Showing posts with label investsmart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label investsmart. Show all posts

Thursday 14 January 2010

Contrarian Investment

Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Quick Comment: Contrarian Investment
I came across an article on contrarian investment recently and thought it is a nice article to share. According to Investopedia, the contrarian approach is an investment style that goes against prevailing market trends by buying assets that are performing poorly and selling when they perform well. A contrarian investor believes that the people who say the market is going up do so only when they are fully invested and have no further purchasing power. At this point the market is at a peak. On the other hand, when people predict a downturn, they have already sold out, at which point the market can only go up. Contrarian investing also emphasizes out-of-favor securities with low P/E ratios.

According to the article,
· It is a long-term strategy.
· It is not about timing the market, it is about value. For instance, "If your neighbour offers you his $500,000 house for $250,000 you don't wait for it to be offered at $200,000".
· One of the biggest errors is selling too early.
· You have to be prepared to look dumb for significant periods of time sometimes.
· Never expect to buy a stock right at the bottom.
· Staying out of companies that lose you money will save more than being in the ones that make you money. Preservation of capital and management of risk are paramount.
· Emotion is a contrarian's friend. When the market is going down the average man is looking at all the negatives and forgets the positive; that's when the opportunities arise.

The companies that contrarians look for are those that:
· Have solid brands.
· Have good cash flows.
· May be suffering a temporary economic setback.
· Would benefit from recapitalisation.
· Need management change.
· Would be capable of being changed.
· Opportunities seem to be where the market isn't, in sectors out of favour.
· Booms like the tech boom and the resources boom are good for contrarian investors because they take people away from value areas and make investors give up on long-term proven methods of investment and value assessment. They present opportunities that would never have been there otherwise.
· The contrarian is looking for market overreaction and the opportunity that overreaction presents.
· Don't be a mindless contrarian. Being contrarian is not about buying a share when it has fallen 10 per cent in a day just because everyone else is selling it. Only one in 20 major falls is an opportunity.
· Being contrarian means doing hard work to identify a situation the market hasn't while a stock is still at a price below what you calculate it to be worth.
· Contrarian investment does not rely on timing markets. You have to take a long-term view.

Sounds very much like TANJONG doesnt it? It has strong cash flow and is out of favour for fear of the negative effects of the PPA negotiations. However, the government has made it clear that it should be a win-win situation. Even if it ends up losing out a bit due to the new PPAs, downside would be rather limited since the bad news have already been priced in. Long term wise, it is still a very solid company.

Disclaimer: This report is brought to you by Investssmart, an unlicensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice from your remisiers. By law, they are the experts. I am not responsible for your investment decisions.

http://investssmart.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html

Speculative stocks

Thursday, July 20, 2006
Market Talk: Speculative stocks

DJ MARKET TALK: Speculative Stks Hammered; May Fall Further - 2006-07-20 07:29:00.0
1529 [Dow Jones] Speculative issues and stocks usually associated with syndicates sharply lower; Iris (0010.KU) down 29% at 71 sen with 108.7 million shares traded, Poly Tower (7175.KU) down 16.8% at 86.5 sen, Sugar Bun (7036.KU) down 8.6% at 96 sen. "It looks like the syndicates used this morning's knee-jerk reaction to distribute their holdings to retail players. There currently does not seem to be much buying support for these stocks," dealer says; adds stocks may fall further.(VGB)
Investssmart: I am not surprised by the hammering at all. It was just a matter of time and the manipulators chose the best time. Dow Jones Industrial Index rose 212 points of 2% overnight and punters would have expected a sharp rise today on Bursa Malaysia. Of course, many rushed into speculative stocks like IRIS early in the morning hoping to get in at a lower price. It should be noted that IRIS rose by 8% to $1.08 this morning before succumbing to strong selling and reached a low of 67c.

The manipulators are not stupid. They cash in when market sentiment is strong and the naive retail investors purchase the shares hoping for a small gain. Has anyone wondered how much IRIS was worth at its peak? There are 914m IRIS shares, 368 IRIS-PA and 55m IRIS-WA on issue. At their peaks of $1.39, $1.28 and $1.17 respectively, the total value of IRIS works out to be $1806m. Was IRIS really ever worth $1.8 billion? It only made a profit of $1.8m in the latest quarter.

Every investor knows that IRIS is a manipulated counter but that did not stop them from purchasing its shares. Bursa Malaysia designated it. Brokers demand cash up front for purchases. News articles comment on it all the time but yet, some people choose to buy the shares, hoping to make some money from it. Who can you blame when they lose money? If someone throws a gold bar into the river and tell you that the river is infested with crocodiles but yet you jump in for the gold bar, who is to blame if you are eaten by the crocs?

