On the Road to Recovery?

After more than three months of getting a negative standing on my overall investment portfolio at the Philippines stock market (it went down to -13%), at last, my overall investment portfolio is now on its positive standing ... not that big margin though but at least if ever I sell all my positions today, I would be gaining on my investment.

Is this the start of stock market recovery?  Well, let's wait and see.

How to Open a Citiseconline Account

If you are decided to invest/trade in Philippines Stock Market, it is now time to open an account with a stock broker.  One of the top stock brokers in the market today is Citiseconline and since I started investing/trading in the Philippines Stock Market, I had tapped their services and so far, I’m happy with them.

Opening an account with Citiseconline is easy.  Just print and fill-out the forms which are available in their website and submit it to their customer service center together with a copy of any government issued IDs at 2403-B, East Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange Center, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines.  You may let a representative submit the documents on your behalf, just submit any billing or bank statements.

After you have submitted the documents, just wait for the approval of your account which takes from one to two days.  A Citiseconline representative will contact you and you will be given your user ID and your initial password ... you can already deposit your initial fund which is a minimum of 25,000 pesos for regular accounts at any BPI, BDO and Metrobank branches.  Once your fund is already credited to your account (you can check this by logging in to Citiseconline website using your user ID and password), you can now start trading/investing in the stock market.

Happy investing/trading everyone.

What is Citiseconline's Easy Investment Program (EIP)?

Citiseconline’s EIP or Easy Investment Program was designed to help ordinary citizens to invest in the Philippines Stock Market the simple and convenient way.  The basic principle of this program is based on peso-cost averaging which is a time tested strategy to build personal wealth by investing a fixed amount of money in a good quality company in regular intervals over a period of time. 

This strategy works best for a long term investment and the good thing about this is that you don’t have to time the market.   The idea is that whenever the stock price of a certain good quality increases we purchase less shares and whenever the price decreases, we purchase more shares so we don't have to time the market just follow your your schedule on buying your shares.  In the long run, the average cost per share will be lesser than the actual price per share.

The following are the features of Citiseconline’s EIP:

a.       Recommends premium quality companies which are suitable for a long term investment.  How did they arrive with this list?  Citiseconline has a group of fundamental analysts who are expert in studying all these listed companies in the stock exchange.  They make a thorough study of a certain company before they recommend it to the list of premium quality stocks.  I don’t have the capability of studying these companies so I just rely on their recommendations.

b.      On-line monitoring of your EIP portfolio.  With Citiseconline you can always monitor your stock positions anytime, anywhere you are as long as you have an internet access.  Personally, I still make my own spreadsheet to monitor my stock positions, then I compare it with citiseconline’s report.  So far, I haven’t found any discrepancy yet aside from small centavo difference because of the rounding off system.

c.       Citiseconline EIP reminds clients of their scheduled EIP order.  When you register for Citiseconline EIP, you will be required to input how much you are going to invest in a certain quality company they recommend, for a regular interval (say weekly, monthly or quarterly) at a certain period of time.  Based from your input, they will remind you two days before your scheduled EIP purchase through e-mail.

Remember that Citiseconline’s EIP will not automatically buy your stocks for you.  You have to set your order at your scheduled date, just don’t forget to check your account for an available fund.

This program is still covered with the board lot rule so don’t expect that if you allot 5,000 pesos monthly for a certain company, you can buy a 5,000 pesos worth of shares.  The amount will vary depending on the prices of stocks at the time of your scheduled order so what I'm doing is that I fix my EIP order to the number of shares which is in accordance to the board lot rule and to my budget. 

I registered for an EIP order for ALI (Ayala Land, Inc.) every 15th of the month at a 5,000 pesos investment.  With this 5,000 budget, I can buy approximately 300 shares of ALI each month. For several months now, ALI's price fluctuates from 15 pesos to 17 pesos per share, sometimes I buy ALI shares for only 15 pesos per share (approximately 4,550 pesos for 300 shares) and there are also times when I buy it at 17 pesos per share (approximately 5,200 pesos for 300 shares). 

So for those of you who want to invest for a long term in the stock market the easy and convenient way, you can always try this Easy Investment Program of Citiseconline.  Please visit their website to know more about this program.

How to Start Investing/Trading in the Stock Market

I have talked to some friends who have been interested in investing in the stock market for a long time it's just that, they don’t know how to start.  Well, I told them, if you’re really serious in getting involved with the stock market, have the extra money to invest or trade and you are willing to take the risks (which can actually be managed), getting started is just simple.

The only thing you have to do is to open an account with a stock broker.  It is the only way anyone can transact business with the stock exchange.

There are a lot of licensed stock brokers in the Philippine Stock Exchange, you can visit the PSE website and click on the trading participants to get the complete list.  The list is really long that if you’re new in the stock market, it would be a headache to choose which stock broker you are going to transact to so this is where information from friends and some research can help.

In my case, I chose the stock broker recommended by Bro. Bo of Truly Rich Club which is the Citiseconline.  I'd been reading books, articles and newsletters written by Bro. Bo, in fact, it is from his writings that I learned about the stock market so it's just natural for me to follow his recommendations.  But of course, before I opened my account with Citiseconline, I did my own research.  I browsed their website and attended the free seminars they offered and so far, two years after opening an account with them, I’m satisfied with their services.

Once you have opened an account with a stock broker, you can now buy your first shares of stocks of any listed company you want to.

Happy investing everyone.