04.27.06

Attitudes towards work

Posted in Leadership, Corporate Life at 1:52 pm by ngkaboon

Now that I started my corporate career, I thought I share some of my strange work attitudes.

1. This week would be your last week at work. You should try to contribute the most value as much as possible (Triage and Efficiency).

2. You must make your work become simplistic enough so that they can either hire a dummy to do your work or eliminate your position (Process).

3. Seek feedback early and continuously (Communicate).

04.01.06

What I learn about investment

Posted in General Technology, Singapore, Asia, Investment at 11:37 pm by ngkaboon

I first started investing seriously about 6 years ago. I started with subscribing to IPO. I tried internet day-trading which was quite a nightmare. I realized from quite early that unless you are using a direct terminal, it is quite impossible to day trade successfully using internet. I always thought that if I buy technology shares, I would be at an advantage because of my technical skills. It was later that I realized that technology business is more business than technology and Asia-Pacific technology is even more business than technology.

After 6 years or so, my greatest “wins” have the following characteristics

  • Sure-win investment are typically not a regular investment. Like company shares which are discounted
  • Lucky and ignorant about potential risks
  • Well-run companies in a non-sexy industry. But these companies should exhibit high profit growth.
  • Buying good company (esp with government backing) when they are low

My on par performance come from the following categories

  • Large established index stocks
  • Well-run company with a so-so business but not showing good profit growth.

My poorest performance comes from the following categories

  • Company with no profit and most likely have not establish its viable model
  • Company with profits but do not have trading volume and revenue growth. Healthy balance sheets are insufficient (in fact, it is still my greatest loss!)

Interestingly, I learn that

  • One must always be able to bet heavy on right bets to win. I bet heavy on wrong investment. Also, it pays to switch even at loss if you realize things are wrong. And it is easier to switch earlier on than later on.
  • Trying to exploit little known characteristics of a stock exchange has not work well in general.
  • Established index funds company should be acquired during down periods. They should come back up. If you invest regularly on a good company (meaning sustainable healthy balance sheet), you tend to be gain when the market swing up.
  • Profitability is not enough. Growth must be present (especially for very tech-related company).
  • A commodity value chain can have high value at some parts of the chain
  • Good companies tend to continue to grow and I must learn to have guts to buy them at a high. (The only problem is that you tend to buy them at a high and have to wait for them to hold steady or drop before peaking again.)
  • If there’s a genuinely good deal, you must be willing to bet heavy. And you should not wait because you always find ten thousand reasons why this is not genuinely a good deal.
  • The way down takes a while before it bottoms. There is no need to hurry.
  • After 6 years, I realized my investment is more based on luck than skill. This leads me to understand that it takes a long time before a skillful person would be better than his lucky counterpart consistently. (Though I haven’t invest since about 4 years or so back)