Stocks Archives - Page 24 of 26

Importance of managing cash flow

April 21, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 936 Views 0 Comments

When investors have some monies in hand, one of the most difficult decisions to make is how to use the fund efficiently and effectively. Should you use the money to pay off your outstanding housing loan or car loan? Or should you top up your CPF accounts? Is it a better option to use the money to invest in shares than generate better returns than saving deposits? Or should you invest in a second property to produce a fixed income for your retirement?

In any case, there is no right or wrong answer. But my personal strategy is to maintain a healthy cash flow and I don’t like to pay off all my loans and be debt-free. Having some amount of money in hand allows me to invest in appropriate instruments when the opportunity arises and also cover needs during emergency times. But I always make it a point to clear all my credit card bills on time to avoid incurring late payment charges and interest fees.

But just what is cash flow and why is it important to manage it? From an equity investor’s point of view, free cash flow within a company is the balance of money remaining after the operating expenses are deducted.

Stocks

When is the best time for you to invest in great businesses?

March 23, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 724 Views 0 Comments

Investment moats is the competitive advantage of a company that allows it to fend off competition from its rivals and enable it to earn excess returns for many years. According to Morningstar’s Why Moats Matter, there is a stock research process which guides investors on how to invest in great businesses at the right time and make money from the stock market.

The process involves a bottom-up approach which requires investors to identify the company’s moat(s), establish the fair value and determine the margin of safety. On the surface, it may seem straightforward but when you put it into practice, it is not so simple.

Moat Sources

According to Morningstar’s investment framework, there are five main sources that a company may possess: intangible assets, cost advantage, switching costs, network effect and efficient scale. Now why is having a moat source important from an investor’s point of view? If you recall that 15 years ago, Nokia used to dominate the worldwide mobile phone market and boasted the majority market share for a number of years. However, the entry of Apple’s iphone in 2007 changed the game and led to a dramatic shift towards smartphone, leading to Nokia losing its status as the market leader.

Stocks

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is proposing new rules on securities-based crowdfunding

March 12, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 733 Views 0 Comments

Crowdfunding is the latest investment trend that uses online technology platforms to address both the needs of investors and small-medium enterprises (SME). At one hand, retail investors are looking for viable fixed income sources to grow their wealth. On the other hand, we have start-ups and SMEs which lack access to alternative pools of private financing, other than commercial banks. This is where crowdfunding can help to bridge the gap.

In a recent consultation paper issued, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is proposing measures to facilitate crowdfunding involving securities.

Generally there are four types of crowdfunding – donation-based, reward-based, lending-based and securities-based. According to MAS, donation-based and reward-based are not subjected to securities regulation as there are no exchange of securities and promised of financial returns. However, for lending-based and securities-based, MAS deemed that they are subjected to securities rules.

Henceforth, MAS’ proposed framework for securities-based include the requirement for companies operating lending-based or securities-based crowdfunding platforms to hold Capital Markets Services (“CMS”) licenses. In addition, MAS would restrict offerings from lending-based and securities-based to only Accredited (AIs) and Institutional Investors (IIs). The rationale for this approach is because MAS aims to safeguard the interest of retail investors as there is a certain amount of risks in such investment products and MAS deemed that AIs and IIs are better positioned to handle the level of risks involved as they have more capitals and experiences.

Stocks

Sheng Siong Group’s net profit grew 22.3% yoy to S$47.6 million for FY2014

March 4, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 893 Views 0 Comments

Singapore, 25 February 2015 – Sheng Siong Group Ltd. (“Sheng Siong”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group” or “昇菘集团”), one of the largest supermarket chains in Singapore, reported a 22.3% year-on-year (“yoy”) increase in net profit to S$47.6 million for the full year ended 31 December 2014 (“FY2014”), mainly because of higher turnover and improved gross margin.

