Category: News & Features

Dow Jones giant Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) reached new record highs of $140.98 over the weekend as Avengers: Endgame hit the theatres on April 26th. Since this movie is the latest talk of the town even in the stock market world, traders who are avid fans of this Marvel story took some time off to watch the last film of the Avengers and see how these heroes will do anything to save the world.

In one way or another, we’re pretty sure you might be wondering who would you be if you’re one of the Avengers and you’re playing the battlefield as a trader. Chances are, one of the many different and interesting characters from Avengers may fit your personality as a trader.

SPOILER ALERT: We’re going to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, thus, the character traits and experiences of each Avenger in the movie will be relayed here as their ‘trading technique’ and part of their investing journey for us to avoid spilling the beans and co-relate it with stock trading. BUT please, proceed with caution if you haven’t watched any of the Avenger movies.

Now, let’s see which one are you:

IRON MAN

This type of Avenger Trader is being admired by many as the genius guru of all. Equipped with all the techy knowledge and mindset, Tony Stark a.k.a. Ironman made a system that will protect his “capital” from being squeezed. He’s seen interest in trading even during his early years. And when first stuck during the bear market phase, he made “specialized crafts” that are best suited for it. He uses different trading tools and supports it with his ideas and learnings from the stock market. People around him often think he’s always into charts but boy this tony stark lives life, and proved many times that he has a heart.

HULK

One of the smartest men in the world and a match made in heaven for Stark, this Avenger Trader once finds it hard to keep himself together because he was badly affected during the stock market crash in 2009. Being unable to control himself, this resulted in him settling with the revenge trading – doing everything he could to get his wasted money back. Hulk was angry, hardheaded, and was easily affected by high flying stocks. He used to be hyped every time and had a fear of missing out. He tried purging, figured out why it’s not working, but gamma radiation was just too strong to fight. He couldn’t help it, that’s why he took a time off the S.H.I.E.L.D., studied everything about stocks again, backtest and re-apply, and finally, he was able to bounce back and see the limelight once again with the rest of the Avengers! He mastered this craft and is now in control of his mind. It was once said that ‘the best way to control your anger is to control your body.’ Bruce Barner did! So yeahh THAT’S HULK SMASH!

CAPTAIN AMERICA

The ordinary joe. (“It’s not for the eyes of ordinary men. You can’t control the power you hold!”) Steve Rogers is the type of Avenger Trader who’s genetically modified super trader just like everyone who starts in the market – one who started out in long term investing before he was able to equip himself with knowledge in technical and fundamental analysis to apply in short term trading. Initially, he really wanted to make it big to the market in a short span of time but he just couldn’t because of the lack of knowledge. After spending many years in investing for long term with low risks, Cap returned to a very different world with the idealism of a different era – backed up by his trading plan and strategy to apply in his trading. To be able to pass what he learned, he now leads a new breed of traders. Young, brave, and smart. He’s a new generation trader!

THOR

This avenger trader learned Ms. Market’s lesson the hard way. He was punished for his wrongdoings and attitude whereby he became so confident about his performance that he overlooked what needs to be focused on. He thought he’ll always have winning trades no matter what until a market correction happened and the system that he’s using no longer work anymore with the current market status. But as an Avenger, he persists that he would recover, and over a period of time, it did. It always did. His conviction never fails. Thor admitted he’s wrong and then focuses on what needs to work on his trading by journalling everything and learn a thing or two from it. When he’s about to return to Asgard, Ms. Market rewarded him back.

HAWKEYE

The all in. Using his bow and arrow, Hawkeye hit his targets precisely. As a technical trader, he learned to enter a trade only when he’s sure about it based on his trading setups. He doesn’t do the joy ride and buy shares to avoid FOMO. When buying stocks, he focuses on waiting for his favorite strategy which is the breakout’s pull back, time it out, enter the trade, and then turn on a dime. He’s always after the big one and doesn’t listen to the noise. He now knows himself and his trade better. Being a momentum trader, he knows that this strategy requires high levels of focus and attention and he must remain steadfast on it. Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye focuses on more than trends in stocks. He looks at stocks which show a strong move in a given direction, typically with high volume and over a time period. He then buys stocks which have been trending in this direction, aiming to capture waves of trader enthusiasm which have temporarily prompted new highs or lows in trading. That’s how mastered he is. Just pull the arrow back, and hit! Run high profits!

