myinvestingnotes.blogspot.my (Bullbear Buffett Stock Investing Notes)

Keep INVESTING Simple and Safe (KISS) ****Investment Philosophy, Strategy and various Valuation Methods**** The same forces that bring risk into investing in the stock market also make possible the large gains many investors enjoy. It’s true that the fluctuations in the market make for losses as well as gains but if you have a proven strategy and stick with it over the long term you will be a winner!****Warren Buffett: Rule No. 1 - Never lose money. Rule No. 2 - Never forget Rule No. 1.

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Should I study for an MBA?

Date: 03/06/2011

By Sean O'Hare

A Masters in Business Administration (MBA) is a vocational qualification designed to speed up career progression or facilitate a career change.

Candidates are supposed to be mobile, bright and ambitious, and over a 100,000 of them take up the full-time challenge each year, with a further 300,000 students opting for part-time and online study.

In today's economic climate where competition for jobs is fierce, an MBA certificate not only gives candidates more choice in the job market, but can often make the paper thin difference between securing a second interview and being turned down.

More specifically, an MBA cultivates sought-after technical and personal skills, as well as providing access to an international network of usually well-connected alumni, who might be able to help not only with contacts, funding and advice but often with friendship in a foreign country.

For those interested in becoming an international manager in a multinational company, it is worth bearing in mind that an MBA is usually the prerequisite qualification.

Deciding to study for an MBA is one of the toughest professional decisions you are likely to make. In order to make that decision a little easier, we put the following questions to Nunzio Quacquarelli, managing director of QS, a leading global career and education network that provides a platform for universities, business schools and employers to target, meet and select the best qualified candidates from around the world.

How does a candidate select the right MBA course and institution?

"With so many schools to pick from, MBA candidates need to carefully research their choice of institution to ensure that it matches their personal requirements.

Candidates need a rational selection approach deciding which criteria matter. Identifying and then getting into the right school is often the biggest challenge

According to QS TopMBA Applicant Research, the most popular selection criteria for UK MBA applicants, in order of importance, are:

1) An institutions career placement record

2) Return on investment

3) Reputation of the school

4) Quality of academic staff

5) Specialisations

6) Student profile

7) Rankings

8) Scholarships

9) Location

10) Length of course

One of the best ways to choose the right school is to actually meet with admissions officers. Admissions offices of over 100 leading business schools will visit London with the QS World MBA Tour on October 29th."

What should candidates expect from the course?

"All MBA courses are slightly different, though they have common elements. The traditional general management MBA provides an introduction to core disciplines like: finance, marketing, economics and accounting followed by more in depth courses with a broad range of modules; from entrepreneurial management, to organisational structures, to leadership.

In recent years, MBA studies have innovated a great deal, placing more emphasis on developing interpersonal and communication skills, as well as including business ethics and social entrepreneurship as core components. Practical learning through live consultancy assignments and multi-disciplinary project work is also becoming more widespread.

There have also been a growing number of specialist MBA programs launched in the last decade that concentrate on industry or functional areas, like; luxury brand management MBA at ESSEC or the football management MBA at Liverpool University."

Is it likely to pay off?

"An MBA is a lifetime investment in an individual’s human capital. It is probably the most important investments you will ever make – certainly more important than buying a house – because it will affect your future income over their rest of your professional career.

Over 90 per cent of MBA candidates experience a 40-100 per cent uplift in salary pre-to post-MBA with the European-North American average salary being £61,500 in 2010.

For a one year MBA earning less than £30,000 pre-MBA, the payback period on a top course will be under three years.

For a two year top-tier MBA the payback period is less than five years. Over a 25 year career, the net present value of the salary surplus will be in excess of £2 million."

Find out more:

http://courses.telegraph.co.uk/news/should-i-study-for-an-mba/16/?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=top5_mba&utm_campaign=courses

No comments:

My 18 points guide to Successfully compounding your money in Stocks

Be a good stock picker.
Think as a business owner.
Always look at value rather than the price. Do the homework.
Buy and hold is alright for selected stocks.
Compounding is your friend, get this to work its magic.
Mr. Market is there to be taken advantage of. Do not be the sucker instead. BFS;STS.
Always buy a lot when the price is low.
Never buy when the stock is overpriced.
It is alright to buy when the selected stock is at a fair price.
Phasing in or dollar cost averaging is safe for such stocks during a downtrend, unless the price is still obviously too high.
Do not time the market for such or any stocks.
By keeping to the above strategy, the returns will be delivered through the growth of the company's business.
So, when do you sell the stock? Almost never, as long as the fundamentals remain sound and the future prospects intact.
The downside risk is protected through only buying when the price is low or fairly priced.
Tactical dynamic asset allocation or rebalancing based on valuation can be employed but this sounds easier than is practical, except in extreme market situations.
Sell urgently when the company business fundamental has deteriorated irreversibly.
You may also wish to sell should the growth of the company has obviously slowed and you can reinvest into another company with greater growth potential of similar quality. However, unlike point 16, you can do so leisurely.
In conclusion, a critical key to successful investing is in your stock picking ability.

http://myinvestingnotes.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-18-points-guide-to-successfully.html

