By
Online Guru Trader
|
Blog ,
Newsletter
My view on Iskandar since 2013 has not changed. In fact for those who have followed me since 2013, during some of my preview seminars in 2013 and in every course that I held, I mentioned that investing in Iskandar properties is more of speculation than long term investing. You can only make money if you are the first mover in 2013 or before that. Why I say this and still believe in it is because of my past painful experience in CLOB.
I started my investing journey since 1996. And in 1997 to 1998, due to my ignorance, I invested my money into buying CLOB, Malaysia stocks and shares trading over the counter in Singapore. Back then, almost every singaporean who is into investing the financial markets would have put some money into CLOB. Almost everyone I talked to made money from buying CLOB shares. It was more of greed than any fundamental or technical analysis. Then in the later part of 1998, CLOB was suspended from trading by the authorities. No one trading in CLOB could sell the shares they were holding. When this happened, malaysians who hold malaysia stocks were not affected by it as they were not trading in CLOB, and therefore could still sell the shares by going through the stock exchange of malaysia, KLSE. If I am not wrong, it was only unsuspended after around 5 years. But after the unsuspension, the shares that I still hold which I bought at $1 or $2, has already became $0.10 or even $0.01. I practically lose almost all of what I have put in.
All politicians and governments in the world will always want to protect it’s own citizens and people through regulations and rules to be implemented. There is nothing wrong with this because they should do it for their own people. So I don’t blame the authorities of Malaysia for doing what they did by suspending trading of CLOB to protect their economy and people. I blame it on my ignorance. So coming back to Iskandar, as more and more people get their money locked in Iskandar properties, regulations will start to come in to hold the cash and restrict capital outflows. Some small moves in terms of regulations are already happening which are tell tale signs.
Here’s another reason why I don’t go into Iskandar. I always ask myself about whether there is sustained liquidity in the long term in the markets that I invest or trade in. In layman terms, will there still be supply and demand. So pertaining to Iskandar properties, I ask myself who is going to buy the properties if someone bought them earlier and intend to sell them 5 to 10 years later. Will it be another singaporean to buy it at a higher price? Or will it be the locals who will buy? Will there still be strong demand for the properties looking at 5 to 10 years from now? I seriously doubt there is. But I can be wrong because anything can happen in the future. I hope I am wrong so that my fellow singaporeans who investing in Iskandar will not lose much of their wealth. Will I miss a good opportunity if I am wrong? The answer is no. In fact, I am willing to forgo such a opportunity whether its a good or bad one as I rather want to be safe than sorry. Can you still speculate in Iskandar? I would say before 2013, it’s a yes. How about now? I would say maybe yes, maybe no. For sure right now, whoever invests in Iskandar is not the first mover anymore and therefore the risk is so much higher now. I rather do put my money where I know it’s pretty safe for me and therefore I trade the markets because I know the financial markets presents many opportunities for me to acquire my wealth through trading them and still be safe with it. Below is a report article from Maybank on Iskandar published by channelnewsasia and you may want to read about it.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/caution-advised-on/1790094.html