Revenue increased by 5.6% yoy in FY2014 of which 2.3% was contributed by the new stores which were opened in 2012, and 3.3% from comparable same store sales for the old stores. The increase in revenue was driven mainly by growth in the new stores, longer operating hours, marketing initiatives and renovation to some of the old stores. Most of the new stores, which are now in their third year of operation, continued to grow within expectations. Revenue contraction in the Bedok and Tekka stores appeared to have bottomed out in 4Q2014, despite growth remaining negative for the full year, though of a lesser magnitude compared with FY2013.

Gross margins increased to 24.2% in FY2014 compared with 23.0% in FY2013, driven mainly by lower input costs derived from the distribution centre, better sales mix, and stable selling prices.

Administrative expenses increased by S$6.4 million in FY2014 compared with FY2013, mainly because of the increase in staff costs.

Stocks

What is it like to catch a falling knife?

March 3, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 951 Views 2 Comments

One of the golden rules in investing is never to catch a falling knife. Yet when it really does occur on one, most of the time, most investors would enter into self-denial mode and refrain from exiting their investments or cut losses early.

You can term it as a classic investor’s symptom or attribute it to ego, greed and fear of cashing out too early. Whatever the case it is, catching a falling is a very painful experience and investors must not confuse it with the technique of dollar-cost-averaging. In my early days of investing, I made this folly in one of my investments – China Enersave.

About 10 years ago, the renewable energy sector was seen as a hot prospect because of the sky-high fuel prices and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Many companies were engaged in various alternative fuel solutions and one of them was China Enersave, a Singapore company which operated biomass power plants in China. When I came across the profile of the company, like many novice investors, I was intrigued by the business model and therefore invested in the stock. In my excitement, I threw all caution to the wind and ignored the early warning signs – poor management execution, lack of company’s track record and the high risks of doing business in China.

Stocks

How to estimate fair value of a stock

February 17, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 861 Views 0 Comments

Many finance bloggers like to quote Warren Buffett’s saying “price is what you pay; value is what you get”. However, knowing this is one thing, practicing it is another matter altogether which requires some level of deep analysis. The fact is that you can’t determine the intrinsic value of a company just by staring at the figures stated in the quarterly or annual financial statements. According to MorningStar’s “Why Moats Matter”, there are generally two approaches when it comes to valuation concepts.

How do investors identify great companies? One of the simple tools to value company is through using earnings yield, or more commonly known in the investment community as Price/Earning (P/E) ratio. This simple method requires only current share price divided by the last 12 month’s earning. Companies with high P/E ratio are considered growth stocks.

There are pros and cons in using P/E ratio to measure the value of a company. Whilst this metric is relatively easy to calculate, this approach might not be appropriate for companies whose profits swing significantly from year to year. This is especially for for high growth stocks and cyclical companies like the airlines and IT companies.

Another approach of measuring the intrinsic value of a company is to determine the discounted cash-flow, or DCF.

Stocks

Singtel reports robust Q3 earnings growth

February 16, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 789 Views 0 Comments

Singapore Telecommunications Limited reported group earnings results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2014. For the quarter, the company reported group revenue of SGD 4,427 million compared to SGD 4,263 million a year ago.

EBITDA was SGD 1,229 million compared to SGD 1,264 million a year ago. Underlying net profit was SGD 970 million compared to SGD 910 million a year ago. Net profit was SGD 970 million compared to SGD 872 million a year ago.

Free cash flow was SGD 669 million compared to SGD 569 million a year ago. Profit before EI and tax was SGD 1,285 million compared to SGD 1,236 million a year ago. Net profit rose 11.2% boosted by higher mobile data revenue and bigger contributions from its mobile partners in Australia and elsewhere.

The company delivered a solid third-quarter performance and successfully increased mobile data revenues with better networks, technology, content and service. Post-tax profit of its associates rose 29% to SGD 458 million, led by Telkomsel in Indonesia and Bharti Airtel.

For the nine months period, the company reported group revenue of SGD 12,884 million compared to SGD 12,720 million a year ago. EBITDA was SGD 3,817 million compared to SGD 3,858 million a year ago.

