I haven’t. Honestly. Is that good or bad? 
There is a lot of things in my reading list right now that includes updates on local and global financial news. I’m sure I will be a nervous wreck when I’m done reading. Media can do that to you! (Ouch, is that you INQUIRER.net?)
Trying to keep a good perspective here, though. I chose the funds I would invest in carefully. I know that my mutual fund is invested in blue chips and not speculative and risky stocks. The fund managers are experts in their fields and have performed well in volatile periods. I think I made a good asset play and I’m saving for the long-term anyway. I have no individual stock investments, that is why stock picking is not a particular headache for a small player like me. The best thing to do for me is to stay my course.
I spent the whole morning collecting data on the stock market so I can show everyone the historical returns of the Philippine composite index. Special thanks to Efren Cruz, chairman and president of Personal Finance Advisers Phils. Corp. for sharing his data. Bloomberg is also another source for PSEi year-end closing figures. Note that the lowest point of the index after the 1997 crisis is still a gain over 1987 levels.
If you invested in US equities, here’s a very helpful table from MyMoneyBlog . The Digerati Life, meanwhile, asks whether a weak dollar is a good or bad thing? I hope he will also talk about his observations from the ground on how the subprime credit problem is affecting OFWs in the US. This will give us very important clues on how the crisis will pan out.
This article from Wall Street Journal for example talks about one family’s journey into the subprime credit trap. I found this portion very revealing on how the American economy might react to the entire thing:
The couple now eat out once or twice a month, instead of once or twice a week before they bought the house. They have yet to visit a nearby jazz club they had hoped to frequent. The trips they used to take to Lake Tahoe now are out of the question. To bring in a bit more income, Mr. Montes two weeks ago found a weekend job as a bartender for a catering company. He says he might be able to take on a third job. “Bottom line, it’s our little home,” Mrs. Montes told a visitor one evening in April as tears welled in her eyes. “We’re going to keep it. Hopefully, we won’t go down and if we do, we’re going to go down with a fight.”
I’m bracing myself for possible market depression for quite some time. Unsurprisingly, everyone’s trying to move away from emerging markets precisely because they are trying to reassess their risk profile. Yesterday, our local bourse sank 6%, today it dropped another 2%.
No, I’m still not checking my portfolio, not even a peek :-).
August 27th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Ah… na-mention na pala ni hachiko.
@Angie V. Is there a prospectus available for that Philam $ Global Fund?
August 27th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
@oda… there is a BPI UITF called BPI Global Equity Fund. Would you recommend it? I think its the only one of its kind in the country.
Actually, I really want to invest in it but my hubby is not approving since the $ is doing poorly and appears to weaken more in the future (though it has been stable in the last week).
August 26th, 2007 at 6:57 am
http://prudentinvestornewsletters.blogspot.com/ –> this is a good read. It reflects the sentiments of a bear investor.
August 25th, 2007 at 12:49 am
hi hachiko! welcome back
Philamlife also has a dollar global fund but neither that nor BPI Global Equity UITF fall under the category of offshore investment.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Yo Salve! Glad to be back here in Pinas and Moneysmarts
Had meetings abroad for the past week and I’ve heard the market being cursed in 8 languages hehehe 
“Have you checked your portfolio lately?” At least mutual fund investors can avoid looking at it for a while (like me!
) but for individual stock buyers, hooboy, do your homework!
Hope this thing pans out eventually, which is far more likely abroad than in the US. Reminds me that crisis in Chinese, “weiji”, translates to “crisis and opportunity” (or “flavored chicken” if written the wrong way hehehe
)
Only offshore fund I believe is available is BPI Global Equity UITF (www.bpi.com.ph) unfortunately not doing well, lagging its benchmark by quite a significant margin. We hope a better-performing global fund comes out eventually.