You give some people whose job is to invest money, and by a lot of standards they are good at it.  Shockingly only 49% of their picks made money. Some of them was successful only 30% of the time.  At the end of these, almost non of them lost money. They still made a lot of money out of it.  I think this was the part of the article that caught my attention.  The main reason is that it is something that is not often explain in a book, or by course trainers, or in video how to navigate this problem.  A lot of the stocks that you come across will look like they are the best picks.  Some of these, you didn’t do the prospecting yourself. You followed someone you assessed as an astute investor (and correctly so by all measure), yet after 5 years, your results l

With the negative momentum from 2018, the STI could remain under pressure despite the strong performance in January 2019, according to RHB. While the valuation and dividend yield of STI makes it compelling for long-term investments, RHB thinks that investors should continue to stay selective in navigating the market in 2019. RHB recommends four investment strategies that focus on stocks with stable earnings, strong balance sheets and sustainable dividends. Investors Takeaway: 4 Investment Strategies To Navigate Singapore’s Stock Market By RHB Rotate Into Defensive Sectors While RHB notes that the markets could move sideways for now, RHB believes that now is not the time to abandon risk assets, especially for long-term investors. RHB highlights that the current sell-off in the market is

According to a recent report released by the Singapore Exchange (SGX), 21 companies bought back 30.2 million shares or units for a total amount of S$26.4 million last month. The latest buyback is down from December 2018’s figure of S$78 million and January 2018’s amount of S$54 million. The top five companies with the most significant share buyback amount in January 2019 were: 1) Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (SGX: O39); 2) Keppel REIT (SGX: K71U); 3) Silverlake Axis Ltd (SGX: 5CP); 4) Venture Corporation Ltd (SGX: V03); and 5) Singapore Post Limited (SGX: S08). Keppel REIT’s manager has been regularly buying back the REIT’s units since July 2018. As mentioned in a previous article here, Keppel REIT repurchasing its units could be a signal to the market that its un

Warren Buffett is a huge advocate of businesses buying back their shares. He believes that share buybacks can reveal a thing or two about the company’s management. He once said: “What you’d like to do as an investor is hook them up to a machine and run a polygraph to see whether it’s true. Short of a polygraph the best sign of a shareholder-oriented management — assuming its stock is undervalued — is repurchases. A polygraph proxy, that’s what it is.” On that note, let’s check out three companies picked at random that have repurchased their shares thus far during the week, as of market open today. Silverlake Axis Ltd (SGX: 5CP) Silverlake is a software solutions provider servicing mainly the financial services sector. On 14 January 2019, Sil

As the excitement for the New Year passes, it is back to business for many investors to hit the right note for 2019. To help investors start off the year right, CIMB has compiled its top small cap and large cap picks for investors. Here, we will highlight four small cap picks that CIMB has recommended to help you kickstart your route to alpha returns in 2019. Investors Takeaway: 4 Small Cap Picks To Start 2019 On The Right Note By CIMB China Sunsine With its capacity currently at 98 percent utilisation, China Sunsine is at close to its full capacity. Going into 2019, China Sunsine is looking to boost its capacity by 13 percent to 172,000 tons of rubber chemicals in FY19F to meet higher demand. China Sunsine is also showing signs of average selling price stabilising to support gross margi

Share repurchases can be a good thing if done for the correct reasons. And that is, if the company’s shares are undervalued, and the reinvestment opportunities into the firm are not as attractive. On that note, let’s check out three companies picked at random that have repurchased their shares so far during the week, as of market open today. Singapore Post Limited (SGX: S08) Singapore Post, or SingPost for short, has a history stretching back to 150 years. The company currently handles e-commerce logistics, as well as provides mail and logistics solutions in Singapore and around the world. On 7 January 2019, SingPost bought back 700,000 shares at a price range of between S$0.925 and S$0.935 per share. The cost came up to around S$653,000. SingPost’s share price closed at S$0.94 on Th

I received many requests from our readers to share my takeaways from the latest 2018 Silverlake Axis annual general meeting, so I decided to take some time to pen them down here. This year’s AGM is slightly shorter, and certainly less dramatic, than the annual meeting last year, but I hope my pointers will still give you more insights into Silverlake Axis. Over the last 30 years, Silverlake Axis has built and maintained the core banking systems of banks and financial institutions around the region. Forty percent of the 20 largest banks in Southeast Asia are clients of Silverlake Axis including OCBC, UOB, CIMB, and Maybank who all use the Silverlake Axis Integrated Banking Solution (SIBS). CEO Raymond Kwong shared that the company currently serves 150 banks and financial enterprises with

A year ago, Phillip Capital Management, along with Lion Global Investors, launched the Lion-Phillip S-REIT ETF. The ETF aimed to give investors a way to invest in a diversified basket of Singapore REITs (S-REITs) which paid a steady stream of distributions. (At the moment, the average distribution yield for S-REITs is 6.8%.) The ETF was met with a largely positive response from the market – Lion Global Investors and Phillip Capital Management initially aimed to raise S$40-50 million but exceeded their target when the fund raised over S$100 million last October. Capitalizing on the Singapore market’s appetite for yield, Phillip Capital Management has now launched the Phillip SING Income ETF. The initial offer period for the ETF will close at 11:00 a.m. on 19 October 2018 before its list

One of the exercises in the recent workshop I ran was a simulation exercise to close off Day 1.Workshop participants are invited to form groups to imagine leaving Singapore for greener pastures. As part of the exercise, each group of students will elect a target country. Students will then try to dig out economic data on the target country, make broad estimates on how much it would cost to live in that country and estimate how large a Singapore portfolio should be to generate passive income required to retire there. They will subjectively assess which part of the market cycle the country is in and then they will do some research on what kind of instruments in SGX will allow some proxy bets on that economy. Finally, they will also have to defend an asset allocation in the target economy sho