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| Commodities (including Coffee) on display in Museum of American Finance in NYC |
In 1989, when I was a young man serving National Service, I made an investment in commodity trading, via a fellow serviceman. It amounted to SGD$6000.
I was making good progress in the 'investment' and it produced positive profit for a few months. The 'investment' was through high leverage on purchase of coffee commodity mainly. Then out of a sudden, I was informed that the boss of the trading firm ran away and it became clear that the firm and 'investment ' were scam. A report was made with Commercial Affairs Department of SPF. There was no update nor closure from SPF. The episode taught me to be extremely careful with investment. In fact, up till this day, majority of my asset is in cash, which is a low return low risk asset. I had learnt that preserving the value of an asset is important through avoiding all risky 'investment'. I had totally written off the SGD$6000.
On 14 Mar 2022, some 33 years later, out of the blue, the fellow servicemen came knocking on my door, after loosing contact for a third of a century. It turned out that he had hunted me down since 2006 when he made resolution to repay, out of his own pocket money, those who had trusted him and invested in him.
It was a pleasant surprise. Looking for a person is not easy, not to mention the determination needed and the personal loss of the money returned.
I was given the sum of SGD$12000. I suppose for him it is a closure of an event that had happened when both of us were young. A proof that a good character goes a long way.
Thank you!
