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Showing posts from April, 2015

An equation to rule it all

Your Performance = Your Quality of Strategy x Your Quality of Implementation x Your Timing If you break it up, it could mean:  your Performance in $, %, whatever that makes you happy = your Fundamental Analysis of the Company's Strategy or your Trading Strategy  x your Technical Analysis in terms of execution  x  your Technical Analysis in terms of the entry and exit

Brain vs Eye

ACCICB and I each have our own roles to play...he being the Eye and I being the Brain. Basically I would research on the stocks based on FA and he would decide on entry and exit based on TA. We also played around a little bit...with him using his brain or him using his brain + eye and the results are a mixed bag. I haven't used my eye much so I wouldn't know how well that would work out over the long term. So far it seems to be average and I seriously need to hone my eye but I wonder whether I would be confused or whether I would be making an informed decision. When he was messing around with the various combinations, I was busy using my brain since there's lots to cover just for one stock. Plus, I was also playing around with my own portfolio so that keeps me real busy.  He was fretting over how he can't seem to use his Brain + Eye since it keeps sending him conflicting messages. He may buy using Brain but sell using Eye and what not, so there were quite a l

What a bout of illness did for me

I've been sick over the past week so my half prepared post on investment theme is not complete yet as my brain can't seem to function very well when I'm down with flu. I'm still sick as I'm typing this so bear with me if I seem incoherent. However, being sick also gave me the impetus to just buy a counter on the day that it's earnings was released. I'm not sure whether I was thinking correctly but I did a small amount and intend to buy more when the price comes down. Somehow the earnings was good, dividends was good but I guess expectations were higher so it is currently below my buying price. Thus I placed another order to buy more but it didn't go down as much as I had hoped. I think ACCICB was telling me that I'm very brave to buy without knowing how the market would react.  For me, I've owned this counter before and made money from it so I'm comfortable with holding it for a period of time. I wished I was sick a little earlier as

Making the right call vs Cracking the Code

Making the right call and cracking the code seem awfully similar but are vastly different. I doubt I will ever crack the code when it comes to FA simply because each company is different and I can't adopt a blanket 123 to decide which company to buy. Thus I have been trying to make the right call instead. What exactly is the right call, I ask myself this same question everyday. My views may differ from the rest or may be in consensus but that does not give me any indication of whether my call is the right one. When faced with companies to choose from, I can either give a buy, neutral or never would I touch this stock decision and that's the call I make on a daily basis. The strength of my conviction is what anchors me but even then I have doubts, being the mere mortal that I am. Especially when ACCICB was at my ear, telling me how the prices have not moved for my counters. But time has proven that if I had stayed true to my course, I would have reached or exceeded my ta

Fear

Fear is something created by oneself and is the fruit of one's imagination. Imagination should be left for creating the future instead. This was taken from one of the K dramas I watched recently...so who says that K drama is all fluff and no use. There are some really good quotes in there I tell you! Fear can really freeze you in your tracks at times. It can also force you to want to break out and if you do, you unleash your hidden potential. I remembered frozen by fear before at work but funnily never when it comes to investing. Maybe I'm in my natural element? Even when prices plunge far below my buying price, still I have no fear. Doubts occasionally clouds my mind but the strength of my conviction anchors me such that I do not sell in a flurry. The only decision I have to make is whether to buy another lot to average down. When prices go up and I miss the boat, I wonder whether I should catch it or just watch the boat leave. Fear of missing out but then I tell myself

Investment Theme: Gift of Sight

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I have been digging deep into a couple of listed companies that are in the eyewear industry as the number of people wearing spectacles, contact lenses /& sunglasses are increasing due to changes in our lifestyle and our bad habits of constantly being connected to our gadgets. Source: GVNV website I looked at Grandvision NV (GVNV), Safilo Group S.p.A (SFL), Luxottica Group SpA (LUX) and Essilor International Compagnie Generale D'Optique SA (EI) and Hoya Corporation (Hoya). I think people prefer snippets of stocks rather than in-depth analysis, so that's what I'll be doing from now on. Source: LUX website Of the four, I am most interested in LUX and EI for different reasons. LUX's business model is pretty much evenly split between wholesale and retail whereas GVNV and SFL are >90% either wholesale or retail. LUX has an impressive track record and it seems to be a favored partner with the luxury brands yet they possess strong brands such as Oakley a