How to start trading US stock

Last week, finally i had my US stock account opened, and i applied through TD ammeritrade, which is a reputable online brokerage based at US.

I chosen this online broker as it is reliable with good support, from the experience of few of my friends. Also i'd tried out the tools that you can get them for free after signed up. The trading tools are amazing, both for technical and fundamental analysis.

Also i'm an iPhone user, so i'm enjoying using the iPhone real time trading tool as well.

The application steps are easy, you can straight go and apply online by yourself. Or you can choose to be referred by me, which you will be able to enjoy special offer which is 500 free trades. To be referred by me, please drop down a comment of your full name and email address, or email me at danielong1982@yahoo.com with title of "TD Ammeritrade application".

After you filled in the online application form, you need to print the completed form (Open Your Account.htm) out, and then you need to sign on it. Bear in mind to save this page after you finish filled in the details. Else you will need to reapply later or filled in the form manually.

The documents that you will need are as below:

1. W-8BEN - this is the only form that you need to mail to them.
2. Photocopy of your passport.
3. Your bank statement with your full name on it.
4. You pay slip - this is optional.
5. Online account application form (Open Your Account.htm), which is the one that i mentioned to save the page after you fill in the details online.

After your account being approved, you can start to fund your accounts. You can find the details from this page. I personally chose to electronic transfer my stocks from other online account.

Please feel free to drop me any questions.

Also i'm going to start introduce US stocks start from next week, stay tune.

Invest in emerging markets through ADR

One of the reason i invest in US stock market is due to American depositary receipt (ADR), which is a stock that trades in the United States but represents a specified number of shares in a foreign corporation. 


I would like to invest in emerging markets stocks, as i believe the emerging markets provide a better opportunities. However emerging markets economies having possibility of fall back due to not-completely-resolved civil war or a revolution sparking a change in government. Well, the higher the risk, the better the reward. With thorough study on a company, i believe the risk will be minimized till the level which is acceptable.


Advantages of investing in ADR not only provide you the easiest way to invest in emerging markets, also by having it listed in US stock market, the financial data and news will be more transparent with the control of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As the control of the stock markets in emerging markets might be not really transparent, and it will harm the advantages of the share holders.


Emerging markets that i focus on will be Brazil and India which are from "BRIC nations" formed by Brazil, Russia, India & China. India is one my favorite as is the world 3rd largest economy, and is one the fastest growing country in Asia, it aims for economic growth of 9 percent to 9.5 percent through 2017. I like Brazil as its the world 8th largest economy with economy growth of 7.5% for year 2010, and it also has huge oil reserves and a fast-growing domestic market.


For those who interested in investing in ADR, you can actually find out more about ADR in www.adr.com.

How to Prevent, Control & Cure Diabetes?

Last Friday i was on leave, and had a walk at a QBM in the afternoon. My usual hanging spot will be the bookstore, as i believed in ancient Chinese saying "书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉" which means somehow like this "A book holds a house of gold; a book holds a face as smooth as jade".

Went through the Popular books of the month whereby Popular member will enjoy 20% discount, there are many books that i intended to have actually. One of them that caught my attention is  "How to Prevent, Control & Cure Diabetes". I would like to have this book as i'm a bit concern of Diabetes, which few of my elder family members did suffer from this long term illness, and to prevent is always better than cure. Statistic showing that ~3% of the Malaysian population is suffer from Diabetes, and half of them might not even realize. One of my intention to start this blog is to create awareness of health conscious.

As most of you know, books at Popular are wrapped most of the times, and i can't really know the contents. So i decided to move to my next favorite bookstore - Boarders, to see if i can have a quick glance on the contents for those books.

No luck to find that book from Boarders, and i actually spend 3 hours at Boarders and eventually i forgot that i would like to buy the book from Popular. I admitted that my memory is a bit lousy sometimes.

And yesterday when i was at QBM again, i went back to Popular trying to look for the book again. Guess what, the book had gone, sold out... Rest of the discounted books were still there, only this book was gone. It told me that Diabetes is really a major concern for Malaysian, and people start to look into it.

Again i'm on leave today while writing this blog, i will be going to Gurney Plaza later, hoping that i can find it in MPH, which is another bookstore. :)

Also, today onwards i'm going to share more on the health info that i know and hope everyone of you will benefit from it.

Poisonous Cosmetic

Read an article regarding poisons found in cosmetic products which declared by the Health Ministry. The affected products are BML HB Lotion, Shana Night Cream, Natasya Gold Herbal Cream, Biotox Whitening Hydro Cream, Yoko Whitening Cream and Sue Beauty Night Treatment Cream.