Stocks

Investing in SingTel

February 4, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 0 Comments

Nowadays, I am extremely fed up with M1 network services. No matter where I go, the 3G network coverage is terribly poor for my mobile phone. As a result, sometimes I could not receive messages from my loved ones and friends.

I suspect the drop in the network quality may be because I cancelled M1 4G subscription recently – previously it was offered to me free-of-charge when I renewed my subscription plan but M1 stated that it would charge me $10 extra from January 2015 onward. If not for the fact that I have to pay hefty penalty for cancelling my subscription plan contract, I would have terminated my line long ago.

From the consumer’s point of view, if I am not satisfied with a company’s services or products, I would not invest in their shares. For a knowledge-driven economy, internet data access is critical in Singapore and if M1 is unable to provide reasonable network service level, it don’t deserve any investment merits. Notwithstanding the dividend track records, if M1 is unable to retain customers, its economic moat will only erode over the long run.

The saturated Singapore market and the fierce competition among the three telecommunication companies (SingTel, M1 and Starhub) reinforce the importance of economic moats in this sector.

Stocks

Investing in Telco stocks to pay your phone bills

January 28, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 0 Comments

Below article is adapted from SGX website and permission was sought to publish it.

According to a year-end BCG report, there are currently almost 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally, or one for every person on Earth.

Last year, listed mobile phone providers – Singtel, Starhub and M1 averaged a 10.1% total return and have generated a 1.7% return in the year thus far.

These stocks all distributed dividends last year, which might have helped offset mobile phone subscription plans. For instance, an investment of S$7,320 in Singtel shares last year would have generated enough dividend income to pay the minimum annual fee of Singtel’s Combo 1 plan.

According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), there are currently almost 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally, or one for every person on Earth. The recent report BCG noted several factors are fuelling subscription growth, including greater access, increasingly sophisticated mobile-device functionality, fast-rising device sales, an ever-increasing range of devices and device types, and sharply falling prices. Another factor that was noted included more reliable data connections that enable increasingly data-intensive activities – moreover approximately 60% of the world’s population is covered by 3G connectivity.

Singapore’s three listed mobile providers are Singtel, Starhub and M1.

Stocks

mm2 Asia

January 27, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 836 Views 0 Comments

Local movie producer and distributor, mm2 Asia Ltd has launched the Red Carpet Club, a programme targeted exclusively at shareholders and investors of the Group.

Up to 200 movie tickets of the preview screening on 16 February 2015 to be given away to shareholders ·

The cast of the movie will be present ·

Preview screening is the first of many perks that mm2 Asia is launching as part of its mm2 Red Carpet Club for shareholders ·

To be eligible for ticket entitlement, investors will need to be listed as a shareholder of mm2 Asia with a minimum holding of 1,000 shares as at 5.00 pm on 30 January 2015

Newly-listed local movie producer and distributor, mm2 Asia Ltd. (“mm2 Asia” and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”), today announced an exclusive treat for its shareholders. The Group will be giving away up to 200 tickets to its shareholders for the preview screening of the highly anticipated “Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen” on 16 February, a movie that is co-produced by the Group.

This preview for mm2 Asia’s shareholders will be ahead of the movie’s premiere on the big screens on 19 February.

Stocks

k1 Ventures reward shareholders with dividends again

January 26, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 1009 Views 1 Comment

In my previous post, I wrote that k1 Ventures might reward shareholders with dividends due to the divestment of China Auto Grand for $32 million. True enough, in today’s announcement, the management of k1 Ventures declared tax exempt one tier interim dividend of 1.5 cents per share. The dividend will be paid to shareholders on 12 February 2015 but the counter will go ex-dividend on 29 January 2015. Even though I am not vested in this counter, I feel happy for those who had invested in this counter.

In the current financial report, k1 Ventures classified the divestment of Helm, the long haul transport leasing business, as “discontinued”. This move effectively made k1 Ventures asset-lite because the heavy burden of long term debts was removed. Currently, the Group did not have any borrowing and is focused on managing the current portfolio of assets. In a way, it is a good move that k1 Ventures is not making any new investments because this will enable them to focus and maximize value on the proceeds from any realization of assets and to return the same to shareholders.

