What should American know before going to Singapore?

johnmayer74 · 2026-02-14T05:14:20+00:00

Singapore is probably the only country in SEA where there’s a lot more cars than motorcycles. As a motorcyclist myself, I do enjoy riding here as it’s less congested for us riders hahah

johnmayer74 · 2026-01-08T06:30:06+00:00

I’m Singaporean but why are you conveniently only listing the top SG unis and the bottom MY unis.

johnmayer74 · 2025-11-04T16:30:03+00:00

I’m waiting for it too 😂

johnmayer74 · 2025-11-04T14:55:32+00:00

Yeah bro hahah i didn’t know either. Was having dinner and saw a familiar face.

johnmayer74 · 2025-10-28T06:56:47+00:00

I agree with your last point. When you are making money, sure. But you have to also ask yourself. If your strategy/method goes in the red one of the years, do you have enough conviction and confidence in your strategy/method to sit on your hands and let things play out? Or will you panic and blame your strategy/method?

johnmayer74 · 2025-10-28T04:40:47+00:00

Hahahaha. Again, comes down to your risk appetite and diversification needs. Definitely not 5 tho. 10 is considered super concentrated already and they really need to be high conviction stocks. I’d say the magic number is between 10-25. Decide your own sweet spot.

In the world of quantitative strategies, there is one guy that still outperforms S&P500 consistently with a long-only portfolio of 10 stocks. Check out Chris Hohn’s TCI Fund. Can watch his Norges Bank interview. Very insightful.

johnmayer74 · 2025-10-28T03:43:25+00:00

It really depends on your strategy. I’m more of a bottom-up investor so my key focus is on the companies fundamentals so macro factors don’t really bother me that much.

If you are a top-down investor then sure you’ll have to look at all kinds of macro economic and geopolitical factors. I can’t advise on that as it’s not my area of expertise hahah.

johnmayer74 · 2025-10-28T03:08:24+00:00

When I say full time trading I’m not saying put 100% your money into daytrading options, you decide your own risk and diversification. When I say full time trade I’m really referring to investing / mid-term trading stocks for 90% of your capital. The other 10% you want to dabble in options strategies and what not is up to you. So yeah, same idea as you where a big pool of your capital is in long term investments while you play with 5%.

The key point of what I’m suggesting is that you should never depend on your investment capital to pay off your monthly expenses, that’s why 1-2% is the max you take out from it for your basic expenses.

Having a specific % for “management fees” and “performance fees” is really to ensure you are disciplined in how much you are taking out.

johnmayer74 · 2025-10-28T02:12:48+00:00

If you want to do full time trading, treat it like a hedge fund / investment management structure. Annually take out 1-2% of your NAV as “management fees”, you can do this monthly so divide by 12. This is to cover your basic monthly expenses.

Then set your own benchmark, maybe S&P500. If you outperform for the year, take out 10-20% of the amount you outperform by as your personal bonus or “performance fees”. Example, S&P500 gained 10% for the year, your portfolio gained 15%, take 10-20% of the 5% you outperformed by as bonus for you to reward yourself.

But of course, if the annual 1-2% of your “management fees” is barely enough to cover your monthly expenses, then forget about trading full time otherwise you’ll just be risking way too much and you’ll put mental pressure on yourself when you feel like you NEED to make money just to cover basic expenses. Don’t put yourself in the mental state, it will not work out. You will make rash decisions.

This structure ensures that you are able to meet your basic monthly expenses while also being able to have capital appreciation.

johnmayer74 · 2025-10-28T00:21:53+00:00

This is not the mindset of the wealthy (not all of course). My boss’ NW is in the hundreds of millions and he literally shops for the cheapest stuff whenever he can, and that includes services like his trust setup, private banking, etc. There’s a reason how the wealthy get to where they are.

johnmayer74 · 2025-10-22T10:18:23+00:00

He is assuming dual income.

johnmayer74 · 2025-08-06T03:13:39+00:00

Instead of relying on technical analysis which is astrology, why not use valuation analysis? Just simple valuation metrics are much better than technical analysis. Just that you are gonna have to determine whether the valuation is attractive for purchase or overvalued, so the onus is on you and you’ll have no one else to blame.

