Over the course of the semester, I found it increasingly difficult to balance academics, traveling to foreign countries, exploring Singapore, meeting new locals and exchangers, integrating with student life, and reflecting on experiences. The bittersweetness of not having the time to balance everything while giving some aspects more attention reveals my propensities and provides lessons on what I value and if that should change in hindsight. Nonetheless, the glorified experience of studying abroad does meet expectations as it is far from just another semester. The last two weeks have been challenging, to say the least. As much as I studied to a point of leaving no doubt in my mind that I will do well, the assessed content for my bank management module was something entirely different. The exam content would focus on minor topics, perhaps 1% of total material covered in the module, and inquire as if it occupied 50% of the semester. Other modules sought to test your creativity in applying the concepts taught. Don’t forget the crowded study spaces and the lovely hot and humid air that keeps your notes nice and damp. This week marked my last class sessions; it was all a bit sentimental. It is reasonably expected, but I noticed that people who speak the same primary language tend to naturally associate with each other to a point where it is difficult to engage with those who speak a different language. Exchangers from the US and Toronto mysteriously gravitated toward each other, whereas exchangers from France and Quebec mingled frequently. I encountered a large number of students from HEC Montreal, and often saw Norwegians, Dutch, and Italians in my modules. As the semester progresses, you need to go more out of your way to meet people. Furthermore, as it is the second semester, there are less recruitment events for the interest groups and organizations. For the next three weeks, I will travel alone, for the first time, across Cambodia and Vietnam (whilst submitting a term paper and reviewing for a final exam). The original naïve plan: Singapore -> Cambodia -> Vietnam -> Laos -> Chiang Mai-Pattaya -> Kuala Lumpur -> Singapore. It was definitely logistically possible, but I resisted the temptation to avoid visiting for the satisfaction of checking them off rather than experiencing them to at least some respectable degree. On another note: Tembusu College now has built-in Wi-Fi, so personal routers aren’t necessary anymore. SGX Academy | Workshop on Futures Trading
I attended a workshop in SGX Centre 1 focusing on futures trading with technical analysis. The workshop was led by Tom Yuen, an NUS Computer Science alumnus, former Defense Scientist at DSO National Laboratories, and futures trader with over 20 years of experience, of which the first 13 years was spent as a floor/pit trader with Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX). He frequently referenced Sun Tzu’s The Art of War as he talked about utilizing direction, level, and price action, and establishing standard operating procedures to take advantage of mass psychology and leave emotions out of trading. Specifically, he repeated, “Buy at greed; too late to buy at euphoria. Sell at fear; too late to sell at panic.” Tom issued his two golden rules: 1) follow the trend, and 2) cut losses. Explaining that trading is a probability game of maximizing the risk-reward ratio and identifying trend and rest phases, he demonstrated the use of exponential moving average (EMA) ribbons. He joked that Singaporeans don’t believe in their own products and don’t trade on their own index as STI Futures volume has been zero for years. Many don’t even know SiMSCI, but it is still alive for now. Tembusu Slate | The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ’S’ Machine Tembusu Slate, the theatre interest group of Tembusu, performed The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ’S’ Machine, a satirical play by local playwright Tan Tarn How, at UTown Auditorium 2. It was a low-budget performance but the enthusiasm of the performers, which included two of my suitemates, well conveyed the humorous script. Tembusu Formal Dinner The greatest recent highlight was the presence of President of Singapore Halimah Yacob at the Tembusu Formal Dinner held in the Tembusu Dining Hall. The Formal Dinner marks an unofficial end to the semester with awards for student achievements and recognition of the student interest groups and activities. The novelty of studying abroad and living in another country disappeared after about two months for me. It felt as if I had my fair share of the “study abroad experience.” This complacency was likely a byproduct of finally adjusting to the environment. However, knowing that there was much more to experience outside of travelling and attending classes, I was inclined to discover other deeper intricacies of day-to-day life here. This may be derived from joining student interest groups, attending house, college, and other NUS events, or checking out various festivals, conferences, and workshops around Singapore. Although Oahu is about 2.2 times the size of Singapore, Singapore still feels much larger, even after three months of living here. After all, Singapore does rank as the country with the third highest population density in the world. You can only spend so many consecutive hours reviewing lectures before your brain fatigues. Luckily, there is a massive array