My Journey

 For investors watching Singtel (Z74.SI) slide past the psychological support level of S$4.50 this week, the cause isn’t found in the data centres of Singapore, but in a brewing corporate storm in Australia. Singtel’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Optus, is currently mired in a reputational and operational quagmire following the release of the "Schott Review"—an independent inquiry into the catastrophic Triple Zero (000) outage of late 2025. What began as a technical failure has mutated into a war over corporate culture, accountability, and union relations. The Trigger: A Culture of Fear and Silence The current volatility stems from the fallout of the independent review led by Dr. Kerry Schott, which unearthed issues far more damaging than simple hardware failure. The inquiry described an internal culture at Optus that was deeply "defensive" and siloed, creating a fortress mentality that isolated senior management from operational reality. The review found that informati...

 If you were being chased by a predator on the savannah 50,000 years ago, "doing nothing" meant death. Our brains evolved to equate survival with action . When we perceive a threat—like a portfolio dropping 5%—our amygdala (the fear center) screams at us to do something . In the modern financial environment, this survival instinct is a liability. Here is the deep psychology behind why "sitting on your hands" feels impossible. 1. The Dopamine Trap (The "Slot Machine" Effect) Checking your stock portfolio triggers the exact same neurochemical loop as a slot machine. This is known as Intermittent Variable Reward . Predictable rewards (e.g., a salary) eventually become boring. Unpredictable rewards (e.g., checking an app and seeing a stock up 3% or down 4%) trigger a massive spike in dopamine . Every time you open a trading app, you are pulling the lever. If the numbers are green, you get a hit of dopamine (pleasure). If they are red, you get a hit of corti...

 As the trading days of 2025 dwindle, the activity surrounding CapitaLand Investment (CLI) has settled into a palpable stillness. Investors and market watchers looking for a dramatic finish to the year are likely to be met with low volumes and sideways movement. However, this uneventful drift is deceptive. It is less a sign of disinterest and more the holding of breath before what could be the most significant corporate restructuring in Singapore’s recent history: the potential merger with Mapletree Investments. The Anatomy of an Uneventful Year-End Your observation of "uneventful trading" is astute and driven by a convergence of seasonal and structural factors affecting CLI right now: The Holiday Liquidity Drain: We are deep in the traditional holiday lull. By late December, institutional desks are thinly staffed, and major portfolio rebalancing is largely complete. For a large-cap counter like CLI, which relies heavily on institutional flows, the absence of these big playe...