They contain scheduled poisons such as dexamethasone, hydroquinone and tretinoin which caused various side-effects to consumers and is written that the use of dexamethasone, hydroquinone and tretinoin in cosmetic products were prohibited and could only be used with the advice of health professionals.

 The ministry's Pharmaceutical Services senior director Datuk Eisah A. Rahman said that Tretinoin can cause redness to the skin, peeling, discomfort and sensitivity to sunlight while hydroquinone can cause redness to skin, discomfort, skin discolouration, hypersensitivity and a gradual blue-black darkening of the skin.

"It also inhibits the pigmentation process and this attenuates the ability of the skin to protect our body from harmful UV rays, which can lead to the risk of getting skin cancer." .

Eisah said that dexamethasone, a steroid, when used topically, can cause skin irritation, dry skin, acne, thinning of the skin and increased risk of skin infections.

Prolonged use of topical steroids may result in systemic side effects such as suppression of the adrenal glands, metabolic disturbances and immune response impairment.

She said that anyone who is in possession of the products is advised to immediately cease selling, distributing or using it.

Please help to forward this article to those who you think might be using above mentioned products.

Hot tips from me?

Some of my friends always asked me, whether there is any hot tip that i can let them know. I will always answer them there are no tips, and i don't invest based on any hot tip. Personally, i don't believe in hot tips, as i knew that i'm just a small retail investor now, and i don't believe that small retail investor can get any hot tips.

What I invest the most currently is the stock market. I like it because i think it is simple, and you just need a small capital to start. And i did encouraged my friends to invest in stock market as a start, as even if they lost money, i hope they will learn from there.

Stock market is easy for me as they are easy accessible in this information age. All the financial data, company background and etc can be easily found online. This is true especially for US stock market, the company are highly transparent. Well, KLSE still need some improvement to achieve that, but i do see improvement from time to time.

To enter the stock market, what you need as basic is to learn how to read a financial statement. This is vital for you to know whether the company is healthy or not. I will never buy a stock of a company that is weak in financial statement, unless i'm pretty confirm (>90%) confident that the company will have a break through in coming years.

Being able to interpret a financial statement is the most fundamental for an investor. For this, i will be recommend  a book "Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements". This is a book related to how Warren Buffett find a good company to invest in. I will probably write a review for this book soon.

How to be rich?

I think you had heard people asking - how to be rich? And of cause different people tend to have different answers.

I often heard people saying that they will be rich if they won the lottery, or probably when the stock they have shoot up like a rocket. Well, i do think they might be considered as rich when they have the amount of money on hand, but i don't think they will be able to sustain the wealth they have.

When you think you will only get rich by winning a lottery, high chances you would not be rich unless you won a lottery. Even when they won the lottery, end up they will turn out to be poorer than they were after 10 years. It is due to the poor mindset they have

So the key to be rich is the mindset, you need to have a rich mindset before you ready to be rich. People tend to don't understand this, and believing that they will be rich when they have a lot of money in the bank or staying in a big house which they consider as an asset. Rich will not happy when they see lots of money in the bank, and they will not consider the big house they are staying is an asset.

This are all due to the different mindset, you will never be rich if you still having the poor mindset. To have a rich mindset, is a long story, and i will be keep sharing this kind of topic.

One book that i would recommend on this topic is the Rich Dad Poor Dad, which i think some of you might had read before as it is New York Times best seller. I personally think that this book is inspiring and guide you to see the way of becoming rich in a different way.

Welcome to my blog!

I'm a Malaysian that currently staying at Penang, and going to be 30 very soon, which is the age people start to think where will they heading in the next 10 or 20 years. My hobby is reading, i read a lot of books related to investment, self motivation & health. Besides working as an engineer, i did involved myself in the investment activities. My friend that know me well will know my character is kind of optimistic, and kind of funny. :)

Initially, i'd started another blog for investment especially on stock market. After i started a while, i think of something very important other than wealth, which is health. Both words are similar just the first letter is different, and according to the sequence, health come first followed by wealth. Sometimes, you will hear people saying health is wealth.

I'm seeing that most of my friends that neglecting their health and working hard for the company. So for them, in order to chase the 'wealth' (paycheck), they are putting away their health, which i don't think it is the life that they should be having. They are a good hardworking man, and they deserve a better life. 

This is the main reason i started this blog, to share what i'd learned about health & wealth. Why don't we have the health and wealth together?

I welcome those who is care about their health, also those who interested to find out ways of building their wealthiness. While you are reading my blog, feel free to leave any comments or questions, also pls email me (danielong1982@yahoo.com)  if you think it is not suitable to be published.