #9 Be Emotionally Neutral to Doodads
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Why Tether (USDT) May Fall Next
An article titled “Tether – the coin that could wreck crypto” was published in the NY Times on 18th June 2022, which had a lot in common with my own article “How “Stable” are Stablecoins?” published on 31 May 2022. Here are 5 similarities between the two articles.
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Start Small, Scale Fast
If you can’t make money with no money. what makes you think you can make money with money? Start Small, Scale Fast is a business philosophy I have developed which allows new entrepreneurs with limited resources to fail an infinite number of times, and keep trying until they succeed. Success, therefore, is guaranteed. It’s all a matter of time.
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Why I Like Income Generating Assets
An income generating asset is like the goose that lays golden eggs. You can sell the golden eggs for money, and you can also sell the goose (please don’t kill the goose like the story goes!!). If you bought the goose at the wrong price (i.e. too high), you can still sell the eggs for income for years to come. But if you managed to buy a goose at a discount, you can sell the goose for a profit in future. And while waiting for the right price to exit, you can continue enjoying the income produced by the goose.
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XSGD – Singapore’s Own Stablecoin
I learnt a few days ago that Singapore actually has its own stablecoin! It’s called the XSGD, backed by StraitsX, which was developed by Singapore-based fintech firm Xfers. I wrote a fair bit about How “Stable” are Stablecoins earlier, and it’ll be interesting to analyze the stability of the XSGD as well. As discussed in […]
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How “Stable” are Stablecoins?
Stablecoins are called such because they are pegged to a fiat currency. If the peg is maintained, the stablecoin is as stable as the fiat currency, since it is always exchangeable with the fiat at a 1:1 ratio. But do you know what the keyword in that whole sentence is? “IF”. I believe what gives […]