By Sandra Davie

AT LEAST 218 people, mostly Singaporeans, are proudly flaunting degrees, MBAs and doctorates from a dozen degree mills, including Preston University, Wisconsin International University, Paramount University of Technology, Kennedy-Western University and Rochville University.

This was uncovered by Straits Times checks on the Internet and trade publications, to find out how widespread the use of bogus qualifications is here.

Most of them are males and predominantly businessmen, professional trainers, private school lecturers and financial consultants.

The majority have basic diplomas and in some cases, degrees from bona fide universities, but quote masters or PhDs from bogus institutions to bolster their credentials.

A few such as Expressions International founder Theresa Chew, who has a honorary doctorate from Kennedy-Western University, and Mr George Quek, who has an honorary business doctorate from the Wisconsin International University, add the words Honoris Causa (Latin for a token of respect or honour) on their namecards, to indicate that it is an honorary degree.

But worryingly, an increasingly long list of private school lecturers and financial consultants openly cite their bought doctorates and masters’ degrees, in their curriculum vitae and client pitches.

A typical example is Be-Mad, a company at Scotts Road, that trains human resource professionals. Its chief executive officer ‘Dr’ David Ong Kah Seng and two of his associates, ‘Dr’ Ng Sin Keh and Mr Yeo Thiang Swee, have degrees from Rochville University, Preston University and Atlantic International University, which are all commonly referred to as diploma mills in the United States.

On its website, Be-Mad consultancy boasts that its long list of clients includes ministries, banks and educational institutions.

Yet another two successful businessmen with questionable qualifications are options trading expert ‘Dr’ Clemen Chiang, a Nanyang Technological University graduate, who runs courses through Freely Business School at North Bridge Road and ‘Dr’ T. Chandroo who runs a chain of 60 Montessori kindergartens here and abroad. Both of them have doctorates from Preston University, classified as a degree mill in the US.

Why do these successful businessmen who have demonstrated expertise in an area resort to using degrees from unaccredited institutions?

After all, resume detectives say such bogus degrees are a ‘ticking time bomb’, which may burnish your CV for now, but sooner or later blow up in your face.

The Straits Times put the question to ‘Drs’ Ong, Chiang and Chandroo.

Mr Ong claimed that his alma mater Rochville University was a reputed one and claimed to have worked on a thesis for 18 months on behavioural sciences.

Mr Chandroo’s secretary said he was ‘too busy’ to answer e-mails or calls from The Straits Times over the past month.

Mr Chiang, known to be an astute entrepreneur who set up Freely Business School and is widely quoted in the local press on options trading, admits that he was ‘not so smart’ when he signed up for an online doctorate programme from Preston University a few years ago.

The NTU engineering graduate said he wanted to complete a PhD in extra quick time and found out about Preston University through the Internet. And because it was listed as a partner of a private school here licensed by the Education Ministry, he thought it was an accredited institution.

He suggested a thesis topic on options trading which was accepted by the university faculty in Wyoming, US. He researched the topic and submitted his thesis within 16 months and was granted a PhD. It cost him all of S$18,000 in fees.

It was only later that he realised that Preston was not accredited in the US.

Mr Chiang sheepishly admits that he continues to use his doctorate as it helps to pave the way in business. Besides, he reasons: ‘I did write a thesis for it.’

But he added: ‘But I am thinking of dropping my doctorate title altogether until I complete the current PhD I am working on with the University of South Australia

Of course, amidst all the entrepreneurs mentioned, Mr Clemen Chiang stood out. He was my first trading teacher.

To me, the crux is: he knew it long before, he chose to continue to use the title because “it helps to pave the way in business”. Are all businessmen/businesswomen like so? Do-whatever-it-takes to the extent of unscrupulous? See, he is not the only one…

Nevertheless, I still thank him for being my first trading teacher. He really motivated me to pursue my interest in trading. I was impressed by his way of tearing apart and digging into a company fundamentals and how he ingeniously utilised the internet to achieve that. I also learnt something about marketing from him. I wish him well.

I often go TradersInterview.com to listen to real retail traders speak. They interview forex educators, such as Grace Cheng and Ed Ponsi, trader-bloggers, such as Trader Mike, DownTownTrader and Trader-X, and ex-fund managers/analyst, former stock brokers trading in the pits etc, who are mostly trading independently now. You can go to the Archives section to listen to the past interviews. You can even subscribe to its podcast and listen to the interviews on the move!

Allow me to share some of the interesting points that I gathered from the interviews:

• They lost a lot of money before they became successful
• They took quite a number of years before they became succesful and go full-time. Around 3-6 years.
• They got themselves education, somehow. Not just from courses, some looked for successful traders and be their mentees. Some joined a brokerage firm and became a stock broker to learn the trade! And they read a lot of books!
• Most are technical traders. Only one (if I remembered  correctly)  is a fundamental trader so far.
• Most use technical indicators of some sort.
• The success rates of their trades are 40-60%. They have good risk-reward ratios.
• They cited psychology and money management as more important than strategy.
• They trade with stop loss. Those who don’t use mental stop loss (that is, they have the price which they want to be out in their heads and execute it manually when the price level is reached)

So you see, lots of things to learn there

• It takes time to backtest which strategy is suitable
• It takes at least 3 months to forward test or paper trade to see if the chosen strategy is suitable
• It takes at least 3 consecutive years of trading profits to make one a successful trader!
• There are lots and lots of things to read about and learn! View a mindmap of trading knowledge here.

