Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen - Some Thoughts

*Note: Minor spoilers may follow for the movie Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen (2015). 

Having watched and enjoyed the third instalment of Ah Boys to Men, one scene struck a chord in me. In case you don't know, the movie is about a bunch of young Singaporean men who are enlisted to be elite naval divers. The movie details them going through their training phase and the scene I want to talk about involves 2 of the trainees.

Trainee 1 is a Hong Kong gangster (nicknamed Black Dragon after his very conspicuous tattoos) who constantly bullies Trainee 2, a smart alec called Aloysius Jin Sia Lan (vulgarity not intended, so he says) who just can't help rubbing Black Dragon the wrong way with alarming regularity with his unsolicited advice on how to do things the right way. 

Aloysius the peacelover

You don't mess with the Black Dragon

Black Dragon is a bad boy with badass shades and gang connections and a bunch of gang cronies who follow him around (when he is out of the camp), who likes to throw his weight around, intimidate people and treat his parents with disrespect (not all at the same time). Aloysius, for all his irritating traits is really a peace loving, God-fearing boy whose hobby appears to be reading books like Mixed Martial Arts for Dummies and lives by the philosophy "make love, not war". 

Throughout the movie, Black Dragon is constantly scolding and pushing Aloysius or knocking him on the head when they are in the bunkcabin. Aloysius plays peacenik and never retaliates at any provocation from Black Dragon, opting to retreat every time things get physical. Things never get too serious.. until one night where things got a bit more heated. Black Dragon starts giving Aloysius hefty shoves and begins punching Aloysius. Out of self defence, Aloysius starts retaliating which only has the effect of angering Black Dragon further. Before we know it, we have a full blown duel on our hands (with the rest of their platoon mates watching them from a safe distance), and after an robust exchange of blows and kicks and arm locks, Aloysius bests Black Dragon with his superior strength and swiftness of movement. Black Dragon slumps to the floor somewhat dazed and humbled.

Aloysius then reveals that he is actually proficient in all sorts of martial arts imaginable - taekwando, muay thai, karate, jiujitsu, MMA, and some more I think I missed. And he tells Black Dragon that despite the fact that he was obviously more powerful than Black Dragon in a physical confrontation, he never retaliated because he pitied Black Dragon for being such a flawed person who has no real friends or love. Aloysius says this in between sobs because it is not in his peacenik nature to use physical force. Things had escalated to such an extent that force was required. 

Power, in a book.

Somehow this scene hit me because it shows great strength on the part of Aloysius, and I'm not talking about just physical strength, but more of emotional strength. In life, there will be people who will do things that irritate us in our daily lives (whether intentionally or unintentionally). But if we can look at what others are doing from their perspective (perhaps they are operating at a lower level of consciousness like Black Dragon was), we can look at their actions with compassion and opt not to retaliate. After all what good would that do? Instead, is there anything we can do to help them? To be able to see things in such a perspective, is strength.

At the same time, I wonder if what Aloysius did was an act of the highest consciousness. Is there any way he could have acted that would have been even more appropriate? 

Trading Update: 21 February 2015

True Profits Earned in 2015 to date: US$10,762.44
All-time maximum profit earned since 2011: US$143,463.32 (new high water mark!)
Current drawdown from all-time maximum true profit earned: US$0
Change from last update: Up US$822.06
Directional stance: Portfolio is 57.95% bullish

The Chinese New Year rally appears to be in swing as the S&P 500 and the portfolio hit new highs together. As promised, it has proven to be a slow grinding journey up with the S&P 500 putting in a modest little green candlestick this week. In a bull market, the market tends to grind higher in a boring way, and that's exactly what we are getting now. And when the market gets too boring, we'll get a pullback once in a while to spice things up a bit. When the markets are not really moving much, there's nothing much a Singaporean retail trader can do, except eat, drink, and be merry during CNY!

Just one more kueh bangkit, please. I promise I'll go for a run tonight.

I did mention last week that a reset of the portfolio may be necessary if the bullishness level of the portfolio drops below 55%. This is what I expect to happen when the market carries on rising. Well apparently it's risen so slowly that a reset has not been necessary. So we continue to wait.

Stay healthy, stay foolish!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Dear readers, RetailTrader wishes you a Happy Chinese New Year of the Goat! 