On the balance sheet, the Group has a net current asset of $84.3 millions. The shareholders’ funds decreased from $256.5 million at 30 June 2014 to $236.5 million at 31 December 2014.

Stocks

Investing in Dividend Stocks

January 21, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 1058 Views 3 Comments

When it comes to stock picking, one of the key criteria in evaluating the performance of the managers is how they deploy or handle cash flow within the business. For example, they may choose to use cash to reduce company’s debts, acquire other companies, buy-back shares or reward shareholders with dividends. Most investors, especially minority shareholders, would prefer the company to pay out dividends because it means a form of passive income for them. My favorite stock is k1 Ventures, one of the largest venture capitalists listed in SGX.

I have been tracking k1 Ventures for more than 10 years and had invested in the stock over the years. k1 Ventures is an investment holding company invested in diverse sectors such as finance, transportation, education and oil and gas. Those who are vested in this counter would know that this is an excellent stock which had paid out huge dividends over the years. Since FY05, it had consistently paid out dividends and if you had bought the share then and hold on to them till now, you would have an incredible yield of about 70%! Now, how many stocks in SGX are capable of giving this sort of dividends nowadays? Currently, I am not vested in this counter but am still tracking the company’s development for future investment opportunities.

Stocks

Stock investments: Investment Moats

January 19, 2015 sgwealthbuilder 918 Views 0 Comments

Dear Gerald,

I remember seeing one of your blogs around end of December which listed your stock holding as at end 2014. I was just going through your blog again but I couldn’t find that anymore. Could you please let me know if that was deleted or it’s still there just that I missed it.

Cheers!

Cindy

I received the above email from one of my readers recently. In view of the historic highs recorded by the US stock market, I have sold off all my stocks since last year and re-position my fund to upgrade to a new and bigger house. I feel that given the current stock market climate, the risk premium is not worth my investment dollars as it is so hard to identify good companies worth investing for the long term and trading at reasonable price. However, I still believe the stock market present many opportunities to build wealth, and therefore, I take this “lull period” to polish my knowledge on how to become a better stock investor.

When I started out investing in stocks, I do not treat the stocks as if I owned the businesses. On hindsight, that was probably why I had a few hits and misses here and there.

Stocks

What is Return on Invested Capital?

November 9, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 876 Views 0 Comments

This article was written by Willie Keng and was first published in Value Invest Asia on 17 July 2014.

In a previous article, Stanley explained the Return on Equity (ROE). While the ROE focuses on the equity component of a company’s capital investments, the Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) measures return earned on investments funded by equity and debt.
It shows how much profit a company generates for every dollar of investments it makes in the business. ROIC is expressed as a percentage and shown in the formula below:

Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) = After-tax Operating Income / (Book Value of Invested Capital)

where Invested Capital = Fixed Assets + Current Assets – Current Liabilities – Cash

We can calculate the ROIC using an example from Banyan Tree Holdings’ (SGX: B58) financial statement:

Annual Report (SGD ’000)	Fiscal Year 2012
Property, Plant and Equipment	729,558
Current Assets	349,304
Current Liabilities	231,875
Cash	120,824
Invested Capital	726,163

	Fiscal Year 2013
Operating Income	51,641
Tax Rate	42%*
After-Tax Operating Income	29,951

Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)	4.1%

*The high tax rate was due to the different geographic segments the company operates in

Based on the calculations above, we note that Banyan Tree generated an ROIC of 4.1% for FY2013.

Stocks

The REIT Association of Singapore

November 7, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 804 Views 0 Comments

As a financial blogger, I received a lot of media invitations from various financial institutes, banks and companies. Most of the times, I declined the invitations because of work commitments. Recently, I was invited to attend the official launch of REIT Association of Singapore (REITAS) on 17 November 2014. I would like to attend this event to find out more about the role of this association but as usual, I am unable to attend because of work schedule conflicts.

It seems to me that the association consists of big players from Keppel, Mapletree, Capitaland, Frasers and ARA Asset Management and their key thrusts are to engage Monetary Authority of Singapore on regulatory issues and to promote the understanding of REITs.

