Please tell us what you do professionally.
I’m currently a portfolio manager with the Discretionary Portfolio Management (DPM) team in CGS-CIMB Securities Singapore. I was appointed to this newly created role in April after spending nearly 12 years with the firm.
My main responsibilities include managing discretionary investment mandates for the team, conducting quantitative research to uncover new sources of alpha; building proprietary strategic/tactical asset allocation models, multi-factor equity strategies and mutual fund selection models.
Prior to this, I was a market strategist for five years with CGS-CIMB Research. Being a member of the regional technical research team, I contributed to our daily TA publication “Trendspotter” covering Singapore, Hong Kong and Chinese equities. During this tenure, I pioneered the development of our proprietary CQM Dual Momentum models which we officially unveiled last year. These models can efficiently help our traders and clients screen through thousands of stocks across major equity markets to provide better quality alpha.
Three years ago, I was also involved in helping the firm to develop quantitative investment models for our defunct Digital Robo Advisory platform we called “eWealth.”
CGS-CIMB is a 50-50 joint venture between CGS (China Galaxy Securities), a leading Chinese brokerage and CIMB Group.
How did you get there?
I have always had a strategic plan for almost everything, since I’m an INTJ (explained below). Since my teenage years, I already knew that I wanted to be involved in the financial markets because it seemed like the biggest puzzle to solve. Plus, I was quite obsessed with numbers from a young age, preferring strategy games that involved statistics and the laws of probability.
Unfortunately, none of my family members were in the financial industry nor did I have friends or contacts who could help me, so I could only rely on myself to find a way in.
I believe in creating our own destinies through hard work; you are your only limit. As they say, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Of course, I am equally fortunate to have met the right people in my career who saw my aspiration and helped to shape my path.
Being an INTJ (introverted, intuitive, thinking, judging); a Meyers-Brigg personality type who is hopelessly logical, I thrive on strategizing plans, tackling the most challenging goals through sheer willpower and making them work. I have to admit things were so fuzzy back then that I did not have the slightest idea how they would turn out. I only remembered that I must haul myself back on track during those times when I felt I was drifting off course.
I was in the business stream during my GCE “A levels” (high school equivalent in the U.S.) days, but being in the rebellious stage of my life, I would frequently skip classes that bored me, all except economics. I can still vividly remember that occasional awkwardly pleasing look on my economics tutor’s face when he knew I skipped all other classes for the entire day, just to show up for his. He is a definitely a passionate educator, now trying to save lost souls as a senior minister with a local Presbyterian Church.
After “A levels,” most boys in Singapore are called up to serve a two and a half years of mandatory national service and I served mine in the Police Force. Like most young adults, I got distracted from my plan when I took on a job in a local Telco. Although I exceled in my procurement work, without a bachelor’s degree, I soon hit a promotion obstacle. This was a turning point that helped me to re-evaluate my career goals as I had deviated away from my first passion; the markets.
To realign that deviation, I quit my job to pursue my bachelor’s degree at RMIT University. In 2003, I bought a one-way ticket to Melbourne, Australia to begin my adventure and four years later I graduated with a business degree majoring in Economics and Finance.
Graduating just when the global financial crisis was taking the bull by the horns, breaking into the financial industry proved to be more challenging for a fresh graduate with no connections. However, that didn’t stop me from coming back to Singapore in early 2008 to embark on my job hunting.
After many months of sending out resumes and attending interviews, my ex-girlfriend who was working on a branding campaign for CIMB found out about the recruitment exercise on the last day of submission and so I managed to submit my application right before it closed.
In September 2009, I almost signed on as a junior proprietary trader before making a last-minute switch to be a broker instead. My trading skills shone through during my rookie year and one of the top brokers in the firm took me under his wing. Soon I was helping him to manage his trading desk while he focused on client servicing. We were also managing active clients’ semi-discretionary trading portfolios and I am proud to have successfully coach one of our top clients to join the firm as a full-time proprietary trader.
I was also the first non-institutional broker in the firm to introduce algorithmic trading services to improve our clients’ execution efficiency.
I did this for six and the half years until I realized I needed a new challenge. Coincidentally there was an internal opening for the role of a market strategist and I went for it.
Who was an early mentor in your career?
My ex-boss Nelson Tan was a definitely an early mentor when I was working under him for five and the half years. Others included, Chung Joon Chai, a senior prop trader, who introduced me to algorithmic trading and Chan Chou Hing, my ex-departmental head, who gave me the opportunity to move to research.
What book/author was most influential in helping you understand TA?
John Murphy’s Trading with Intermarket analysis had the biggest influence on my understanding of the markets through the lens of TA. I think his ideas are very contemporary and much of my current work is leveraged on what I’ve learned from this book.
What do you like to do when you are not looking at markets?
I really enjoy cooking for my loved ones, which I find extremely therapeutic and meditative. My favorite is Italian cuisine but I am also equally adept at Japanese, French, and our local Asian staples.
Other than that, you will find me either reading up on a wide range of subjects from science to history or learning how to make soap on YouTube.
What brought you to the CMT Association?
A few years into my broking career around 2011, I decided to upgrade my TA skills and knowledge by taking a structured program, so I spent the next year searching for available options. My research concluded that the CMT program stood out from existing options with better learning resources and also it is also held in higher regards to competing programs. I made my choice and the rest is history.
What it the most useful benefit of membership for you?
The CMT chartership definitely helps to open more doors for me in terms of career progression. It gives me the opportunity to explore more roles within the firm, from broker to research and now investment management. It also gives me more credibility in the workplace, as I can demonstrate the application of technical toolkits to analyze the demand and supply imbalances to win over the doubters; especially the fundamentally driven peers.
The CMT program altered my perspective on how human behavior is constantly shaping the market dynamics, it also explored the profound nature/relationship between technical and fundamental analysis; leading me to adopt a fully systematic and quantitative approach in my current work.
When I first started the program in 2013, many of my colleagues had not heard of the CMT. Driven by that, I’ve decided to volunteer and help out with the local chapter to promote the chartership. The chapter helped me to connect with fellow CMTs and I am fortunate to know ex-chapter chair James Brodie before he stepped down to return to the U.K. Now we have a team of three; Jamie Coutts, Isaac Lim and I co-chair the chapter and actively oversee the CMT initiatives in Singapore. The involvement with the chapter rewarded me with the network and friendships of like-minded peers in the industry that are invaluable.
Singapore top analyst recognition
I was elated when my regional head of research told me late last December that I’ve won the “Best analyst/commentator” category in Singapore by the AsiaMoney poll 2020, as this is the first major award that I’ve won. I’m always grateful that my management is involving me in challenging projects that gave me plenty of opportunities to stretch myself and apply my skillsets.
I’m also extremely honored to have the kind of active support from our clients and I cannot thank them enough for casting their votes in my favor. There were many doubters earlier in my career but I’ve proven them wrong by reaching my goal of becoming a portfolio manager. If you can dream it, you can do it. I am definitively proud to be a CMT charterholder.