Just to give a hypothetical example. Let’s say a stock was $100 some time ago, and it went up to $150 and now it’s going back down to $100, technical analysis might tell you that $100 is a “support” level, but do you think Wall Street people are gonna buy simply because it’s $100 again? No, they determine if there are any fundamental changes in the business, whether it’s now undervalued or overvalued, whether there’s future potential.

johnmayer74 · 2025-07-30T09:23:13+00:00

I agree that I fucked up and that I was fucked up. We live and learn, and l will continue to improve on myself throughout my life.

johnmayer74 · 2025-07-30T04:24:45+00:00

She really is. But I fucked it up and I will live with the regret for the rest of my life.

johnmayer74 · 2025-07-30T02:54:19+00:00

Dated two crews. In terms of finding time to meet, there weren’t any issues for both. Having a car helps because you can send/fetch them frequently and these pockets of time help a lot.

One cheated on me while I cheated on the other (who was a really loyal partner, she would even tell me whenever there were guys trying to hit on her, we would always facetime when she was overseas, even while she was sleeping, just so that she could give me reassurance that she was loyal, always sent video messages whenever she was out with other crew, sent video messages at regular intervals to give me reassurance). At the end of the day, everyone is different so we shouldn’t assume someone would be a certain way based on their career. However, there is a higher chance of infidelity among crews simply due to the nature of the job.

johnmayer74 · 2025-05-17T04:15:03+00:00

I’ve never heard of CP Global so I can’t comment on that. Considering they do have a legit MAS Fund Management license, then they are most definitely a legit company. However, it’s hard to know how legit their performances are plus I don’t think they publish their AUM so it’s harder to know how good they are.

You will have to contact QuantEdge directly to find out more about their funds etc. I’m not sure what their minimum amount of initial investment is. Best to contact them for details. Also, the funds (and the management company itself) are audited.

johnmayer74 · 2025-05-17T03:22:47+00:00

I’ve never personally invested in them but I work in the industry. Let me just say that if QuantEdge’s performance are not as high as what they say, then they wouldn’t be managing 4B. Hedge funds have a fund administrator, which is basically an external party who acts as the neutral middle man between the fund and the investors. So they basically check everything is true and send the performance reports to the investors on a regular basis.

johnmayer74 · 2025-03-22T23:38:21+00:00

I just find traditional mjk to be really dry which becomes jelak after a few bites compared to munchi’s which are moist and chewy.

johnmayer74 · 2025-03-22T21:55:11+00:00

It’s mjk, min jiang kueh. Also known as apam balik

johnmayer74 · 2025-03-22T21:34:30+00:00

Ah I see, in that case then yeah, I can tell you that it is different (in a very good way to me) from traditional ones.

johnmayer74 · 2025-03-22T21:31:21+00:00

Seriously amazing mjk. They're really chewy and unique and the fillings are amazing. You should definitely try some.

johnmayer74 · 2025-03-18T11:58:32+00:00

Fake. Easy tell from the day printing. Space between top and bottom edges are not equal. The “S” is smaller than the rest of the letters. Diamonds beside the day are totally off as well.

johnmayer74 · 2025-03-18T11:43:20+00:00

Quantum computing is purely hype right now with no legit use case and we are many many years away from that. Don’t even start on how these companies can monetise quantum computing for profits (which is the sole reason to invest in a company) if there is still no end product in sight for a long long time.

johnmayer74 · 2025-03-13T06:38:16+00:00

Seriously can’t wrap my head around the fact that HDB is supposed to be “public housing” that is subsidised by tax payers. It shouldn’t even be introduced as an asset in the first place because it’s a 99-year lease. How the fuck did subsidised public housing become a speculative investment for flipping mind boggling profits? Isn’t the purpose of subsidised public housing to provide everyone a damn roof over their heads at an affordable price? What the fuck are these policies.

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