Ouch!!

Missed this 233% increase in brokerage fees when I was going through the Budget 2008. Now that's a pain in the arse... A lot of negative reaction from retail investors because it affects us a lot. Basically it means the entry and exit charges amount to at least 8% (not including stamp duty, clearing fees); this is even more than charges for unit trusts! You have to buy at least RM 6,000 worth of shares before the increase becomes negligible...and very little retail investors can afford to invest this amount on a single stock! I can see the justification but certainly not the quantum of increase. To encourage investing and not speculating? Hmmph...our market is not conducive to investing as there is so much speculation going around; and to think the degree of market manipulation that occurs shudders me. No investor in his right mind would want to sit on their shares for long periods of time. I think it would kill off whatever little enthusiasm among the retail investors - so much for encouraging retail participation in the stock market.

Anyway there's still three months for the authorities to change their mind. If not, I plan to stop trading and switch back to unit trusts. Probably make all my buys by the end of the year and sit on them. Anyway I'm not too optimistic of the stock market these days...sob...