Wednesday, May 30, 2007

China again? where else?

The market is kindda stuck at the moment. Main attention is still at China. Even the almighty Superman Lee has voiced his concern on the China's market (Superman Lee is another investor that I respect beside Warren Buffett). The China market is currently trading at a PE (Price/Earnings, the ratio that compares the market price relative to earnings) that is close to 40 times, and is considered one of the highest in past histories, including those of other countries. For comparison, our own Malaysian market is currently trading below 20 times PE. This implies, the market as a whole, you have to pay over 30 dollars to earn 1 dollar annually, if everything else stays constant. Alternatively, it can be stated as an earning yield of 1/40 or around 2.5% per year. Well, lower than the FD rate in Malaysia today. So, why are there still so many people rushing to jump onto the bandwagon? (why no people rushing to the bank to earn the same yield?) Ahhh.. the key difference is the potential of "growth" of the China's market.

In fundamental analysis, it refers to the growth in market size, revenue, earnings and etc. Let's say this company Huat Chai Sdn Bhd is earning RM1 million per year for year 2005. And if the company is selling at a PE of 40 times, its market cap (total price x total number of shares) shall be worth RM40 mil. As a owner, your investment need 40 years to break even. That's an annual yield of 2.5% per year (let's forget about the compounding effect for simpler calculation). And let's say this Huat Chai is doing good business and it earns RM1.5million in year 2006. With an earnings growth of 50%, if the PE still stays, the market cap shall worth RM45mil by the end of 2006. Assuming all else remain constant, the price of the company shall already worth 50% more. Now does it sounds attractive? of course it is. Warren Buffett has become so rich by only achieving returns of 20+% per year on average. You will be twice richer than Buffett at his age if you are able to maintain that kind of returns, with his kind of initial investment. And, most probably, you will already be the richest man on earth by then.

So, again, my point is, everyone is seeing the growth potential in Chinese companies, due to its booming economy and its big population (although there are some who only buy because they believe in "the greater fool theory", a theory that believe whatever you buy today, another greater fool will come to buy from you at a higher price some time later). So are there bubble? I personally think so. I think, a correction is on its way, by then, most investors, traders, speculators or any other market players will be burnt, some very badly. And some will have to sell off most of their holdings to cover their loses, some due to panic, whatever the reason, it's going to be a bloodbath.

Some might argue that there are certainly value buys out there. Of course there are. Values are everywhere. But I believe, if we have enough patience, we will be able to buy them cheaper and at a deeper discounts later. Borrowing from Warren Buffett's wisdom, "we shall be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful".. Why shouldn't we?

Another quote I like very much, by Leonidas in the movie 300: "enjoy your breakfast, for tonight we dine in hell"... Like the feelings of "be prepared for the worst to come, and embrace it".

Opportunities lie ahead..

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Fundamental Analysis, I trust - Part 3

Valuation of Asset
As mentioned in my previous post, Fundamental Analysis ("FA") helps us to determine a VALUE for a particular company. Every participants of the market knows that the market is fluctuating over time. And there will be times when a particular stock will sell at very low price and sometimes, high. In fact, I think the stock market is one hell of a emotional animal. It can be extremely nice to you one day, and hurt you extremely bad the next. Let me show you an example:

Ah-Ha... Iris (0010) from the Mesdaq, one of the darling stocks, or someone even called it one of the legends (during it's top performing weeks) of our own stock market. This is the graph from its past 3 months, if I were to post the 1 year graph, it might remind many people of their sleepless nights... Anyway, see the price movement? down from 41 cents to 26 cents (36%) within weeks and recovered from it again, within weeks.. make any sense? except for the greed and fear factors?
"Buy low, sell high" has always been the ultimate and never-changing rule in order to make a profit from any transaction. The question here is, how low is low and how high is high? How do we know it won't go lower after low and not higher after high? Well, I guess nobody knows. Although there might be a slight possibility that there are some prophets or crystal ball reading psychic somewhere in the world who are able to predict future stock movement. But if they really exist, they would have been one of the richest people in the world. I haven't seen anyone in the Forbes Richest list with occupation of "prophet or fortune telling" before.

So, what can ordinary people who doesn't possess supernatural power like us do? We need to know the underlying VALUE. When the price is selling below the value, we buy; and when the price is selling above the value, we sell. With the value in mind, you can ignore all the noices in the market, like street talk, brokers' calls, whipers from the other table when you are having lunch and etc. That's why our greatest Warren Buffett has opted to make all his investment calls from his home in a small town called Omaha rather than from Wall Street (That's why he is sometimes called The Oracle of Omaha). That's because his only concern is the fundamental and business prospect of those companies. He is not worried even if those companies are suspended from trading in the stock market for 5 years.

Back to value vs price. My believe is to buy when the price is selling below the value that I have calculated for the company and to sell when the price is higher than the value. Now, this is my system. Make sense? Please feel free to use it, not a million dollar secret, and I am not going to trademark it anyway. However, the most challenging part is yet to come. And this part is what differentiate a small time investors like us (yup, including myself, for sure) from those legendary investment gurus like Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and etc and etc:
How to value a company?
There are a couple of methods that most analysts use, including earnings yield, growth, profitability, effective use of capital by management, asset value relative to price, discounting model, instrinsic valuation and many many more. Honestly, I am also still looking for the answers. I would like to share some of my opinion in my future blogs. Stay tuned..

