Athena Trader

Source: K01 website Another blogger wrote about k1 Ventures Ltd (K01) recently and that caught my eye so I went to take a look as I was rather interested to find out more. When I told ACCICB about this stock, his first question was the daily trading volume and the current price. I think it being a penny stock didn't interest him but I think it could be a good stock to hold as after all, not everybody, myself included, has that much money to invest in stocks.  K01 is an investment company and their current investments are in the sectors of education (Knowledge Universe Holdings, LLC and K12 Inc)  and financial services (Guggenheim Capital, LLC and ChrysCapital, LLC) as they have recently divested their automotive retail investment (China Auto) via an IPO on the HKSE. For a company that makes it's revenue through investments, it would be key to scrutinize their track record as that would be a good gauge for the potential of their continued success. However, their rev...

Source: CDI website I thought that Kering was bad but then Christian Dior SA ("CDI") is just as heavy going! I was saved from reading Kering as ACCICB told me that he had read it partially and decided to give it a miss. The recent news about the change of top executives at Gucci did not help matters as it seems that Gucci sales is lagging behind its fellow brands such as Bottega Veneta. I wish that companies can cap their annual reports to 200 pages or lesser. Any longer becomes madness for the reader I feel.  CDI was brought to my attention by ACCICB who was looking at LVMH for the longest time. For CDI, there are a few things that I like as well as a few things that gave me cause for concern. I also realized that many companies I researched on happen to fall into the category of family owned and managed companies. The risks and rewards of investing in such companies are widely written about so I shall not go into detail in this post. I was pleasantly surprised ...

There have been a number of recent Korean drams that are about Jerkyll + Hyde and I find myself thinking whether it is good to be Jerkyll + Hyde when it comes to investing. After all, sometimes being the same person does not do you any good in the stock market. Sometimes you need to transform yourself into a different animal and maybe that will help you find success in the markets. But there is also one personality, either Jerkyll or Hyde that will try to get rid of the other since 2 personalities can't exist in one person. With so much bad news in the past 1 month, I am anticipating or rather bracing myself for more bad news. After all, if you are a head honcho, now's the best time to unload your bad news. If you are still your usual self, you would do your usual thing but when unprecedented events such as SNB's shock announcement last week, your usual thing would do you no good at all. That's when it's good to have multiple personalities when it comes to inve...

As promised, here's the remaining section of the annual report that I will read through to see whether this company is worth investing in. I will be using Christian Dior's (CDI) 2013 Annual Report as a reference. Sorry I took such a long time to post this, I was busy with lizard hunting in my garden.  Business risk factors and insurance policy  I kinda like this section as risks are inevitable and what I am looking for is how the company manages their risk. There are four ways of managing risks which I learned when I was in school. TARA which stands for transfer, accept, reject and avoid is what a company can do but sometimes companies leave it open ended as to what their choice is. Well then it's up to you to go and find out and decide whether this risk is well managed by the company. Naturally I am more concerned about specific risks to the company and whether there is effective risk management policies in place to prevent a major disaster from happening. Among al...

First off, thanks to SMOL for telling me that my comments section is koyak again. I thought I fixed it after Ladykiller told me the last time but no it seems that I totally suck at tech. Apologies to those who tried to leave a comment and couldn't. Alright in today's post I'll be running through on what I look out for in the annual report. I am no expert so this is just what I do on a normal basis. Reading the annual report of a company is a must in my books and there's some sort of mystic feel I get when I see the cover. That disappears in a flash as I quickly note down the total number of pages of the annual report, most of which I have to read. There is loads to absorb, dig around, cross reference in an annual report and each company has their own style of presenting it. I also have the tendency to go and read all the current news on the company or even go and google the information that I don't quite understand in the annual report. Since I write a post abo...

I find stock research to be an art rather than a science although it's more based in science than art. It's an art to me as you can have many people researching the same freaking stock and everybody comes up with a different opinion on it. Whether it will outperform, buy, hold, underperform, sell or no opinion. That's 6 choices for any 1 stock that's analysed. That's before the price targets which vary as well. But that's only one part of the equation as you need to have the art of execution in order to make $$$. I started to wonder about my research methodology as ACCICB says I tend to find great companies to invest in. To be honest, I never really thought about how I spotted these companies. Maybe because I don't consciously do a like 123 and lo and behold, this is a great company. Sometimes I probably miss a few things here and there as well. Today, I shall attempt to put down how I go about conducting research. 1. Look around you for inspiration a...

Source: RB website I started looking around the house and realized that I've quite a few items from Reckitt Benckiser ("RB"). I've also been buying lots of Dettol wipes due to an ever exuberant puppy who salivates way too much and thinks that slathering you with his saliva is love. He is by far the happiest dog I've ever met which probably explains why his mouth is open most of the time.  Well it was also down to either reading RB's annual report or Kering's annual report and honestly I wasn't dying to read >300 pages anytime soon. Although, sadly for me I would have to read Kering sooner or later as ACCICB is semi keen on it. I have my preconceived perceptions on luxury stocks which may or may not be right but I guess I can explore that later. Reckitt Benckiser is a brand powerhouse it seems and it concentrates mainly on the 3 Hs, namely Health, Hygiene and Home although they do have revenue coming in from Food and Pharmaceuticals too. T...

This is going to be a non stock analysis post as I am still reading on Reckitt Benckiser which shall be my next blog post. I learned an important concept last year when we bought a puppy and had to engage a trainer to aid us in his obedience training. The most important concept of life and which is applicable to stocks as well is summarized in three words: ABC. A means antecedent which is described as a preceding situation or circumstance. B means behaviour which is what you do or react to the antecedent and lastly C is the consequences of your behaviour to the antecedent. For example, you hate your job because of various reasons (antecedent), you decide to be lazy and not be as diligent as before (behaviour) and weeks pass by and your boss does nothing (consequence). You realize that if you disappear during office hours and become slower at delivering your work, your boss doesn't even call you out for counseling or reprimand you, you learned that it's A ok to continue doi...