Added this time round:

• Simon Sim Advisory Research
• Finance Your Passion
• iEi Consultants
• LEARN n TRADE

Download the latest list of local courses here: Trading Courses Comparison Table. Also can be found under the “Courses” tab at the menu above.
Meanwhile, trade well

A strategy-based account

With this, I can specify for which trading strategies the trades are for and with a glance, I can tell how the particular strategy is performing. Well, traders use more than 1 strategy, and my account statement will be clean.

Customizable account statement

This is for me to save some time keeping a separate trade blotter which I would record the trades that were taken. Since the account statement would already capture all my trades, it would be nice if I could customize it to include the columns I wanted.

Right-click and “Save chart for trade journal”

It would be even better if the charts can be presented together with the corresponding trades and that would replace my trade journal!

Trade from charts

When I click on a price level which I wish to place an order, the order will be entered and a floating dialog box prompts me to enter my profit target and stop loss (or specify them on the charts directly). Best if I can keep my eyes off the charts when entering orders.

Provides both online and desktop platforms

…that are exactly the same!

Automated money management features

After an order is filled, I have the option of specifying where are my next profit target and stop loss levels and they will be adjusted automatically as the prices move…all out of the box.

Flexible orders

Must allow me to take partial profits…

Alerts

Alerts are useful so that I don’t have to keep my eyes on the charts. I can set it to alert me when trade opportunity arises.

Adapting a line from Cadbury chocolate: Wouldn’t it be nice?

I just hope when he “decided to call it quits”, it is because his trading plan requires him to do it and not because he feels like it…If not, he may lose the 160 pips or more soon.

I feel stressful when trading…

Ever heard the phrase “True traders are emotionless when they are trading”?

I am looking for a super strategy…

I am afraid he is going to be disappointed. Successful traders work with strategies that give 40%-60% success rate. It is like flipping a coin…

Which trading course is the best?

What does best mean? That it has a super strategy? Or that it will make us a successful trader overnight?

Sigh…I should have entered here…

This statement has some element of disappointment in it. Successful traders trade emotionlessly, don’t they? I also came to understand that successful traders look beyond hindsight. They don’t lament on what has taken place but anticipates what is going to come. Market has abundant opportunities.

It is very exciting…My heart follow the prices when I see the prices tick up and now…

Getting emotional here again…

My last 5 trades are all winning trades! This strategy is good!

He could lose his next 10 trades! Anything can happen! 5 trades isn’t enough to tell anything!

Just some weekend ramblings…

Oh, also to share…I catched the sneak preview of the Thai show “4Bia” with my wife. I am scared out of my wits!

(Picture by gezelle)

(After a while…)

jmot: Breakout confirmed. Making entry now. Wait…oh dear, drew the range wrongly…sh*t!  No choice…got to abort the trade according to trading plan.

jmot-angel: Great job, jmot, you managed to stick to your trading plan! The market will always be there. There will always be a next time. It is just not your trade. Discipline is very important in trading. When you are not in the market, your capital is safe and you are already winning…

jmot-devil: C’mon! You waited for 3 whole days for this trade man! Just make an entry. You could wait another 3 days for this type of opportunity! And what’s more, your next trade may be a loss! According to your usual profit target, you will just make 10 pips lesser. The setup is perfect. USD/JPY will definitely go your way! This will add another 60 pips to your results this month! Your wife will be so proud of you! In this way, you can buffer for the next loss, because you’d never know when will it come… 

jmot did not take the trade. He treated it as a penalty for his mistake.

(USD/JPY DID reach his usual profit target. To spike him even further, USD/JPY turned down immediately after hitting his “profit target”)

Struggle with oneself. All in a day’s of trading.

I have also spent some time to give the blog a facelift Hope to have a layout that is clean and contemporary. I welcome any suggestion to improve the blog! Meanwhile, have fun trading!

But then… market condition changes. The US stock market has been experiencing bull run till recently. Hope that he continues to trade and make money and be transparent about his trading…

Mr B is a former bank/professional trader in a well-established financial institution for over 20 years!

But then… many professional traders who had good trading results do not get the same good results when they become retail traders. Professional traders worked with institutional-level rules and regulations. Retail traders only have ourselves and they would find themselves grappling with their own discipline. Professional traders have all the most expensive trading stations, equipment, analysis software and newsfeeds, because they are provided by the institutions. Retail traders don’t have such a luxury. Professional traders trade in a group. They are supported by analysts for different markets and maybe by other professional traders. Retails traders are a lonely bunch. Furthermore, when Mr B says he is a professional trader who worked in a bank, he may not be really “trading” like what we think he does. There are positions in banks such as quantitative (quant) traders that derive complex algorithms with expensive software to trade the market. So not too sure if this experience is relevant to retail trading…

Mr C conducts course for professional traders

But then… there is the million dollar question: if one can make lots of money from trading, then why does he/she still want to waste time teaching? Clicking a button or two to execute the trades certainly beats conducting 3-5 day courses, 8-10 hours a day, and supporting and emailing students everyday? Passion? Sharing? Out of good will? At such an extravagant course fee? Then again, successful professional traders may not be successful retail traders

Mr D manages investment funds

But then… managing funds require different trading strategies than that use for retail trading. successful fund managers may not be successful retail trader too right? cos retail traders dont have the capital to adopt fund management strategies…