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. Comments are closed.
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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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