Forum seems so quiet...maybe it is a good sign

i am not too familiar with the terms as well as i have read it somewhere. Cyclical bulls are bulls that charge over and over again in a bear market, whereas secular bull run should be a sustained one similar to what we saw from the period 2003 to 2007. The bulls which we saw in jan this year and the recent one looks like cyclical. If the current economy which we are in is going to be down for an extended period of time, then what we get possibly see are cyclical bulls at best and the index is likely to be flunctuating in this manner. As i am not sure how well or bad the economy is turning out to be, and a lot depends on the US side, i would not risk too much as i do not know how long the companies can remain \"good\". I buy when i feel the value is a bargain and sell when i think that either the fundamentals arent that good anymore or when the price gets too high for my comfort. Sometimes the \"report cards\" dont seem to reflect the actual scenarios that accurately and with so much unknown i will rather be careful, minimise my risk exposure. Like what the chinese saying advocates, as long as we still preserve the forest, we do not need to worry about having not enough wood to burn.

Dear Sean , would you mind sharing your stock pick? thank you

my personal favourites at the moment are the services & equipment providers for the offshore & marine sector. I believe oil prices should rise when the economy sees a recovery as they usually drop fast in a downturn and vice-versa. Stocks which provide services or goods which consumers will keep buying regardless of what happens may be good. i am also just learning to pick stocks. I try to adopt a more careful approach in this market environment as i have made some costly mistakes in the past. Personally, i would try to avoid china companies, in fact what we have seen in the past few months may look just like the beginning of the end, with most likely to have financial problems, as many of my clients which are china listed co have not even paid up our fees! I would not put my risk into stocks which looks very cheap, even though some believe they could become multi-baggers, i prefer to play safe. My belief is that there must be reason why the price could go so low, and even if fundamentals of such stocks looks ok, you never know. I would not bet unless stocks belong to the mid-caps range. They are neither too cheap for comfort nor too expensive to afford. I would look for bargains when the mid-caps drop again to cheap discounts again, similar to shopping i usually wait till there is a great year-end sale to get the many quality items which i want for just the usual price of the one item! Plantation, commodoties, O&M stocks look to be the hot picks now. Some recommend property stocks, however i believe property stocks should only perform at a later stage. At the current moment, stocks rise & fall regardless of their fundamentals. Even stocks in the red can go up and up, but there is the risk that they could go down and down as well. All are based on sentiments and how the market react to news. Furthermore, with the big boys overseas controlling the Asian markets now, it is hard to predict how the markets will turn. However my guess is that it should not continue to rally much as we do not see much strength after this rally and we should expect a fall in the coming months. I am keeping my cash in safe deposits now and waiting for the right moment when all seems dim and gloom because chances do not come often, and i would not want to get caught trapped again in picking the wrong stocks and at the wrong time, and ended up wasting the opportunities when the bull comes again! I may be wrong, but even so, i would not be losing much, except for the opportunities costs. Rather safe than sorry. A pessimist\'s view.

hello, there are more analysts recommended \'sell\' you can refer www.remisiers.org/research.html hopefully, they are right.

The way I see it, valuations are slowly (but surely) returning to their long-term mean. This is something which is bound to happen (reversion to the mean), it\'s just the time period cannot be reliably determined except on hindsight. For investors at this juncture, it will be even more appropriate to do detailed corporate analysis to ensure one does not overpay for a purchase, and that sufficient margin of safety is present. We are now quite far away from the days when some companies traded below net cash per share ! In spite of what analysts may be claiming, valuations still do not look demanding to me. This is just my personal opinion.

hopefully after crossing STI 2,300, the mid-caps can still keep rising and the rally to last longer before it corrects, otherwise i will be caught big in the net. I will be a goner if all start to sell and do not buy now. Good luck to myself.