BLACK WIDOW

Who would have thought that a girl could be part of the Avenger Traders? Say no more, that’s girl power! Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow is not your ordinary trader. She can do things just like what any other men did. She wasn’t taken aback that easily. This girl knows what she’s capable of and not what the society is dictating her. Trading stock market is suitable for men? Well, she doesn’t care. She can stand on her own. She’s more profitable than some so-called guy out there. Decisive and courageous. She takes trade seriously. Confident? That’s Black Widow!

Casting Off

Investagrams is like the S.H.I.E.L.D. in Avenger Movies. We want to spread financial literacy and help Filipino people alleviate poverty and increase stock market awareness and reach 10 Million Filipinos in ten years! As what Spiderman always says, ‘With great power comes great responsibility!”

So have you figured out what kind of Avenger you are? Aim high, as you might be the next Captain America if his ‘successor’ won’t be able to be profitable and maintain a good portfolio standing in the next few years.

Let’s help save the ports together. We’ve got you 3000 times! ❤

When it comes to trading, one of the firsts that you need to master is the art of controlling your emotions. Yes, you learned well from the textbooks, the videos, and the different platforms that you have gained access while learning the stock market but how do you know when you are ready into the real world trading?

Joining stock trading competitions such as the Investa Trading League is an opportunity for you to put yourself into real-time market trading, highlight the importance of trading psychology, and be in a head-to-head competition with other traders that will equip you with the right experience and gain expertise. It will be of good help as it will make sure that you are ready in terms of rationality, understanding your fears, overcoming greed, setting rules, and having a complete set of disciplined mindset in trading.

It’s designed to acquaint and immerse yourself in the stock market without using real money. Win or lose, you’ll get motivated by your performance as you progress in the league.

Benefits of joining the stock market trading competitions:

Understand how to trade the stock market

• Experience the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) using virtual money
• Learn strategies on how to buy and sell stocks on a short-term basis
• Discover profitable setups that you can use in real-life trading

Develop financial literacy

• Gain insights on how stock trading works
• Improve your financial well-being

Prove your trading strategy works

• Determine how your profitable trading system applies during short-term competitions
• Walk the talk by showcasing your skills against other traders

Win cash prizes

• Your skills will be rewarded with cash prizes

Become a better trader

• Find out how your trading system applies to short trading competitions
• See the areas of strengths and weaknesses where you can improve upon
• Realize the power of paper trading

Stock market aficionados, veterans, and even newbies are all welcome to join the trading competitions as long as you have the determination to survive till the end of the game.

What are you waiting for? Practice your skills with the upcoming Investa Trading League – Round 1! Joining is absolutely FREE – don’t miss the opportunity to compete with other traders and win the cash prize without having to shell out your hard-earned money. Compete with other traders, see where you’ll end up in the leaderboard, and most importantly, have fun!

JOIN the competition room here:
http://invs.st/TradingLeague12019

OVERVIEW

Welcome to the third year of Investa Trading League!

Today we present to you another GREAT OPPORTUNITY to hone your trading skills while getting the chance to compete and win awesome prizes.

Investa Trading League is FREE and OPEN TO ALL. There are 5 mini-competitions that comprise this year’s league and each competition will run for two (2) trading weeks from April to June 2019. Note that each league will have its own set of winners at the end of the competition. Below are the scheduled dates to participate:

Round 1: April 1 – April 12 (Ended – Click here to see the winners)
Round 2: April 22 – May 3 (Ended – Click here to see the winners)
Round 3: May 14 – May 24 (Ended – Click here to see the winners)
Round 4: June 3 – June 14 (Ended – Click here to see the winners)
Round 5: June 24 – July 5 (Ended – Click here to see the winners)

How to win the Investa Trading League?

The goal of this trading game is simple. Find opportunities and trade your best to gain the most profit and have the highest total account value at the end of two (2) trading weeks!

Winners and Prizes:

The top three (3) participants with the highest account value at the end of the trading round will be announced as the winners.