This is a good development because as the industry matures, the association can help to look into areas that can be improved, especially on the structure of REITs. For example, in my previous article on REITs, I don’t understand why is there a need for external manager for REITs. Such requirement only incur more costs which would be eventually passed down to investors.

Most retail investors claim they know about the REIT they invested in but I suspected they are none the wiser than me on the business model.

Stocks

SPH in panic mode and invested $30 million in CoSine Holdings Pte Ltd

November 4, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 897 Views 0 Comments

In October 2014, when SPH announced a decline of 6.8% in advertising revenues from newspaper and magazine, it was a sign of things to come. After all, the media giant derived the bulk of its income from advertisements and with the proliferation of cheaper and more effective online marketing platforms, they are beginning to feel the heat. In fact, social media and online blogs like SG Wealth Builder are giving SPH a run for their money. This is because with online blogs and websites, clients can market their products and services to the international market. In today’s context, the motivation for companies to advertise in Singapore newspapers and magazines is becoming less appealing due to the limited market reach.

Indeed, SPH might have seen this coming many years ago when it invested $18 million in ShareInvestor Holding Pte Ltd. Given the high internet penetration rate in Singapore, it made sense for SPH to make its foray into the digital media and establish revenue from its online media arm. Other notable online investments by SPH included Sgcarmart (bought for $60 million in 2013) and Hardwarezone ($7.1 million in 2006). Apart from these mega acquisitions, SPH had been relatively slow in acquiring new online start-ups.

Stocks

Haw Par Corp an ultra value stock?

October 9, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 856 Views 0 Comments

I was doing research on Haw Par Corp recently and was surprised to discover that the company hold large amount of shares in UOB (68 millions), UIC (67.5 millions) and UOL (41.4 millions).

According to Haw Par Corp’s website, their substantial investments consist “mainly of strategic holdings in United Overseas Bank Limited, UOL Group Limited and United Industrial Corporation Limited. They have been a stable source of funding – through recurring dividend income – and financial strength – at marked-to-market valuations – over the years.”

Based on the annual report, these shares contributed about 60.2% of the profits in 2013. This is a significant amount of income source from a non-core business segment. After all, Haw Par has always been regard by many investors as a healthcare company which manufactures the famous local brand, Tiger Balm ointment. Who would have guessed that it is actually an investment holding company with billion dollars worth of shares in blue chip companies? It seems that investors may not fully understood the true value of Haw Par Corp. Read on to find out more about my personal view on this often overlooked stock.

Before you become too excited about the stock, it is important to examine the concept of companies with investments in other companies.

Stocks

REITs

August 13, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 820 Views 7 Comments

Singaporeans’ obsession in property investments is well-known for many years. Since property prices are currently so sky-high in Singapore, the next best way of owning a property is through REITs.

Many Singaporeans typically invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with a view of diversifying their portfolios and for the dividend income. But what is exactly a REIT and do investors realize that REITs do carry market risks? Many investors assume that REITs are low risks and that dividend income is recurring. Is this true?

In this article, I would touch on the key aspects of REITs and what we should look out for before investing in REITs. I need to clarify that I have never invested in REITs before and do not believe in the merits of investing in REITs as well. This research on REITs is primarily for awareness sake and is not meant as a form of inducement to buy REITs.

According to SGX website, a listed REIT consists of multi-properties, such as office, shopping malls, hotels or serviced apartments. The revenues generated from the underlying assets are distributed to unit holders at regular intervals. Units of listed REITs are bought and sold like any other securities listed on exchanges at market-driven prices.