The point I am trying to say is "dont try your luck in manipulated stocks". You may earn a little money each time but you could lose it all in just one day. This is an extract from an Australian financial journalist's comments on the share market:

"You need patience. If you try to rush your financial transformation you will fail. Patience is about having realistic expectations. You won't get anywhere trying to make money every day. I've seen people in the market who spend most of the time doing nothing. Just sitting watching things going by. On the lookout. They don't try to generate opportunities out of nothing, they just wait for them."

In conclusion, there is no need to try and earn a little bit of money every day. Even with IRIS at 82.5c, IRIS-PA at 43.5c and IRIS-WA at 38c, it is still way overvalued with a total value of the company at close to $1b. Everyone knows IRIS rose because of the manipulation of its shares. If you are still trying to beat the manipulators to make a profit, please give up because it is almost impossible. In this game, you are the player, the manipulators are the bankers and I don't remember GENTING ever reporting an annual loss. You may beat them once, you may beat them twice or even 10 times but at the end, there is only one winner. And unfortunately, it won't to be the player.

Disclaimer: This report is brought to you by Investssmart, an unlicensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice from your remisiers. By law, they are the experts. I am not responsible for your investment decisions.

http://investssmart.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

'Expensive' shares

Quick Comment: 'Expensive' shares
Some time ago, I had a conversation with my ASX remisier based in Australia and I think some of his comments are worth sharing.

*Me refers to myself when I was speaking to him.
*Investssmart is also myself but from my point of view now.

Me: Good shares in Malaysia are expensive.
Remisier: What do you mean by expensive? When you say expensive, do you mean in absolute terms or in terms of valuation? When I say it is expensive, it normally means overvalued or fully valued. Some companies can trade at $30 but we still call them cheap.
Investssmart: This is very true. The word expensive should be used more carefully when talking about shares. The absolute value does not really count. A Mercedes for $100k is 'cheaper' than a Waja for $60k. It is the value that counts.

Me: Malaysians' perception is that the higher the share price is, the more it can drop.
Remisier: That happens all the time. It is important to remember that we should look at the movements in terms of percentage. If a $50 company can drop to $5, a $5 company can drop to 5c as well. The important thing is to fix the absolute amount you invest. Purchasing 100 shares in a $50 company is the same as purchasing 1000 shares in a $5 company. If both rise by 10%, you will still earn the same amount of $500 no matter which company you invest it.
Investssmart: We should not be put off by the share price. It is the valuation that we should worry about. The chances of IRIS to drop from 90c to 20c is higher than the chances of BKAWAN dropping from $7.80 to $2. But somehow, if you give investors just these two choices, many would rather invest in IRIS because they think it is 'cheaper'!

Remisier: Do you remember me recommending you Rio Tinto ($30), BHP ($15), Woodside ($20) and Cochlear ($25)? You did not purchase any either! Perhaps, this changed your view on 'expensive' stocks!
Investssmart: These four stocks have skyrocketed since his recommendation. They are now about $75, $30, $45 and $50 respectively. Never say that upside of highly priced shares are limited. There is no such thing. Upside of overvalued/expensive shares is limited but upside of highly priced shares is not. Although I did not purchase these shares, it was not because I was scared of the high prices. It was mainly because I did not have the strong confidence in the commodity bull and sadly, I was proven to be wrong. Could have made tonnes more from the ASX. Nevertheless, in a bull market, almost everything on the ASX rose.

Me: I did not buy those few but I still bought some highly priced ones. What would I be trading if I don't buy any highly priced shares? I don't remember you ever recommending me any penny stocks!
Remisier: Good stocks are normally highly priced because the demand for good stocks is very strong. Lowly priced shares are normally those that are speculative or not performing.
Investssmart: It is strange but true to a certain extent. Of course, it does not apply to all company shares.

Strange but could be true: I don't think it is a coincidence that most of the true blue chips throughout the world are trading at high prices. Most of these blue chips have been there for ages. It had to start off somewhere as a smaller company and it takes time to reach where it is today. If the company was trading at $1 ten years ago, it will probably trade at $10 today to be considered a top performer. Otherwise, it would not be considered a blue chip.

Fundamental based investors always look at companies that have excellent track records and therefore, end up investing in highly priced shares. That is because it is very rare that we can get such companies at low prices as share prices should have risen as companies perform well over the years. I doubt fundamental based investors would be interested in companies that trade at low prices over the last few years because that means that they probably do not have a good track record. Of course, this does not apply to all shares but I believe that it is true to a certain extent.

Conclusion: Do not look at how high the share price is. It is the valuation that counts.

Disclaimer: This report is brought to you by Investssmart, an unlicensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice from your remisiers. By law, they are the experts. I am not responsible for your investment decisions.

http://investssmart.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html

Is the market short of retail players?