Each league’s winner will receive a corresponding cash prize as follows:

1st Place: Php 3,000
2nd Place: Php 2,000
3rd Place: Php 1,000

MECHANICS

1. Trading League will be accessed through the Investagrams Virtual Trading Platform (https://www.investagrams.com/vTrade) and participants will start with Php 100,000 virtual money to trade.

2. Participants can only trade liquid and actively trading stocks (we have filtered out which stocks fit this criteria) and have taken out illiquid names that have wide spreads that can be easily abused. The whole stock list can be accessed once you are accepted in the competition. The tradable stock list can be changed

3. Upon buying a stock, you can only sell it after 20 minutes. This will protect the competition against ‘rinse-and-repeat’ abuses on illiquid stocks that are not realistically in-line with real market mechanics.

4. To promote diversification, maximum exposure in a single stock can only be 1/3 or 33.33% of the portfolio. This requires the participant to buy at least 3 different stocks should they want to fully invest their portfolio. The system won’t allow you to allocate more than 33.33% in a single stock.

5. On buying and selling of stocks:

• Buy: You can buy the same stock for any number of times within a day (as many tranches as you want).
• Sell: You can only sell the same stock two (2) times in a day. This will be strictly observed in order to avoid abuse. For example: If you bought $ALI at 44 then sold it at 45, then you have only one (1) sell left for $ALI within the day.

6. For stocks that are 3.00 and below + (other illiquid stocks may be added):

• Twenty (20) minutes holding period if you’re taking profits (This will protect the competition against ‘rinse-and-repeat abuses’ on illiquid stocks that are not realistically in-line with real market mechanics).
• Five (5) minutes hold before you can cut loss.

7. Investagrams has the right to remove any stock from the list should it suddenly become too illiquid, abusable, and/or delisted. Furthermore, Investagrams may also add new stocks on the tradable list as new stocks become more active and tradable in the market. All changes will be announced before implementation. In such cases that a stock is to be removed, we will follow this process:

• Before removing a stock, Investagrams shall notify all the participants via the Investagrams Platform.
• The participants who have the stock in their portfolio must sell it within one (1) day after the announcement.
• Failure to sell the said stock will result to Investagrams automatically selling it at the opening price the next trading day.

8. Trading Hours: Weekdays from 9:30AM – 12:00PM and from 1:30PM-3:30PM (Same trading hours with the real PH Market. Meaning, you can’t trade during off hours and on weekends.)

9. Participant rankings are constantly updated every 10-minutes and automatically ranked by Investagrams system according to net profit gain/loss.

10. At the end of the competition, the participants with the highest net profits will win. The top 1 to 3 participants shall be announced the official winners.

11. Joining the Investagrams Trading League 2019 means that you agree with all the clauses mentioned above.

ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR PARTICIPANTS

Participants may join until Monday —  April 1, 8:45 AM. Everyone will be accepted in the trading lobby, by April 1, so no need to worry. We will send you a notification once you are accepted in the trading lobby and the competition is about to begin.

Any participant who wants to include their organization’s name for them to represent is allowed and they may include it as part of their participant info (optional).

Click here to JOIN competition lobby: http://invs.st/TradingLeague12019

People are often excited with new things because some of them believe that these things will bring better opportunities, makes them feel good or even might work better than the old ones (our brains are made to be attracted this way via substantia nigra/ventral segmental area or the midbrain’s novel stimuli). For example, most girls are very excited when there is a new make-up line coming and make-up lovers including bloggers start to hype the new products because they think that this will be much better as compared to the previous ones. However, the company who owns these products wouldn’t actually know the real ROI of the new line unless it’s officially released. In the stock market, we don’t need a new make-up line to be out to make the investors excited even before the actual launching, announcing an “IPO” months or even years before the target date often do the trick to the retail investors and traders.

What is an “IPO”?

Initial Public Offering or commonly known as IPO (stock market launch) is a process wherein a private company sells or offers new shares to the public for the first time a.k.a. “going public.” These IPOs are often issued to expand by either smaller, younger companies or by a large privately owned companies who are seeking to become publicly traded.