Stocks

SGX announced major changes to share trading

August 7, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 952 Views 2 Comments

On 01 August 2014, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced major changes to the securities structure and practices. The rule changes are aimed at reducing highly speculative trading, in light of the penny stock rout in last year. Below are the four major changes quoted from MAS’ media release which may impact Singapore investors:(i) Minimum trading price. To introduce a minimum trading price of S$0.20 as a continuing listing requirement for issuers listed on the SGX Mainboard. This is to address risks of low-priced securities being more susceptible to excessive speculation and potential market manipulation. A transition period of 12 months will be given to affected issuers to undertake corporate actions to meet the new requirement. This proposal will, over time, improve the quality of issuers listed on the SGX Mainboard.
(ii) Collateral requirement for securities trading. To require securities intermediaries to collect minimum 5% of collateral from their customers for trading of listed securities to promote financial prudence. This will help mitigate the risk of excessive leverage assumed by investors. It will also reduce reliance on remisiers to manage the credit risk exposures of customers. Institutional investors, trades settled through delivery-versus-payment mode, and funds from the Central Provident Fund and Supplementary Retirement Schemes will be exempted from the collateral requirement.(iii)

Stocks

How to grow money

July 24, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 801 Views 11 Comments

Hi may I know if it would be wise to measure our portfolio including actual gains/losses? If so, is there any way to do it? Because the conventional investor would often tend to measure their gains or losses based on their current stock portfolio. Eg 8% growth for 2014. These are only paper gains/losses. However, it often neglects the ones that already have been sold for a profit or even receive dividends.

Thanks for your time and have a great day ahead!

I received the above email from one of my readers a couple of weeks ago. I fully agree with him that to be rich and successful in the stock market, investors should make the effort to note down the gains and losses made in their stock investments.

The principles behind such an endeavor is not really to track the actually amount of gains and losses, but rather, to serve as a form of discipline and instill a sense of purpose to your investments. Such a practice can help a newbie investor avoid many investment traps and empowers him to make better financial decisions in the long run.

When I started investing many years ago, I would record every single gain or loss of my shares investments in a little blue notebook.

Stocks

The Meteoric Rise of OSIM

July 10, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 911 Views 2 Comments

In my previous post, return on equity (ROE) was highlighted as an important indicator to measure the management performance of a company. But one of my readers pointed out that earning per share (EPS) is also useful for investors to determine the value of a stock. I totally concur with him and would like to emphasize that both are needed to evaluate the value of a stock.Undeniably, valuing a stock is more difficult than assessing the financial health of a company because the former is a combination of art and science, while the latter can be found most of the time from the annual reports. In this article, I shall attempt to share with my readers how I value a stock, using the well-known OSIM as an example.

Firstly, P/E refers to the price earning ratio, It can be derived by dividing price-per-share over earning-per-share (EPS). For example, OSIM is currently trading at $2.71 a share. Based on the 2013 report, the EPS for 2012 was $0.12 and for 2013, it was $0.14. Given the latest quarterly report, the full year EPS should be about $0.16 for 2014. The P/E ratio had also been decreasing since 2011, from 30% to 20%.

Stocks

Investment insights: Return on Equity (ROE)

July 2, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 8 Comments

According to an article in Dr Wealth’s blog, there were more than 68,000 new CDP accounts opened in the past 12 months. Apparently, the number of people who now hold securities is at an all time high of 844,000 people.While it is a fact that more and more Singaporeans are interested in making money from shares, I am not so sure whether these Singaporeans are really investors or merely speculators. Given that the Wall Street is now at record peak, many existing local stockholders’ portfolio have risen in value. I reckon this must have attracted people to open trading accounts and take part in the actions as well. After all, many Singaporeans want to make money and become rich quick. But before newbie traders get carried away, it is important to build the knowledge foundation first.

Last week, one of my readers, Dexter Choo wrote in to me asking why I use Return on Equity (ROE) instead of Earning Per Share (EPS) to measure the financial health of a company. This article is written to clarify some of the strategies I use for stock analysis and hopefully readers can benefit from this sharing and went on to build their wealth.

Basically ROE reveals how much profit the management can generate with the money shareholders invested.