P.S. the score now? 2-1..
2 points here:
1) FA let us estimate the VALUE of a share and help us make buy and sell decision
2) The richest man on earth, Bill Gates is also a follower of Buffett's investment philosophy. So we have the World 1st and 2nd richest (and many more from the Forbes List, including a few more from Asian) to support FA here. Shouldn't we, as well?

Friday, May 11, 2007

Mistakes, alot I have made - Act 1

I must confess, I have made alot of mistakes in my life as an investor. I would like to share some of them every now and then, hoping someone who read my blog might learn them the easier and cheaper way. I would also try to share my experience on how to deal with them and not to remake the mistakes.

The most important lesson that I have learnt from my past mistakes is "buying shares based on rumours without checking further into its fundamental". I have been repeating this mistake again and again without noticing it. There are instances that look so true that those who told me the news are willing to bet their head or sworn in the name of whoever they can think of. I didn't say that all news are fake, but it has to make sense, at least. Some common news are like "this company will be securing a contract or have signed an MOU with a super billionaire in China"; "someone has offered to take over the company, buy now before the price shot up.."; "this company is going to declare capital repayment of a few ringgits, the price will shoot up..", "some syndicates have signed agreement with the owner to push up the price.." and many more.

Any one of them sound familiar? Well, you are so lucky if you haven't heard any of them. yup, lucky. I've heard a couple dozens of them even though my main carear is not in the finance industry. I admit there are news that really came true, u know, once a while, but the chances of it NOT coming true are much more higher. Allow me to use another examples from gambling: How often have you heard people winning from the casinos? I do, occassionally. But the losers far outnumbered the winners. Even the winners will usually lose after a few successful runs, and usually, the losses are much more than those he had won in the past.

However, it is sometimes very hard to ignore rumours, isn't it? aren't you afraid that the rumours might turn out to be true and you are the only one left behind as the share price sky rocketed? Your uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, neighbours, mother in law, daughter of your third grand auntie and etc are all singing praises for the syndicate while you hide at the corner kicking yourself? I kindda get use to this thinking myself.

However, if you really have to jump on the bandwagon regardless where it is heading, there are 2 questions you should ask yourself in advance.
1) What's the probability the rumours will come true?
This will require your rationale and sometimes a little logic thinking. One simple example: a company is going to have a capital repayment exercise. The easiest way is to find out whether the company have sufficient fund to do so. And, who is going to benefit from this? If the company is already in deep financial difficulties, how can they afford to do so?

Question 2, might require some homework to be done, ask yourself: What if the news doesn't come true?
It's back to fundamental analysis. There shall be a "margin of safety" or worst case scenario, if you were to hold on to the share. Let's say, a company is quoted at RM1/share and there is rumours that another company will take over them for RM1.50 per share. Your valuation told you that it shall at least worth RM1.20/share. So, in case the deal hasn't materialised, you will still be holding a share bought at a discount anyway.

Conclusion, avoid rumours and concentrate on Fundamental Analysis, if you can; else, don't forget the latter.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Fundamental Analysis, I trust - part 2

I am a strong believer that buying shares of a company is akin to buying a PORTION of OWNERSHIP of that listed company and its underlying businesses and assets. And being a value investor, there shall only be 1 reason to do so, which is when the share PRICE of a company is selling BELOW its underlying VALUE. Different people will have different ways of valuing a company and as far as I know, there is no one sure-fire strategy to guarantee profit and obtain above average returns. And, that's the reason why I always agree on the saying that "investing is an ART", not science.

Let me start off my series on "Fundamental Analysis" ("FA") with its own shortcomings first (I usually prefer to taste the bitter parts before the sweet ones). One major argument against FA is that the analysis is based on numbers, prepared by accountants, whom are believed to be one of the most talented and sometimes, creative bunch of people in the world. Don't agree? allow me to share a story, which my accounting lecturer used to share with me:
There once was a business owner who was interviewing people for a division manager position. He decided to select the individual that could answer the question "how much is 2+2?"
The engineer pulled out his slide rule and shuffled it back and forth, and finally announced, "It lies between 3.98 and 4.02".
The mathematician said, "In two hours I can demonstrate it equals 4 with the following short proof."
The attorney stated, "In the case of Svenson vs. the State, 2+2 was declared to be 4."
The accountant looked at the business owner, then got out of his chair, went to see if anyone was listening at the door and pulled the drapes. Then he returned to the business owner, leaned across the desk and said in a low voice, "What would you like it to be?"

