A New STI

Today, they revamp the Straits Times Index's component stocks. The total number of stocks is reduced from 45 down to 30. Some smaller counters have been kicked out and 3 new counters were included in the new 30-component STI.

1st day is always a bit chaotic. Many financial websites displayed erroreous STI numbers. For example, at Yahoo! Finance Singapore, the STI was displayed to be 3344, and the change is in green 3344 points! Wow, how I wish STI would go up 3344 points in ONE day! Haha....

AsiaOne's webpage removed the STI display. Some security firms such as DBS Vickers & Philips Security also removed the STI display from their websites until further notice. I wonder, what's wrong with those guys? They had been informed of the change quite some time ago, yet they still couldn't get things ready when the change happened.

A new STI, unfortunately, did not bring new life to Singapore's stock market. The new STI went down 33 points and ended at 3311 points.

One interesting observation. The last time they changed the component stocks of the Straits Times Index was in 1997-98 during the Asia Financial Crisis. The previous old STI went all the way down to 800+ points. Then the previous old STI was revamped and the new STI went up quite some points.

Looking back, I should have bought shares back when STI was at 800+. A good friend of mine did advise me to buy at that time, but I was too naive, believing in many stupid teachings & principles. I am still naive now, otherwise I would not have missed again the bull market that had been running for the past 3 years or so.

It is always bitter to see your own mistakes. It is even more bitter if you didn't learn from your own mistakes and committ the same sin twice. Hopefully I will learn this time...