Instead of going out and getting a loan from banks, companies decide to issue stocks for different reasons such as the following:

1. Raising money for capital expenditure like company expansion, diversification, etc
2. Fund research and developments
3. Pay off existing company debts
4. Build up credibility as being a publicly traded company can be considered as a major achievement and statement and to gain the benefit of getting listed
5. Exit route for existing investors (promoters or strategic investor)
6. Liquidity to existing shareholders

A company should make a solid foundation first before the IPO because not all private companies are qualified for an IPO. In addition, the company must need to prove that their company is profitable enough before they can qualify for it.

What are the IPO advantages and disadvantages for a company?

Advantages
1. Financial benefit
2. Public awareness
3. Exit strategy for founding individuals

Disadvantages
1. Legalities, accounting, and marketing costs to comply with regulatory requirements
2. Ongoing requirement for a company to disclose any financial and business information to the public
3. Time, effort and attention to details required from the senior management and stakeholders
4. Added pressure to target and get the short-term results

Choosing an IPO stock is just like choosing your friends – you have to pick the right ones if you want long-term success. But why do you need to which one would work best? Because IPO is also risky just like other investments, the market is unpredictable, and you don’t know when the stock prices will rise or fall.

Should you buy it?

Buying shares from an IPO would require a lot of courage, insights, and time to review and decide which company suits you best depending on your risk appetite and the possibilities of the performance of the IPO stocks that you will choose as there are some that are will underperform in the market. For retail traders, it is quite challenging to buy IPO shares as we likely have to wait until the public offering is complete and the share of stock is available to purchase from online brokerage companies. Mostly, large institutions are ones who are able to get it because of their ability to purchase huge amount of shares in no time.

These are the companies reported to be keen on going public in PSE this year 2019:

 

1. Del Monte Pacific Ltd

Del Monte Philippines (owned by Campos family) – one of the major food players in the country with its products consisting of canned fruits, drinks, sauce, and condiments. Last 2018, Del Monte planned to sell P587.437 million secondary shares at P29.88 per share but the plan was cancelled due to the volatility of the market last year and the IPO was scheduled to push through this year, 2019. The money that they will accumulate from IPO will be used to partially prepay or repay loans amounting to P6.8 billions, other payables at P3.54 billion and another proceed will be for its refinancing needs of P6 billion.

2. Cal – Comp Technology (Philippines)

Cal – Comp Technology, a consumer electronics manufacturing giant is a subsidiary of New Kinpo Group (NKG) which is the largest Taiwanese investor in the Philippines. The company is planning to sell P378 million shares with an over-allotment option up to P19.8 million shares at P17.00 each. The funds will be used in financing new equipment and strengthening the company’s presence in the Philippines. The IPO is expected on the second half of 2019.

3. Fruitas Holdings Inc. (FHI)

Fruitas is one of the leading food cart businesses in the Philippine market. Fruitas’ first kiosk was opened in SM Manila and eventually expanded its company by opening branches in different places and is now considered as the fastest growing food cart business in the country. The business carries several brands such as Fruitas Fresh from Babot’s Farm, Buko Ni Fruitas, Fruitas Ice Candy, De Original Jamaican Pattie and Juice Bar, Juice Avenue, The Mango Farm, Buko Loco, John Lemon, Black Pearl, Shou, Friends Fries, and Halo-Halo Islands. The company is planning to push through with their P2 billion initial public offering to support its plan of expanding its stores annually.

4. Philippines AirAsia Inc.

Philippines AirAsia Inc. is a low-cost airline based at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The company postponed its planned IPO last 2018 due to unfavourable market conditions. The airline is planning to gather $250 million in IPO to use for its expansion.

Summary

Investing in the IPO shares can be risky because there are some instances where the prices of the stocks could go higher than the expected target IPO price or sometimes, fall on its first day launch due to fluctuations, vulnerability, market conditions, and the company itself, and in that case, you have to do your research carefully before investing.

If you haven’t heard of the news yet, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) just announced today, March 5th 2019, that the inflation rate of our country finally hit the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) goal of keeping the target range between 2%-4% by recording a 3.8% rate in February of this year.

This comes after failing to hit the said range for 11 straight months. In January, the country came short of 0.4% from hitting its target as it logged an inflation rate of 4.4% for that month. Last year, the country also recorded a 3.8% headline inflation for February.

