Business
Finance: Keep calm, and invest on

PHUKET: Stock market corrections don’t come often, but when they do, they tend to come on fast and cause investors (along with the media) to panic. After all, it’s not uncommon to experience a double digit portfolio loss in a matter of weeks, or even over the course of just a few trading days.
However, taking the following things into consideration will help you survive a stock market correction.
ASSESS YOUR PORTFOLIIO AND YOUR RISK
All investments come with some form of risk but if you have a long term time horizon, you will be able to weather any stock market correction. Nevertheless, you will want to make sure that your portfolio is not overexposed to any sector or asset class that might be falling more than the market average.
AVOID MAKING HASTY DECISIONS
Stock market corrections, along with crashes and bull markets, are all part of the normal market cycle and there is little that you as an individual investor can do to avoid them – short of exiting the market all together. A well-constructed portfolio that’s periodically rebalanced will help you counteract most downturns in the market – meaning you can take a deep breath, sit back and largely do nothing until the market correction is over.
IT’S OKAY NOT TO BE FULLY INVESTED ALL THE TIME
Many investors, even professional money managers, wrongly believe that you need to be ‘fully invested’ at all times to avoid missing out on a bull market, or a sudden market rally. This is simply not true as cash is the best protection against a market correction. Moreover, you need to ensure that you have adequate cash reserves and overall liquidity to take advantage of the profitable opportunities that will inevitably appear during market corrections when high quality stocks become available at bargain prices.
HAVE A STOCK SHOPPING LIST READY
Except for stock market crashes, market corrections are the next best time to buy high- priced stocks as they come on sale. This means you need to have a ready list of high quality stocks along with acceptable price levels at which to buy them should their share prices fall to, or below, those prices. Right now, my market correction stock list contains several tech or Internet growth stock names like Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), salesforce.com, Inc (NYSE: CRM), Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE: PANW) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) as these types of stocks tend to trade at high P/E ratios in raging bull markets.
KNOW WHEN TO BUY
A stock market correction will not necessarily end overnight in another bull market (as the market may move sideways for a while) and so you do not want to rush right back in. Instead, let the correction settle a bit while the media continues to sow panic as that will be the best time to start to slowly move back into the market. Moreover, keep an eye on any buying data, or news about institutional investors and their market moves, as they tend to look at market corrections as buying opportunities and are likely to get back in when retail investors are still selling.
LISTEN TO THE MEDIA WITHOUT FOLLOWING THEIR ADVICE
While many financial advisors tell anxious investors to turn off the news during a market correction, a counterargument would be that the more doom and gloom predictions you hear could be a sign of a market that’s bottoming. Again, institutional investors who are managing pension funds, endowments and other large pools of money, rather than trading the market, are not basing their investment
decisions on what some ‘talking head’ on CNBC or Bloomberg is saying about the market.
Don Freeman, BSME is president of Freeman Capital Management, a Registered Investment Advisor with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), based in Phuket. He has over 15 years’ experience working with expatriates, specializing in portfolio management, US tax preparation, financial planning and UK pension transfers. Call for a free portfolio review. Don can be reached at: 089-970 5795 or email: freemancapital@gmail.com.
— Don Freeman
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Business
Governments & old media versus social media – who will win? | VIDEO

We look at the recent changes made by the Australian and Indian governments to except control over the world’s biggest social media platforms. India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social. There is now an open battle between the rise of social media platforms and the governments and ‘old’ media that have been able to maintain a certain level of control over the ‘message’ for the last century. Who will win?
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told. The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
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Business
The social media giants in battle with ‘old’ media and world governments | VIDEO

“The rules signal greater willingness by countries around the world to rein in big tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter that the governments fear have become too powerful with little accountability.”
India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social.
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The companies are also being made to publish a compliance report each month with details about how many complaints they’ve received and the action they took.
They’ll also be required to remove ‘some’ types of content including “full or partial nudity,” any “sexual act” or “impersonations including morphed images”
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told.
The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
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Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.
Business
Turbulence ahead for Thailand’s aviation industry | VIDEO

When the airlines, in particular, were asking the government to put their hands in their pockets for some relief funding in August last year, it was genuinely thought that international tourists would be coming back for the high season in December and January. At the very least local tourists and expats would head back to the skies over the traditional holiday break. And surely the Chinese would be back for Chinese New Year?
As we know now, none of that happened. A resurge in cases started just south of Bangkok on December 20 last year, just before Christmas, kicking off another round of restrictions, pretty much killing off any possibility of a high season ‘bump’ for the tourist industry. Airlines slashed flights from their schedule, and hotels, which had dusted off their reception desks for the surge of tourists, shut their doors again.
Domestically, the hotel business saw 6 million room nights in the government’s latest stimulus campaign fully redeemed. But the air ticket quota of 2 million seats still has over 1.3 million seats unused. Local tourists mostly skipped flights and opted for destinations within driving distance of their homes.
As for international tourism… well that still seems months or years away, even now.
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