In other words, "numbers can lie"... This point of argument against FA certainly stands strong, or else, aren't the collapse of Enron, WorldCom and some other major corporate scandals living proofs? These companies have dozens if not hundreds of professionals monitoring their accounting reports closely, if FA works, many ignorant investors would not have been burnt so badly.. and not to mention the recent case of Transmile on our own Malaysian soil, which had caused its own shares to plummet more than 30% within a week. Reason? according to filings, auditors could not finalize accounts within stipulated period in absence of "relevant supporting documentation from management on certain transactions relating to trade receivables and related sales and additions to property, plant and equipment." and people starts to question the genuine of their past reports and etc.
Well, to defense against these, I would say...er... "u got me there, haha!!"
Seriously, cases like these do happen every now and then. We have to put in some extra efforts like closer monitoring; be extra careful while crunching the numbers; observe a few more years of its past records to look for consistence, and be very sceptical when there are extraordinarily good or bad years; and etc. The rest, we can only put our faith on the integrity of its management and auditors.
(By the way, if you want to see some good examples on number crunching, a good place will be at one of my favorite blogs, created by Moolah @ http://whereiszemoola.blogspot.com/. Do check it out!! He's good!!)

Ok. the score? 0 - 1 ..
to be continued..

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

KLCI breaking into new heights

The KLCI has retraced from its all time high achieved 3 days ago, so does a couple other market index around the globe, including the HSI, STI, Nikkei and etc.. except for the Shanghai and Dow, of course. This neighbour of ours called the Middle Kingdom is really doing one hell of a GREAT JOB in building itself into a world economic powerhouse. Today, when it sneezes, i think half the world will catch a cold (i am not referring to the SARS years ago). I am referring to a more servere economic meltdown if its bubble bursts. One can only use imagination to predict how far it can goes. Can anyone imagine the Shangahai Index reaching this level 2 years ago (the SSE index has just breached through 4000 points as of this writing, from a low of 1000+ points in mid 2005)? Just look at the graph below. It's an index, mind you, not an individual stocks.













Well, to be realistic, that's gonna be least of our concern, as long as our own market is performing accordingly. After much strugglings and hiccups along the way, our own KLCI has FINALLY broke through its historical high and is now in a whole new territory. I don't think this is much to celebrate about as many others have already done this months ago. We are merely playing catch up. Anyway, late is better than never, right?

So, what's next? where do we go from here? Is this sustainable? Or is this the peak we are going to tell our kids years later that, "hey, u know, your dad used to be watching the KLCI reached its all time high at 1365 (or something like that, i don't remember)" in year 2007? These are all answers we are going to know only few years later. Who knows, it might instead reached 1500 or 2000 points as predicted by some of those hard-core analysts after all. It's a choice between being conservative and lock in the profits made so far or take the risk of venturing forward with the rest, most if not all, i would say. (kicking yourself at the corner while others are celebrating usually left a bad taste in the mouth, isn't it?). I believe that some of those that have liquidated during the 1200 points have jumped back into the market. agree?

I don't have a crystal ball that is working properly, I have to based my decision on some sort of plan. As a value investor, whenever I cannot decide on "when to buy", I will look for "what to buy". There are certainly a few stocks out there that are still selling at attractive price, relative to its underlying value. As for my technical analysts friends, I don't know what you think, but I guess you do have a whole tables of graphs that help you make your decisions. This is the beauty of having a system to follow.. see? or else, you will be indifference from those that are betting blindly on the black jack tables and keep shouting "pictures! pictures!" every now and then (ask a gambler friends if you haven't been to a casino before. I beleive this wonderful scene is more seen in Asians casinos)..

Friday, May 04, 2007

Fundamental Analysis, I trust - part 1

Fundamental vs Technical Analysis
Recently, I have a friend who wanted to start investing in the share market and asked for my advice. To be honest, I think this is definitely not the best time to enter the market (to be discussed later), nevertheless, I told him that he must first start with establishing some kind of system. This system will help him in selecting counter to buy and time to make the buy/sell decision. I further pointed out to him that there are many types of "players" in the market, but they can mainly be separated into 2 main streams: fundamental analyst and technical analysts.

Fundamental analysts are those "players" who believe that the "true value" of the company will be reflected in its share price, sooner or later. The most notable fundamental analysts includes the legendary Benjamin Graham, known as "Father of Value Investing"; Warren Buffett, "The Oracle of Omaha", and his partner, Charlie Munger who are both currently at the helm of their multi Billion investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway; Peter Lynch, the legendary fund manager; and many more. These are all very successful investors and are all very respectable figures in the financial world. They believe in buying a dollar with a penny and buying shares in a company will make them part owners of the company. I am a firm follower from this school of thought.

As for tehnical analysts, they put emphasize in studying the trendlines and signals in price graphs. They derived methods to predict the future movements of share price from their past. I am not good at this and hence, is not in a position to comment further.

And of course, there are also players who believe that they can extract the good points from both of these investment strategies and I will call them the hybrid investors. I have known a few people who have been very successful in doing this in real life. They use the fundamental analysis to locate good companies and they use they use technical analysis to look for entry signals to start accumulating their shares.

In conclusion, I told the friend that one must put in hard work in order to be successful in the share market, there are no easy way out. Well, of course, I do tell him, "if you believe in luck and that the share market is nothing different from a casino, then I can only bid you good luck". It goes the same to the rest of the gamblers..