Quick Comment: Is the market short of retail players?
After reading some articles in the newspapers today, I feel that Bursa Malaysia is managed by a pack of jokers (management of Bursa Malaysia). Not only that, these jokers are supported by another group of jokers (brokerage and remisiers). And since they are all jokers, smarter opportunists out there took advantage of the market to make some good money. Here is what I read and my comments:

First article: Bursa woos retail investors
In the article, it says "BURSA Malaysia Bhd is working with several broking houses to increase retail participation in the stock market. Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said that while the stock market had been performing relatively well in the past few months, more could be done to improve retail participation."

Investssmart: Do we actually need more retail participation? What we lack now is foreign funds participation. We have enough of retail participation. After all, retail participation will not help Bursa Malaysia because most Malaysian retail investors are interested in speculative stocks like TIMECOM, NSCOM and the chicken stocks. By encouraging more retail investors to invest in these kinda stocks is to cheat them off their money because most will end up losing. Where are the foreign funds? Everyone knows Malaysia has hardly any foreign funds participation. Bursa Malaysia should work hard with the government to get the foreign funds. Without them, Bursa Malaysia cannot perform well. Enough of swindling retailers money.

Second article: Advice from broking houses to retail players
Advice from broking houses? What? Aren't these the people who managed the unit trusts that losses money year after year? Yes, it is a shame that most of the unit trusts and funds managed by Malaysian fund managers are losing money. Of course there are exceptional ones like Public Mutual and ICapital but for every good one in Malaysia, there are probably 9 lousy ones. A lot of these funds are there just to support the market, not to maximise your wealth. Is their advise (or bullshit to some of us) worth listening to? Of course not. Even Investssmart is better.

Third article: SMR Technologies 108 times oversubscribed
Bursa Malaysia says they want more retail participation but their latest IPO was oversuscribed an astonishing 108x! How much money were there in just this IPO just from retail investors? 2.5m shares were offered to the public at 33c each. Oversuscription of 108x means that the public suscribed a total of $90m just for one IPO! And yet, Bursa Malaysia complained of the lack of retail participation. Where are their senses? What the market lack is foreign funds participation! Not retail investors.

SMR Technologies offered only 2.5m shares for the public. At 33c, it is only raising $825k from the public! What a joke! If you convert that to USD, it will be just USD223k. If you want to raise so little from the public, don't even go for listing. Or at least, Bursa Malaysia should not allow the listing. We have enough companies on Bursa Malaysia and one which raises $825k from the public is just not needed. If they don't want to let the public own more of their shares, just ask them to keep it as a private company!

These companies are listed by those who is taking advantage of the stupidity of the management of Bursa Malaysia. They are all going for the easy money. All they need to do is offer as little shares as possible and make it look very much in demand. Then, on the first day of trading, its share price will soar at least 50%! These opportunists will then start unloading their shares. Investors overseas will laugh if they hear an IPO raising USD223k from the public. They are probably already laughing. What can we expect? We have a market managed and supported by jokers.

Disclaimer: This report is brought to you by Investssmart, an unlicensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice from your remisiers. By law, they are the experts. I am not responsible for your investment decisions.

http://investssmart.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html

Making a million made easy

Sunday, February 19, 2006

News article: Making a million made easy

Just came across this article in TheAge Australia and thought it would be a good article to share with you guys. For your info, Kerry Packer, the richest Australia, passed away recently. For those who have the time, it is good to read the whole lot but for those who don't, here are the quotes I would like to share.

"The stockmarket is not life changing — 9.5 per cent per annum plus dividends is not going to turn you and I into Kerry Packer. But there are plenty of people in the stockmarket that have made it. Maybe not the billions, maybe not the millions, but plenty the million."

"You need patience. If you try to rush your financial transformation you will fail. Patience is about having realistic expectations. You won't get anywhere trying to make money every day. I've seen people in the market who spend most of the time doing nothing. Just sitting watching things going by. On the lookout. They don't try to generate opportunities out of nothing, they just wait for them."

"The mistake too many people make is to pursue opportunities frantically. Let them come. They always do. If you miss one, there'll be another."

"Terrific gains come from terrific information. Information is everywhere but most people don't use it, probably because they haven't got the time. There is plenty of money to be made out of the information gap. Knowing more than anyone else, because you bothered to do the work. Investssmart: Best describe the situation in Malaysia. Investors don't bother doing any research. They just buy TIMECOM, the billion dollar company which has never made an operating profit.

"You will not make extraordinary gains without investing in volatile (small and risky) stocks. The only way to do that is to narrow your odds significantly, minimise the risk. That means knowing what the company does. Knowing where it is in its development. Knowing what's ahead. Knowing more about it than almost anyone else. Getting to know people in the company. Talking to them. Only then can you take a big slug in a small stock that might see extraordinary gains."
Investssmart: This does not necessarily work in Malaysia because of syndicates and also because people tend to lie a lot more.