Look at those horns! Is it a bull or a goat? One giant leap for the stock market?

The S&P 500 hit new record highs last night, crossing over 2100 for the first time ever. I will speak more of the markets in the weekly trading update this weekend, but in the meantime to all Singaporeans who are hanging around restlessly and waiting to knock off at lunchtime and have some fun before your reunion dinner and countdown to the year of the goat at midnight, 恭喜发财, bring on the ong lai and huat ah!!!

Trading Update: 14 February 2015

True Profits Earned in 2015 to date: US$9,940.38
All-time maximum profit earned since 2011: US$142,641.26 (new high water mark!)
Current drawdown from all-time maximum true profit earned: US$0
Change from last update: Up US$5,303.08
Directional stance: Portfolio is 58.45% bullish

Happy V day to everyone! V also stands for, amongst other things, victory in light of more green shoots! and a nice new green candlestick on our weekly candlestick chart to the right of this blog.

The prognosis is that unless the markets decide to go batshit crazy on us, we are seated on cabin 2015 of the bull train with the ticket saying our destination is this place called "S&P 2200+". We can expect a fairly steady "slow-grind" journey with a few small bumps along the way, without too much scenery to see. But please keep your seatbelts on at all times, just in case.

A bull locomotive train, powered by S&P bull power™, circa 2015.

I hope to bank more coin from this bull leg for what it's worth up to 2200+, but as I bank more profits the portfolio stance (which is currently 58.45% bullish) eventually becomes less and less bullish as the bull and bear components of the portfolio adjust by themselves. This in turn reduces the extent to which the portfolio is able to profit in a bullish market. Hence, the short-term plan is to do a reset of the portfolio when the bullishness of the portfolio drops below 55%, to raise the bullishness levels to about 60+%, and that may happen sometime next week. That means calling up the broker again to scream names of countries down their throat - precisely my idea of fun late on a weeknight. 

You may ask why don't I just set the bullishness stance of the portfolio higher at the outset? That's because there is no free lunch in this world - when the bullishness stance is set too high, I run drawing a large loss in case the market goes bearish. So it's all about getting the risk-reward balance right.

For the folks celebrating V day and/or Chinese New Year, I wish you a fun and enjoyable time and hopefully there has not been too much stress in preparing for these occasions!

Trading Update: 7 February 2015

True Profits Earned in 2015 to date: US$4,637.30
All-time maximum profit earned since 2011: US$137338.18
Current drawdown from all-time maximum true profit earned: US$0
Change from last update: Up US$21,897.78
Directional stance: Portfolio is 60.42% bullish

Lei ho ah! Mo men tai! Hai ya hai ya! Mrs RetailTrader and I are spending a long weekend in Hongkie Land where our plan is to eat and eat and eat, and sleep. Sounds like a plan?

Can't spend too much time on blogging when this awaits you.

What a difference a week makes, and it's good to see some green figures on the weekly update again. As things stand, the downtrend that seemed to go on and on and on finally appears to have ended. The chances are the S&P 500 has finally bottomed in the 1970s and it actually hit the 2070s in the course of last night before correcting to the 2050s. Hopefully, we are finally on the bull train that takes us to the 2200s for good now. 

The drawdown in the markets has been a drawdown for my emotions as well. I have to admit in the course of the correction I have spent some moments at night (away from Mrs RetailTrader) staring at charts and trader sites wondering when the correction would end, staring at trendline after trendline and support level after support level being broken, Fibonnaci retracements to precarious levels, and drawing up exit plans in case the worst happens. Who said money was easy to earn? 

One positive takeaway that has proven itself to be true (empirically) is the way this strategy seems to work out is that each and every time my emotions get tested, it is a sign and clue to me that the markets will be turning around soon. Well while this may be true, it's still important to prepare for the worst, because in trading one blow up is all you need for the game to end. Rule # 1: NEVER BLOW UP.

On another positive note, the markets appeared to have bottomed out together with the recession of my flu (again, at long, long last!). Hmmm am I some kind of market harbinger? Like the World Cup octopus? Perhaps markets will correct whenever I sneeze or cough?

Ok enough from me. I'm out of here now because I have a lot to do in Hongkie Land. I'll see you again when I'm back in Singapore!