20070406About Toa Payoh Vets Singapore Toa Payoh Veterinary Surgery, animal doctor, horse, dog, cat, rabbit, hamster, clinic info

TOA PAYOH VETS
toapayohvets.com
Date: 10 March, 2010

Focus: Small animals - dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pig & rabbits.

Toa Payoh Vets Clinical Research
Making veterinary surgery alive
to a veterinary student studying in Australia
using real case studies and pictures

TIPS FOR THE FIRST-TIME SHARE TRADER
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
First written: Jun 10, 2009. Update: Dec 31, 2009

There are numerous books on investments in shares. Buying good shares do increase your wealth as savings deposits in Singapore give you only 0.5% interest per year. So, your $100 earns you $5.00 after one year. But inflation in Singapore is conservatively for this study, 10% per annum. So, your $100 is worth $90.00 at the end of one year if you don't invest in good shares. You don't lose money too as your shares may drop 50 - 100% of its value due to poor management and fraud by the corporations.

WHICH SHARES TO BUY?
1. Read widely all financial and political news including Financial Times, Business Times and online reports of various industries and their characteristics and fraudulent dealings of directors.

2. Learn the technical jargon of share investment and know how to apply this knowledge. For example, P/E (price earnings) ratio, EPS (earnings/share), NAV (Net Asset Value), Dividends.

3. Every day, spend time reading and reviewing the few shares you have adopted. Just invest up to 5 corporations as a beginner. You need to be hands-on. You will make mistakes as you are a beginner.

4. Use % changes from previous years instead of looking at the absolute numbers like turnover. Historical information is practically no use to predict future earnings but they serve as a guide.

5. Read all about the company reports and releases (online). Attend their annual general meetings. Know about whistle-blowing. Get out if there is some mis-management or directors suddenly selling off their shares.

6. Know the industry trends and market environment. For example, Singapore bank and property shares were at rock bottom in 2008. Anybody who has the money and patience will be amply rewarded by an increase in 30% of profits at the end of 2009 if they have had bought e.g. bank shares. If they buy shipping shares or China S-chip shares, they have sunk and drowned. You can only do this by reading widely (online news nowadays are so convenient), subscribing to financial news like Business Times (for Singapore shares) etc.

7. Speculative shares are to be avoided. However in a rising market, speculative shares rise every week and you will be tempted in making easy money. You pump in more money. The big boys (including hedge fund managers and professional traders in the banks) play out the small shareholders after some time by laughing all their way to the bank.

8. Invest only in shares when you have some cash that you can afford to lose.

9. There are more than just 8 tips to be successful in share investment. I have not bought shares in the market for the past 10 years. I invested in only one company's IPO last year as I know the managing chairman and believe he has the expertise to build up the company.

10. Sometimes, working hard and smart in your profession may be the best way to sleep peacefully at night. This is because the present world is filled with many fraudulent misrepresentations by corporations, bankers and auditors as regards the corporation's turnovers and profitability. However, there are good corporations which are well managed. You need to know where they are.

P.S. One of the financial news is:

Straits Times March 2, 2010 Page B15 - Listed firms' profits inch up 5.7%. This is considered excellent as 2009 was a recession year. There were 324 gainers and 84 losers.

The top gainer was Wilmar. The others were DBS, OCBC Bank, UOB, Keppel Corp, Capital Land, Golden Agri-Resources, Noble, Jardine C&C and Sembcorp Marine.

Top 10 losers were NOL, Australand, Genting Sinapore, Singapore Land, UIC, OUE, STX Pan Ocean, PineAgritech, Huan Hsin, Sino Techfibre.

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