I was on leave yesterday tidying up some of the older stuffs lying around in the living room for a long time. I also did some serious value reading and sleeping yesterday, so I thought it was nice to switch ON my computer today to take a look around at the market.

Two things I’ve noticed:

1. The US and Asia stock prices continue to hit new bottoms!
2. I’ve got over 30 unique visitors on National Day (9th Aug 2007)!

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Insights #1:

As I’ve recently starting to learn about the equity markets, I’m not panicked by the recent shock. Hey, I’m no equity expert so please don’t take my words too seriously. On the other hand, I cannot deny that this continual decline will most likely going to hit my other investments.

The good news is, these are probably likely to be small adjustments until the market rallies again in the following months, so I guess there is no panic to sell if you’re freaked out.

Oh, and I was about to list some highly recommended books as essential readings for anyone serious enough to learn about value investing.

I am planning to make some purchases after reading some of the brighter feedbacks from other Amazon readers…

1. The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition)
   by Benjamin Graham
2. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings
   by Philip A. Fisher
3. The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing:Morningstar’s Guide to Building Wealth and Winning in the Market (Paperback)
   by Pat Dorsey

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Here are some of my insights:

If you’re going to buy any books, do check out the retail price and compare that against those selling on Amazon.com. You’ll be surprised at how much you can save, after deduction from overseas shipping and handling.

The catch? Perhaps, you may have to wait a while longer (10 to 40 business days) depending on which country you’re residing in.

If you’re living in USA, the super saving offers is definitely a steal because you get the products shipped to your home for free! Arghh… I wonder when Amazon will have this service available to their Singapore customers. Then again, we got to think hard. This will definitely turn out monopolizing this market so I guess that will not happen in the near future.

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Insights #2:

Interestingly, I have decided to try out some new themes for my blog and also upgraded the blog software onto the latest version. The latest version carries a number of security fixes while the new theme give my readers a new and refreshing look.

If you’re looking for some outstanding themes for your own blog, do check out: http://www.bestwpthemes.com/

To boost your blog traffic, check out this insightful article by Paul Stamatiou: http://paulstamatiou.com/2005/11/03/how-to-boost-your-blog-traffic/

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Oh, and did I mention a visitor windfall on NDP?

Yes! I was quite excited at the number of Singaporeans searching to view the NDP over the Internet. Let’s take a look at my log:

Did you notice 30 unique visitors at the peak? Yes! And they’re all referred by Google!

Here is a snapshot of what and where these visitors are searching for/from:

I don’t have that many daily visitors on average so I think these Singaporeans living overseas must have had an itch to see what is happening back here in Singapore!

Unfortunately, Google point them to the wrong pages (> 90% of the time) when they are looking for the live webcam link on my NDP @ Marina Bay Part 9 post.

Google bot was unable to identify the most relevant article from my sidebar where it should have been when I added Part 10. It was shifted out of view on my main page as I did not want more than 1 article to fill the main page.

Hmm… I have no fix for this at the moment perhaps you can advise if you happen to be an expert on Wordpress SEO?

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Opps! I guess I’m getting too technical now so I’ll leave this topic open for anyone out there who care to share their insights? Have a wonderful evening ahead!