Stock Market Trading through BPI Trade Account

As of this writing I am almost complete to perform Stock Market trading using a BPI Trade Account. Below are the challenges that I have encountered:

1. Reviewed the BPI Trade FAQ topic "How to Open an Account" (https://www.bpitrade.com/misc/faqs.asp#opening). I printed and filled up the application form, submitted it to my BPI Branch, i.e., the branch that issued my BPI Savings Deposit Account. Such Deposit account is prerequisite to apply for a BPI Trade account. I did not affix my signature to the form as I have to do it in the presence of a BPI Branch employee. Also, brought with me photocopies of my valid IDs. These IDs best bear my recent signature and picture.
2. Waited for email confirmation that my BPI Trade account application is approved.
3. Waited for email notification that my BPI Trade account is ready for activation, i.e., supply my own password.
4. Updated my Profile.
5. Enrolled my BPI Trade Settlement Account to my BPI ExpressOnline Account. Instructions are found at BPI Trade FAQ under the "The BPI Trade Settlement Account" topic (https://www.bpitrade.com/misc/faqs.asp#SETTLEMENT%20ACCOUNT) in the "How do I enroll my BPI Trade Settlement Account to BPI Express Online?" section.

Funding the BPI Trade Settlement Account is similar to online transfer of funds to your other BPI Bank Accounts _BUT_ as per instructions credit comes the next trading day. So there's much need for planning here.

Please shoot me with questions as I build my trading experience with BPI Trade so all of us could better understand the platform and how best all of us can benefit from it.

Have “Appear Offline” Option in Office Communicator 2007 Status Menu

That “Appear Offline” menu option is _not_ there by default installation of Office Communicator 2007 _but_ you can have it by going through these steps:

1. Click Windows’ Start menu and type regedit in the run command box.

2. In the Registry Editor window, go to Computer > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Communicator

3. Right click in the right panel and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

4. Key in “EnableAppearOffline” under name and press Enter key.

5. Double click the EnableAppearOffline row entry and update it’s value to 1.

6. Exit Office Communicator 2007 and launch it again to see the Appear Offline menu option among the available Status options.

What is the Serial Number of your computer?

Here’s how you can obtain it:

1. fire up the command prompt
2. tyep in “wmic bios get serialnumber” without the quotes :)

Voila!

Changing Delivery Address for your Bank’s Statement of Account

At least for Bank of the Philippine Islands, they required me a copy of any Billing Statement that is currently being delivered to me in the new address.

It’s quite logical. BPI wants to ensure the new delivery address can receive the SOAs they’ll be issuing me.

Request for Withdrawal of Funds

After hitting the profit objectives in stock market trading, it is now time to put this into reality, i.e., translate the figures seen at COL Financial website to actual money at my bank account.

COL Financial made is quite easy:

1. Download the Withdrawal Fund form by navigating Home > Forms menu.
2. Provide the required information in the form. Affix your signature.
3. Scan and email to COL Financial.

Since this is my first time, I even called the Customer Service to confirm receipt of email but in the normal days you just have to send the request before 11AM and you’ll be able to pick up the check in the afternoon.

There is an option allowing COL Financial to make the deposit to your BPI, Metrobank or BDO account. However, I find my first time so special that I want a check as proof. It’s just me!

The VLOOKUP Function in MS Excel

Problem:

Given a Master List in “Sheet1” of an MS Excel workbook

	A	B	C	D	E
1			Unit Price	Unit Price	Unit Price
2	UniqueID	Commodity	ABC Store	Sari-Sari Store	XYZ Store
3	201201	Apple	50.00	49.50	50.50
4	201202	Cherry	37.50	38.00	38.50
5	201203	Strawberry	26.75	26.00	26.25
6	201204	Mango	18.00	18.25	17.75
7	201205	Buko	30.00	29.00	28.00

You are requested to fill up the Commodity and Unit Price columns in “Sheet2” of the same workbook.

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	ItemID	Quantity	Commodity	ABC Store Unit Price	Sari-Sari Store Unit Price	XYZ Store Unit Price
2	201205	1
3	201203	3
4	201201	2
5	201204	5
6	201202	7
7	201203	9
8	201205	3
9	201201	5
10	201202	1

Solution:

For C2, here is the formula

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,Sheet1!$A$3:Sheet1!$E$7,2,FALSE)),0,VLOOKUP(A2,Sheet1!$A$3:Sheet1!$E$7,2,FALSE))

For D2, the formula is

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,Sheet1!$A$3:Sheet1!$E$7,3,FALSE)),0,VLOOKUP(A2,Sheet1!$A$3:Sheet1!$E$7,3,FALSE))

Explanation:

VLOOKUP function has the following parameters:

lookup_value: this should be the ItemID which needs to be matched to the UniqueID in the Master List.

table_array: the range in the Master List where the matching and picking will be made

col_index_num: the column index of the table_array where the value will be picked.

For C2, since we are looking for the Commodity, 2 means the second column of the table_array. For D2 since we are looking for the unit price of ItemID for ABC Store, 3 means the third column of the table_array.

range_lookup: use FALSE when you need an ‘exact match’ of lookup_value and the UniqueID in Master List.

Restarting Tomcat6 Service

When you are using Tomcat 6 as the web service then restarting it is as follows:

sudo service tomcat6 restart

Simple eh?