Some tips on Unit Trust Investment

Knowing how many funds are enough:
According to MorningStar study, Owning just one fund can be a risky bet. After 4 funds, the effect of adding another fund diminishes. Adding a fourth fund helps reduce the overall portfolio’s volatility, but not dramatically so. After 7 funds, things have mostly leveled out.
Once you own between 7 to [...]

How to Screen Stocks in 10 minutes

Does the firm pass a minimum quality hurdle?…
Avoid mini caps and firms that trade on bulletin boards (or pink sheets); avoid firms that don’t file regular financials with the SEC; avoid initial public offerings (IPO).
Has the company ever made an operating profits?…
Avoid promising (or young start-up) firms. For example: novel treatment abt some rare-disease, exciting [...]

Intrinsic Value

The value of a stock is equal to the present value of its future cash flows. Value is determined by the amount, timing, and riskiness of a firm’s future cash flows
Present value calculation is necessary because future value of money is worth less than current ones because:

Money we receive today can be invested to generate [...]

The Basic of Stock Valuation

Over time, the stock market’s returns come from two key components: investment return and speculative return. As Vanguard founder John Bogle has pointed out, the investment return is the appreciation of a stock because of its dividend yield and subsequent earnings growth, whereas the speculative return comes from the impact of changes in the price-to-earnings [...]

Avoiding Financial Fakery

You need to avoid what is known as aggressive accounting. However, rest assured that you don’t need CPA to uncover fraudulent financial statement. You only need to take note several red flags:
I. Declining Cash Flow
Over time, increases in a company’s cash flow from operations should roughly track increases in net income. If you see cash [...]

Analyzing a Company – The Basic

This can be break down into five areas
I. Growth.
Sales growth is more important than earning growth. Sales growth is more difficult to fake. In general, sales growth stems from one of the four areas:

Selling more goods or services
Raising prices
Selling NEW goods or services
Buying another company. This is low quality growth.

II. Profitability.
Comparing cash flow from [...]

Financial Reporting: An Overview

Taken from The Five Rules For Successful stock investing by Pat Dorsley.
There are three financial statement that you need to take note:

The balance sheet is like a company’s credit report because it tells you how much the company owns (assets) relative to what it owes (liabilities) at a specific point in time. It tells you [...]

Stock – General tips

Taken from The Five Rules For Successful Stock Investing, by Pat Dorsley
When not to sell a stock:

The Stock has dropped
The Stock has skyrocketed

When to sell a stock:

Did you make a mistake?
Have fundamentals deteriorated?
Has stock risen too far above its intrinsic value?
Is There Something better you can do with the money?
Do you have too much money [...]

Morningstar guide to Mutual Fund Investment

Always ask yourself five question before you proceed to buy a unit trust:

What does the fund own?
How has the fund performed?
How risky has the fund been?
Who runs the fund?
What does the fund cost?

To evaluate “what does the fund own”, you can employ morningstar investment style box, explained below:
Morningstar investment box for stocks (equity)

Level of [...]

F&N at a glance

Website: http://www.fraserandneave.com/.
Singaporeans are familiar with F&N’s non-executive chairman, Mr. Lee Hsien Yang, not only with recent controversy about his pay package of $1.25 million a year, but also with his father, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, and his brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
F&N has three main business units:

Properties, represented by Frasers Centrepoint. Currently account [...]