The headline inflation slowdown is said to be largely attributable to the lagging annual increase in the index of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 4.7%, according to the release of the PSA. Also, the indices of clothing, footwear, and education, registered slower annual ascends.

In the stocks and equity context, investors generally use the stock market as a way to hedge their money against inflation since stocks appreciate in price much faster than the general level of prices.

Now, should you be hopeful (or worried) about your stock position’s market price?

The stock market itself is irrational. Investors and traders interpret economic news and company disclosures differently and then create a plan that’s best suited to their investment decisions.

As of this writing, the PSEi opened +24.91 points above yesterday’s close of 7,675.47 thereby opening with a small gap up. Is this the inflation rate report making its presence felt in the local bourse? Pundits might say yes, but according to Investopedia, some studies conclude that inflation can either positively or negatively affect stocks. Mind you, economic factors do affect the stock market, but whatever type of news or announcement it is, it’s the investor who clicks the buy and sell button. The stock market always revolves around the economic law of supply and demand.

So to answer the question above, if you’re a true-blue investor, you should be aware if the company that you’re invested in will be directly affected by rising increases in price and the fall of the value of the Peso (inflation). Be mindful especially if the company is in the subsector of “Food, Beverage & Tobacco”. We can all remember how the TRAIN Law affected food products levied with the sugar-sweetened beverage tax. But those companies should be able to quickly adapt to the rising or falling costs due to inflation and adjust their profit margin effectively.

On the other hand, if you’re a trader who incorporates news for your trading decisions, you may use news like this as confluence to your technical analysis. As simple as that but it’s still up to you how you would react and how you would like to take advantage of such reports.

Overall, it is always good to buy or sell stocks with sound technical and fundamental analysis.

Investagrams Trading Cup 2018 Defense is finally here!

Presenting Outliers: The trading strategies of the Top 1%.

In this exclusive event, the Top 10 traders who joined the concluded Investagrams Trading Cup 2018 are set to present their strategies in a one-day event titled Investagrams’ Trading Cup: Outliers at AIM Conference Center Manila (ACCM) this coming Saturday, February 9, 2019.

We will kick things off this year by showcasing how the best traders in the country were able to capture 60% to 180% profit in only 3 months of stock trading using P100,000 worth of virtual money during the tournament.

The prize pool of PHP 721,616 will be shared partially by the top 40 while the top 3 will take home most of the cash prizes plus a sweet round-trip ticket to any Southeast Asian country of their choice. Moreover, traders from the top 40 who availed the Investa Booster Pack got the chance to double their base prizes. Other participants who did not make it to the top 40 but availed the Booster Pack received the three-part learning module that includes manuals for Trading Profiles, Fundamentals and Technical Analysis – all with comprehensive applications and case studies.

The competition ran from September 24 until December 28, 2018, giving participants exactly only 14 weeks to grow their virtual portfolio. A truly challenging but exciting task for the traders who joined the competition.

Strategies, techniques, and systems

During the event, the top 10 traders will each present how they screened for the stocks they traded, at which price they bought, how they exited their winning trades, where they placed their stops, as well as their risk management and mindset during their trades. Additionally, they will also discuss their top 5 most profitable and loss stocks and what they learned from it. Insightful conversations are expected as the audience will have a chance to air their questions during the panel discussions and Q&A portions lined up throughout the event. The event will conclude with the awarding of the top 3 traders including the Champion who will be receiving the coveted Trading Cup.

Attendees will also have a chance to network with like-minded traders and be part of circles that share best trading practices with one another.

Adverse Market Environment

The PSEi’s performance during the event made things more challenging for the participants:

• During the first day of the competition the index was down -14.35% from the opening day of the year 2018 (the market opened the year at 8,584.46 in January 03, and 7,361 in the first day of the Trading Cup)
• In the third week of the competition, the market traded at 6,960.43 during October 11, which was down -25.20% from its peak of 9,078.37 in January 29
• In November, two months after the start of the competition, the index was still down by a dismal -20.55% (traded at 6,820.22 in November 13) from its opening day
• In December 28, the closing day of the tournament, the market was down -13.03% from its foremost trading day as it closed the tournament at 7,466.02

This posed a serious challenge to all the trading participants; trading setups do not generally materialize in bear markets as selling pressure overcomes buying made by most investors. Due to this, novice traders were weeded out while skilled ones rose to the top of the roster.