Stocks

Why some Singaporeans are destined to be poor

May 7, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 650 Views 0 Comments

Whenever I flip through The Strait Times, there are so many get-rich quick seminars advertisements on forex trading. It seems that the advertisers are targeting the growing aspirations of middle-class Singaporeans seeking to build their wealth quickly through forex trading. These seminars are often marketed as “enrichment classes” with catchy tag lines such as “Mr X makes 2,000% profit in one month, so can you!” or “Mrs Y turned $2,000 into $50,000 in three weeks, so can you! Also, during the seminars, the modus operandi is to highlight the opportunity to retire young and the chance to earn extra income. The organisers would use hard-selling tactics and misled people into the false impression that the trading techniques can produce good money. In return, consumers had to pay thousands for these seminars or buy their in-house trading software.

I do not have the figures on the profile nor the number of Singaporeans who attended these forex trading seminars, but I suspect that many Singaporeans had already lost a lot of money from forex trading. This is a worrying trend which I think Singaporeans need to be aware of. Firstly, forex trading is a form of high risk activity as you are betting the future movement of currency exchange rates.

Stocks

The right time to invest in SMRT?

April 27, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 692 Views 0 Comments

To become rich from your stock investments, you must do your research first before you invest. The following analysis covers one of the listed companies, SMRT, the largest rail operator in Singapore.

In recent years, every time the Singapore railway system broke down, it was like a nail to the counter’s coffin. Due to the service disruptions, SMRT stock price has plummeted at a frightening rate from $1.74 in 2012 to $1.02 in March 2014. Speculators must have lost a lot of money in this counter. This is not surprising because to invest in SMRT, you need to hold a long term investment horizon.

Fundamentally, even though SMRT has a monopoly in the public transport system, its business model is heavily dependent on government policies, and because of this, investing in this company is not so often straight-forward.

On 24 April 2014, SMRT share price rocketed 21% on rumors of CEO Desmond Kwek’s submission of new financing framework to Singapore government for the company’s assets. The increase was the biggest ever one day gain for the stock. I reckon that the CEO had to do something drastic to reverse the destiny of SMRT. In January 2014, the company reported a set of dismal results for the third quarter.

Stocks

Profit taking on K1 Ventures

March 2, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 855 Views 0 Comments

Recently I liquidated my remaining K1 Ventures shares in my CPF Ordinary Account. Total profits, including dividends and capital gains, amounted to $1,400. This represented a total return of 13% in 3 years. It could have been more if I had not pared down the investments since last year. As of now, I am not vested in any stocks.

The intent of investing my CPF monies was really to divert a portion of my CPF monies from the Ordinary Account before HDB wiped out the monies for settlement of my HDB purchase in 2010. I wanted this investment to be a buffer in case I got retrenched from my job and still need to service my housing loan. With no income, this investment could then be liquidated and used to pay the HDB monthly installments for at least one year. This buffer was important for me as I am the sole breadwinner.

Three years later, I am glad that the nightmare scenario of losing my job did not happen. But nevertheless, I decided to sell off all my K1 Ventures. Firstly, my financial situation has improved substantially due to higher income and advancement in my job. These developments contributed to significant cash savings for me.

Stocks

Three things about Baker Technology Limited

February 24, 2014 sgwealthbuilder 753 Views 1 Comment

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are based solely on the author’s perspectives and/or experiences. Readers must not treat the articles as financial advices. The author shall not be liable for any damages caused to the reader(s) arising from the use or purchase of information, products and services directly or indirectly featured or implied in this blog.

Recently I chanced upon this stock called Baker Technology Limited and decided to do some research after a fellow blogger claimed that this is a good investment. Usually I am fairly skeptical on penny stocks in SGX because good ones with growth potential are far and few. Most of them are either overvalued or simply trash stocks not worth mentioning. But just out of curiosity, I decided to do an evaluation on this stock.

Dividend Stocks
In light of the low interest rates, one of the favorite strategies in recent years is to invest in stocks that consistently pay out good dividends. For those who invested in Baker Technology Limited, this investment may look like it fits the bill as a classical dividend stock. In 2013, it paid out $0.10 of dividends and this year May, it will pay out $0.05.

