I felt some tremors around 11:55am at Jurong West earlier and I thought I was just being too hungry that even my chair was shaking. After which I thought my fan was hitting my chair but when I checked it was stationary.

Then the messages come in fast and furious from my friends – and their friends – from several different locations: Collyer Quay (Colleagues in office), Circular Road (near Boat Quay), Robinson Road, Shenton Way DBS Building, Beach Road, Middle Road, Burlington Square, Marine Parade, Serangoon, Ang Mo Kio and even as far as Tai Seng near Paya Lebar.

It was a lot worse for those in Tai Seng and Beach Road (Gateway East or something like that), because they evacuated the building.

According to USGS, there was an earthquake in Southern Sumatra at around the same time. Let’s hope we won’t feel the rest of the tremors because a big one is usually followed by a serious of smaller ones.

Note: Follow up Tremors around 13:50 hrs.

According to Channel News Asia: “Asian stock markets came under fresh selling pressure in early trade, tracking Wall Street lower amid continued anxiety about the health of global markets, dealers said.” and “Dealers said that Wen’s annual work report before the National People’s Congress, in which he set a national economic growth target for 2007 of about 8%, failed to provide fresh trading leads.”

Does that make any sense? Sounds a little far fetch to me that an uninspiring speech of an equally uninspiring politician can cause a large sell off. Doesn’t matter he’s an uninspiring politician of a large nation with a awe inspiring economy.

Above which, it’s not like the Dow hasn’t moved that way before.

But again, when they need to find an excuse to hide the fact that they are clueless why the markets are heading south, they always say something like that. Either way, it won’t be a surprise that this happened simply because the sharks are already done with their profit taking, and they are now just holding back. In other words, the current lack of demand is what that is driving the markets back to saner levels.

It was only the beginning previously, and this definitely is not the end yet.

And you don’t have to buy whatever is said here. If I think the analysts and traders are talking cock, then you can think the same of what I said. Kekekeke…

There is blood in the regional stock markets today. Most suffered a big single day drop before it recovers some ground in the afternoon.

According to the papers, the worldwide tumble was sparked by China’s plan to clamp down on illegal stock market investments. Chinese stocks slumped the most in a decade the day before, while Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index dropped 3% and emerging markets sank. Russian shares slid from an all-time high; Brazil’s Bovespa Index lost 6.6% over the night.

From the list below, Singapore’s Straits Times Index [STI] is the second ‘worst performing market’ in the region, suffering at one time a 6% drop. In my opinion this was fueled by panic selling by ‘contra players’ who hoped they could pull a fast one but have no money to pay for their stocks.

The STI finally managed to get a grip on itself and rally to close at 3.72% down. Still, it was cold comfort that the other worse performing market is that of the Philippines.

It is a correct long in coming and much awaited, but I suspect this is just the beginning and it isn’t over yet.

[Aggregate Score] Singapore 3 : 2 Thailand

A late 81′ equaliser by K. Amri in the second leg brought us a win at the Supachalasai Stadium in Bangkok even in the face of intimidation from Thailand’s fans.

Yes!! Singapore won!!

We won in spite of all the world’s opinion against us, the opinion that we won’t make it in Thailand.

And the Thais cannot claim the referee’s penalty in Singapore handed us a win. After all Singapore was disallowed a goal in the eighth minute when Shahril Ishak was judged offside, which television replays clearly showed was an error.

So we are even, and it is final, it’s not a fluke, the Lions are Champions again in the ASEAN Football Championship!!

This came through my email from my friend and broker.

Read it and judge for yourself if it is time to quit the market now.

As you are aware that the Singapore market, along with other markets in the world, have repeatedly hit new highs. Some old stories may has also been forgotten and I would like to bring your attention and urge you to be more careful when you trade.

You may still remember this old fork telling you that the market maybe at the peak.

There are a few points that investors are always forget:

For your info, some broking houses already issued some warning to their dealers to control their clients limit.

My Portfolio now? – ZERO shares.

Call me a chicken but I’ll rather be safe than sorry. After all, only money in my pocket is real.