"You need mates. Kerry Packer had them. You will not make a fortune in the stockmarket by shutting yourself off in a small dark room. Information comes from mates. Opportunities come from mates."
Investssmart: Can I be your mates? :)

"Patience, information and mates. Your recipe for success."

"This isn't how you become a billionaire. The only real way to make a fortune is to build a business, build assets and employ people to build them for you."
Investssmart: That is very true. Warren Buffett is not an legendary investor for nothing. Being a multi-millionaire is enough for me.

Disclaimer: This report is brought to you by Investssmart, an unlicensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice from your remisiers. By law, they are the experts. I am not responsible for your investment decisions.

http://investssmart.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html

Questions: Why are manipulated stocks so risky?

Questions: Why are manipulated stocks so risky?

There are just simply too many counters on Bursa Malaysia, most of which are hardly touched by investors. Singapore Exchange is about 0.5x larger than Bursa Malaysia in terms of total market cap. We are 3x smaller than Taiwan, 5x smaller than Hong Kong and 200x smaller than South Korea! But we have the most number of listed companies in the world (close to 1400) after US! How can such a small economy have so many listed companies? That is because most of them are as good as worthless, which become a heaven for manipulators.

During the bull run in the early 90s, manipulators pushed the stock prices up to ridiculous prices and keep them at that level so that they can use the stocks as collateral to borrow huge sums from financial institutions. When the market crashed in the 1997-98, these financial institutions suffered huge losses because many companies defaulted on their payment and their shares which are placed as collateral are worth close to nothing. As a result, financial institutions are very careful when lending money to those who use stocks as collateral. Nowadays, they do their on valuation on the stocks before lending out money.

Since they can't mortgage the stocks, how can the manipulators gain by pushing the stock price up? The most common way these manipulators earn money is by accumulating these shares at low prices (20c for example). In most cases, the shares are cornered before they start manipulating ths prices. They will then push up the share price to maybe $1 and in the process, create large volumes. There is a case recently where someone was charged with creating about 100 trading accounts to create fake trading volume by using the accounts to repeatedly buy and sell shares of the same company.

When these shares are being pushed to $1, many punters will be enticed to join in. In the process of pushing the share price, some manipulators are smart enough to make a few super ambitious announcements to stir up interest. Some even put in large buy orders to create strong demand for the shares to further entice punters. As punters get into the stock, they will slowly release shares into the market while at the same time, put in large buy orders to create the so called fake demand.

The most risky part occurs when the manipulators have released enough stocks to the market. They will then dump the rest of their shares at lower prices (maybe 50c-80c). When the shares drop to 40-50c level, more punters will be interested to pick them up, believing that the stock could rebound. However, this only gives the manipulators another chance to dump their remaining shares.

Manipulators make huge profits when punters join in the 'bull run' in the counter. You can make money if you are lucky enough to exit at the right time before they dump the shares. It is very hard to predict when they will dump it. Most of the time, manipulators dump their shares when the counter looked like it was undroppable. Purchasing stocks that is being pushed is extremely risky because when it drops, it practically crashes. You can possibly earn some money every time you exit at the right time but when you fail to exit before the dump, you stand to lose a bomb.

The share market is meant for investors. I have seen many punters (some of whom are my friends) who have left the share market because they lose too much trading speculative stocks. For those who still follow stocks that are being pushed, I would suggest you just bring your money to Genting Casino. The chances are better and you can feel more adrenalin rush watching the roulette wheel that some blinking on the computer screen.

In Malaysia, most of these speculative stocks are on the brink of bankruptcy. The chances of them surviving or turning around is close to nil. Businesses are not easy to turn around, especially with the corrupt practices and poor managements in Malaysia. In Australia, the speculative stocks are mostly exploration companies searching for resources like gold, copper, zinc, uranium and others. These explorers all have chances of striking it rich with a bit of luck. Therefore, I would suggest to those who like to follow the speculative stocks in Malaysia to try trade on ASX (you have to figure out how to create an account), where you can make a lot with some luck. In Malaysia, luck alone wont be enough. Investing based on fundamentals and track record is the only way.

Disclaimer: This report is brought to you by Investssmart, an unlicensed investment adviser. Please exercise your own judgment or seek professional advice from your remisiers. By law, they are the experts. I am not responsible for your investment decisions.

http://investssmart.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html

Investsmart blogsite is still a good useful resource for serious investors



http://investssmart.blogspot.com/

Investsmart blogged on his investing in the KLSE for a short while.  He had an impressive record.  He started blogging at the time when the market was low and was just on the way up.  His reasoning and analysis were very educational and sound.  His blog remains a good site to visit to learn of the way he picked and analysed the stocks he invested in.