Stocks

The Aftermath Effects of US QE Tapering

December 24, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 698 Views 0 Comments

Merry Christmas to all readers! Below is a guest article from Gideon, a hedge fund manager for Blyton Fund. He is a global macro investor using similar strategies as George Soros. He search the world for the best profits with the lowest risks. He cover equities, foreign exchange, commodities and bonds across global markers. He is based in Singapore and is open to managing funds for others. Below is his article on US QE Tapering.

Incidental with the announcement by the US Fed on the upcoming tapering of the Quantitative Easing program, there are positive signs to buy into several equity markets and to long the US dollar against selected currencies.

The major equity markets will advance higher

I postulate that the equity markets of the United States, most of Western Europe, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia will likely advance higher.

Some would argue that no, they will crash because interest rates will rise.

My argument will be that yes, interest rate will risem but at a controlled and slow enough pace that will not hurt the economies. The respective governments will see to that because interest is at stake.Yes, it is true that when interest rate was almost zero, asset (stock) prices were inflated.

Stocks

Investing insights

November 23, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 0 Comments

Some people said that investing is all about timing, some said it boils down to luck. To me, investing is half science and half art. Sometimes you can analysis as much as possible on a particular stock but when the market suddenly crashes, all your profits and capital will be gone. That’s the hard reality.

Therefore, successful investing also requires the right skill to make critical judgement call and look at things from the big picture. To be a winner, you must remain calm in the face of market swings, and be prepared to go against the crowd. That will not be easy, and not many people, including myself, can achieve that. But if you are able to do so, the rewards can be substantial.

The difficulty of assessing a company lies in the qualitative analysis. This is because it is not easy for investors to come up with the intrinsic value of the business, especially for those novice ones. I have seen many Singaporean finance bloggers making investments in local stocks based solely on NAV or P/E. Some of them also invested in Reits or ETFs, with investment criteria based solely on potential dividend yields. These are very narrow measures to gauge a company and may not reflect accurately the value of a stock.

Stocks

Gold or Equities?

November 6, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 1007 Views 3 Comments

Recent market swings for penny stocks would make investors pause and rethink their approach on equities. Quite a number of investors lost their savings investing in risky penny counters. Some retirees even lost a huge chunk of their retirement funds. So the question for most investors is gold or equities?

Whilst I certainly won’t dispute the pros on investing in equities, I do believe in having a portfolio consisting of several investment instruments. And I believe that every investors should hold bullion in their investment portfolio. This is because gold prices often move in opposite direction to equities and currencies. So allocating gold in your portfolio can help to serve as a form of hedge against inflation and enhance your portfolio’s performance.

Investors should hold a long-term view on gold investments and not expect quick returns. They should consider it as a form of diversification to lower risk for their investment portfolio. Very often, I read articles from many writers in The Finance.sg sharing their investment experiences. Many of them pumped in hundred of thousands of dollars on shares, REITs and ETF. Their investment performances were impressive indeed but if the stock market plunged suddenly, large portions of their investment values would be wiped off overnight.

Stocks

Blumont Group

October 9, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 1000 Views 0 Comments

The recent trading halt of Blumont Group had raised a number of eyebrow among Singaporean investors. Many local investors thought that investing in the stock market is akin to gambling, which is untrue. When it comes to investment, many Singaporeans don’t even know the difference between risk and uncertainty. In salient, risk in stock investments can be managed through the proper technique.

However, when it comes to gambling, you will not be able to predict the outcome and win consistently. Because of the lack of knowledge and self-awareness, most wealth builders tend to speculate in the stock market, resulting in the tip based investment culture in Singapore. The recent case of SGX suspending the trading of Blumont Group vindicated my thoughts.

Blumont Group, which was previously involved in the packaging, property and investment sectors, started investing last year in a number of companies in sectors such as iron ore, coal, gold, uranium and copper. On 4 Oct, Blumont was one of three companies suspended by the Singapore Exchange after their share prices plummeted by 40 to 60%. A Singapore broking house had also recently declared its shares as “designated securities.” That means investors cannot short-sell them, and purchases via the broking house must be paid for upfront with cash.