of events found via Eventbrite, Peatix, Facebook, SGInnovate, NUS Business School, NUS Investment Society, Centre for Asset Management Research & Investments (CAMRI), NUS Enterprise, SGX Academy, etc. that NUS students and the general public can attend. A surprising number of events are completely free of charge. Unsurprisingly, many events are quickly oversubscribed. In an effort to do more with my time, I’ve attended a few of these events, which I outlined below. I noticed that pigeonhole.at is often used for the Q&A session at many events. I will be occupied in the upcoming two weeks with an ACC1006 report, presentation, and peer critique; two FIN3117 quizzes; and a FIN3101A case critique and test. These assessments will collectively account for roughly 30% to 50% of my grade for each module. Tembusu College Forum | Singapore’s Fourth Prime Minister: Aspirations and Expectations Moderated by Professor Tommy Koh, the Rector of Tembusu College and Former Ambassador to the UN, the forum featured Mr. Zulkifli Baharudin, Executive Chairman of ITL Corporation; Ms. Kuik Shiao-Yin, Nominated Member of Parliament and Co-founder of The Thought Collective; Mr. Eugene Tan, Associate Professor of Law at Singapore Management University; and Mr. Tan Yang Long, Tembusu College Student Representative. Mr. Eugene Tan presented that the selection process for the next PM is exclusive and limited to a few, so the public cannot really indicate a preference; how the Members of Parliament are chosen defines the future PM well in advance. When there is a higher level of approval by society, a leader naturally seems more distanced from the public. Mr. Baharudin presented the thoughts of the Malay communities, particularly noting Malay acceptance of meritocracy but rejection of tokenism. There is a need to make Singapore’s economic and business environment less dominated by big business and more permeable for small, local businesses by encouraging local partnerships. Ms. Kuik discussed the psychological and emotional considerations of governing Singapore as the PM in regards to society’s expectations, reception, and judgements in a critical stage of Singapore’s development. She emphasized the influence of the PM’s attitude, character, values on public perception and political influence and decision-making. Perhaps the most memorable part of the forum was Mr. Tan Yang Long’s speech in the form of a letter from Tembusu College to the 4th Prime Minster of Singapore. He questioned if the youth will be seen as leaders or as citizens to be governed, pointing out that although students are encouraged to think critically and voice their opinions, they are also told to respect boundaries and to prefer certain narratives over others. He recognized the impact of social inequality, social mobility, and social identity in uniting Singapore. With such rapid development, basic services are denied to those without technological know-how; will Singapore continue to be a national project all Singaporeans want to be part of? With the assistance of Ms. Kuik, Mr. Tan will deliver a hardcopy letter to each of the 16 fourth-generation leaders. This is the letter. NUS Business School | Behavioural Finance: Mitigating Financial Mistakes
Professor David Reeb presented on irrational decision-making and various behavioral biases, encouraging investors to focus more on cash flows and less on price appreciation. NUS Enterprise and Symphony Creative Solutions | Kopi Chat: Ocean of Opportunities Located just past INSEAD Business School’s Singapore campus, BLOCK71 is NUS Enterprise’s creative space for more than 250 start-ups and 30 incubators, accelerators, and venture capitalists. Mr. Kosuke Wada from Ocean Network Express (ONE) presented challenges in their container liner business and the impact of disruptive technologies on ship connectivity and digitization, hull cleaning, the customer contracting process, and the bill of lading documentation process. Mr. Daniel Sparing from Google Cloud discussed the use of machine learning for scaling, autonomous vessel navigation, cloud detection in satellite images, and pattern recognition. NUS Centre for the Arts | First Time by nuSTUDIOS Film Productions Some of the events presented by NUS Centre for the Arts are ExxonMobil Campus Concerts, which is a series of free-admission performances. Located in Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium in UTown, this production showcased six student-directed short films followed by a panel discussion with the directors. Yale-NUS Society for Academic Research | Development in Asia Research Conference 2018 President of Yale-NUS College Professor Tan Tai Yong opened the conference and welcomed the keynote speakers. Former Secretary-General of ASEAN, Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, presented on ASEAN and Asia’s geopolitical future, touching on the South China Sea disputes, US and China, the Korean Peninsula, Myanmar and Rohingya, and the spread of radicalization and extremism. Dr. Thomas Schroepfer presented on sustainable design and architecture as an urban ecosystem. The conference concluded with a panel discussion and student presentations on their senior theses. |
ABOUT ME
Keng-Chia Chao BBA Candidate in Finance, Accounting, & Management Information Systems Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Archives
May 2018
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