Aside from the hostile market environment, there were also certain rules to regulate the trading of the players that did not allow them to trade under their full druthers. For instance, the traders were not allowed to go all-in with their trades. They were only allowed to go to a maximum allocation of as much as 1/3 of their trading portfolio. The top 40 traders were also checked regularly during the event. Moreover, they were only given a list of 72 tradeable stocks from a mix of blue chips like Semirara Power and Mining Corporation ($SCC), Jollibee Foods Corporation ($JFC), and San Miguel Corporation ($SMC) to “basura” stocks such as Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. ($IMI), Harbor Star Shipping Services, Inc. ($TUGS), Oriental Peninsula Resources Group, Inc. ($ORE), and International Container Terminal Services, Inc. ($ICT) among many others. The traders were not allowed to trade all 227 listed stocks in the PSE because of illiquidity issues and possible ‘rinse-and-repeat’ abuses. This allowed the competition to become more challenging while regulated at the same time. Click here to find out more about the Trading Cup 2018 Rules.

Growing popularity of stock trading in the country

The traders of the competition are manifestations of the growing popularity of stock trading in the country. With our newest Champion Paul Michael Co from Davao, Sedfrey Oliver Meneses Versoza, 1st runner up from Pangasinan, and Vincent Tegerero Tegio, 2nd runner up from Samar, these top 3 traders coincidentally represent the three major islands of the Philippines. Investagrams’ founders – JC Bisnar and Airwyn Tin – take this as a positive sign towards the company’s mission to increase the number of stock market investors in the Philippines from less than 1 million to 10 million in the near future.

As of 2018, the country only has 0.7 percent of its population with stock brokerage accounts which shows a clear disparity from its Asian neighbor countries such as Malaysia and Thailand by which the latter has 2.7 percent and the former at 5.9 percent. (Source: Entrepreneur PH)

With the emerging growth of stock trading competitions and annual summits that gather some of the most venerable and respected traders, investors, and speakers, we are confident that each day will bring us closer to make a Stock Market Brokerage Platform that is accessible to every Filipinos here and abroad.

The Investagrams Trading Cup 2018 shows that traders from all over the country can earn more than 60% of their trading portfolio while facing a bear market through sheer determination, discipline, and skill.

Want to attend or watch the event? Visit our official Trading Cup Defense page here http://invs.st/InvestaTradingCupEPH

Our users are always our number one priority here at Investagrams and every decision that we make is customer inspired, user-focused, and every feedback fuels our innovation. When you speak, we listen; and based on what we believe that is best for each and every one of you, we have made several big improvements to cater your trading needs.

New mobile upgrades for iOS (v1.2.0) and Android (v1.5.0) phones have rolled on Sunday, January 27, 2019. These upgrades are what we consider as one of the best mobile features that we have offered and it’s time that we give it a full spin.

Let’s start!

NEW FEATURES

• Introducing EasyView Tab: a new app feature with realtime data where you can quickly view all stocks’ information in just one glance! Go through your favorite stock in its summary data – % change, last 3 months, last 5 candles, 52-week high and low, 5-day volume, average volume, number of trades, volume spike, net foreign, and many others.

• Market Depth on Mobile: Now available in mobile! Plan your next strategy as you see realtime market orders and bid-ask spreads of a stock from top to bottom.

• InvestaWatcher: Major improvement as the data is now provided realtime. Watch your favorite stock updates without the need to refresh or scroll the tab! What’s more? We made it easier for you to view your stock list through InvestaWatcher Widget!

• Improved Stock Quote page with new timeframe selector and ‘Bid and Ask’ information.

• Always on: We have added an option in the settings for you to keep the app running whenever you use it, this will prevent your device from auto-lock or going on stand-by mode and shut off the screen. To turn it on, head on to Settings > Application > and then turn on button for ‘prevent auto-lock’.

Other improvements

There are number of other updates too as we regularly work on with bug fixes, stability, social community enhancements, and performance improvements to make Investagrams better for your mobile experience.

Enjoy your latest upgrades!