11 Lessons From Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch taught me:

1. Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it’s doing.
2. Never invest in any idea you can’t illustrate with a crayon.
3. Over the short term, there may be no correlation between the success of a company’s operations and the success of its stock. Over the long term, there’s a 100% correlation.
4. Buying stocks without studying the companies is the same as playing poker – and never looking at your cards.
5. Time is on your side when you own shares of superior companies.
6. Owning stock is like having children. Don’t get involved with more than you can handle.
7. When the insiders are buying, it’s a good sign.
8. Unless you’re a short seller, it never pays to be pessimistic.
9. A stock market decline is as predictable as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you’re prepared, it can’t hurt you.
10. Everyone has the brainpower to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach.
11. Nobody can predict interest rates, the future direction of the economy, or the stock market. Dismiss all such forecasts and concentrate on what’s actually happening to the companies in which you’ve invested.

Lynch’s advice had a profound effect on my stock market approach. He taught me that investment success isn’t the result of developing the right macro-economic view or deciding when to jump in or out of the market. Success is about researching companies to identify those that are likely to report positive surprises.

Capital Expenditure

A great company with a Durable Competitive Advantage will have a ratio of Capital Expenditures to Net Income of less than 25%. Less is better.

Capital Expenditures are expenses on:
- fixed assets such as equipment, property, or industrial buildings
- fixing problems with an asset
- preparing an asset to be used in business
- restoring property
- starting new businesses

A good company will have a ratio of Capital Expenditures to Net Income of less than 50%.

A great company with a Durable Competitive Advantage will have a ratio of less than 25%.

Less is better.

Benjamin Graham's 113 Wise Words

The true investor scarcely ever is forced to sell his shares, and at all times he is free to disregard the current price quotation. He need pay attention to it and act upon it only to the extent that it suits his book, and no more. Thus the investor who permits himself to be stampeded or unduly worried by unjustified market declines in his holdings is perversely transforming his basic advantage into a basic disadvantage. That man would be better off if his stocks had no market quotation at all, for he would then be spared the mental anguish caused him by other persons' mistakes of judgement."

Philip Fisher's Wise Words

"The refusal to sell at a loss, while completely natural and normal, is probably one of the most dangerous in which we can indulge ourselves in the entire investment process.

More money has probably been lost by investors holding a stock they really did not want until they could 'at least come out even' than from any other single reason. If to these actual losses are added the profits that might have been made through the proper reinvestment of these funds if such reinvestment had been made when the mistake was first realized, the cost of self-indulgence becomes truly tremendous."

(Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits)

The Ultimate Hold-versus-Sell Test

Here is the overriding primary test, followed by observations on why it is so critically important:

Knowing all that you now know and expect about the company and its stock (not what you originally believed or hoped at time of purchase), and assuming that you had available capital, and assuming that it would not cause a portfolio imbalance to do so, would you buy this stock today, at today's price?

No equivocation. Yes or no?

Answers such as maybe or probably are not acceptable since they are ways of dodging the issue. No investor probably buys a stock; they either place an order or do not.

Here is the implication of your answer to that critical test: if you did not answer with a clear affirmative, you should sell; only if you said a strong yes, are you justified to hold.

Some thoughts on Analysing Stocks (KISS)

Ideally a stock you plan to purchase should have all of the following charateristics:

• A rising trend of earnings dividends and book value per share.
• A balance sheet with less debt than other companies in its particular industry.
• A P/E ratio no higher than average.
• A dividend yield that suits your particular needs.
• A below-average dividend pay-out ratio.
• A history of earnings and dividends not pockmarked by erratic ups and downs.
• Companies whose ROE is 15 or better.
• A ratio of price to cash flow (P/CF) that is not too high when compared to other stocks in the same industry.

Margin of Safety Concept: Stocks should be bought like groceries, not like perfume

The high CAGR in the early years of the investing period, due to buying at a discount, tended to decline and approach that of the intrinsic EPS GR of the companies over a longer investment time-frame.

Chapter 20 - “Margin of Safety” as the Central Concept of Investment

A single quote by Graham on page 516 struck me:

Observation over many years has taught us that the chief losses to investors come from the purchase of low-quality securities at times of favorable business conditions.

Basically, Graham is saying that most stock investors lose money because they invest in companies that seem good at a particular point in time, but are lacking the fundamentals of a long-lasting stable company.

This seems obvious on the surface, but it’s actually a great argument for thinking more carefully about your individual stock investments. If most of your losses come from buying companies that seem healthy but really aren’t, isn’t that a profound argument for carefully studying any company you might invest in?

myinvestingnotes.blogspot.my (Bullbear Buffett Stock Investing Notes)

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Should I study for an MBA?

How does a candidate select the right MBA course and institution?

What should candidates expect from the course?

Is it likely to pay off?

Find out more:

No comments:

All equity security investments present a risk of loss of capital

The Ultimate Hold-versus-Sell Test

Some thoughts on Analysing Stocks (KISS)

Benjamin Graham

Sell the losers, let the winners run.

Investment Style

Warren Buffett

Political and Economic News

Interesting Blogs