Tahniah Man & Dila.. Gambar sikit2 ada kat link sini.. Pasangan yang seperti pinang dibelah dua. muka pun ada iras2. orang tua2 kata, muka seiras memang sesuai kahwin. lauk gulai dgn air oren memang sedap. yang tak bes jalan kat melaka je. trafic jam melampau. album aku try by next week paling cepat. semoga bahagia sehingga akhirat. amin..

Title: The Oil Factor
Author: The Leebs (Stephen and Donna)
Rate: 4 / 5
Price: RM 35

For a book with a word ‘oil’ on it, i was expecting something about drilling, deepsea, oil depletion and probably new ventures or what not. However the book has brought me to another perspective of practical investing strategy. Despite its ‘misleading’ title, it is still convenient for both investors and anyone who is interested to know about oil, gas and anything that revolve around it, as how i would describe the book.

Towards the end of your reading, you will actually realized that the author has brilliantly created an indicator and a set of portfolio that is conservative, yet profitable for your investment strategy. It is also interesting to see the results of utilizing the ‘oil indicator’ in his previous book when switching the portfolio weightage during deflation and inflation. Perhaps this book is meant within the direction of US stocks but the concept of energy influence in economic activity is everywhere. Said that, we are and will always be driven by US dollar for as long as our foreign reserve (now at USD90 billion) is on USD.

The earlier chapter explained about alternatives or renewable energy, i.e. air, nuclear, hydrogen, coal - more academic and dry subject; but that leads to the explanation of why oil has never failed to become significant. However, that data used in the analysis is for the past 30 years, of which the Mainland China was not visible as the future economic prowess; at that point of time.

The bottom line is, it is worth reading despite being less intriguing as compared to Freakonomics; for someone who is interested to understand about the future of alternative energy and for some individual investor with a capital of probably more than RM 50k, given that the portfolio is very much exclusive to blue chip companies.

I still remember some 6 to 12 months ago, people were talking and blogging about Petronas like everyone’s business and there’s no tomorrow. suddenly they know about jet fuels, Petronas operating unit, sweet and sour gas, brunei-singapore-vietnam petrol prices and many other o&g jargons. what they don’t probably know is that how brunei experience the ripple effect whereby their subsidies quadrupled within 5 years. they don’t know that Brunei has finally gone into serious islamic banking, only after a decade malaysia has started, to counter the turmoil effect realizing that their oil supply is soon bound to decline. not that i want to single out their shortcomings, but these people should be more analytical before blogging/talking; in the overall perspective that is lacking

Hisotical data is clear that oil prices is always tied with inflation. we have seen in 1972, 1980 and 2002. how does this relate to petronas, subsidizing, importing and exporting of oil and gas? of course, there is but absolutely minute and indirect. but then, when the oil price started to drop sharply, all the corridor talk ceased.

Comparison of oil price simply can’t be made apple to apple on Malaysia against other countries. Oil price is not simply price per litre per se. Inflation, CPI or GDP, real rates must be taken into consideration. Malaysians must start to realize how much money is at stake, Petronas is responsible for. They should know that Petronas asset is now worth RM200 billion worldwide, is employing more than 25000 staff, and has given back RM 400 billions in 35 years of service of which used to spearhead Rancangan Malaysia ke 2 to RMK9. Are we not doing well? or do we want to be like Venezuela, Cuba or Indonesia?

and today, petronas is about USD 30 billion away from Shell, a company that has existed for 100 years, while the former has only been here for 35 years.

if the wealth and profit is still questionable, ask the government perhaps, please do not blame petronas, the management, or in particular the staff. we are doing business, like you are.