For those who can’t wait, please click here for my report on Hyflux. Please do not forget to post or email your feedback, comments, critical arguments, constructive suggestions, etc…
In the meantime, I must make a few confessions:
1. This is the first time I really enjoy reading a company’s annual reports.
2. This is the first time I seriously work on an assignment since my O-levels. (I didn’t really put in a lot of effort in my University days either!)
3. This is the first time I really walk-the-talk by seriously applying what I have learnt in the past on analysing a company for investment purposes.
I remember the first time I came across the terms like “fundamental analysis”, “value investing”, “understanding financial statements”, etc. etc. was way back to year 2000, since then I had a great collection of classical books such as Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor and others on my bookshelves (you may refer to the book list tab for the complete list), which was put into ‘very good use’ that was no better than merely impress family visitors. I briefly read some of them, occassionally talked about them during coffee breaks only to impress fellow coffee-breakers on how widely read I was. I at best knew the theories well enough to talk intelligently with jargons but I had no practical experience on applying those theories into my real-life investment (although I did get lucky on some stocks I had bought). Of course, as I grew older and became more mature, I started to appreciate the theories, methodologies, mindsets of those great investors much much better; however, procrastination became my biggest road block. I knew the importance of applying what I have read and learnt on real-life cases through practice and trial-and-error and improve from there, I just simply didn’t really seriously take a first step into serious investment. Not until setting up this website early this month, which is 8 years later. (Warren Buffett would have killed me for losing the compounding opportunities of 8 great years without seriously investing!)
I remember my other good investment buddy, DmS, he once tested me with an IQ question: “Hey, in a dark night, you have a torch light and it can only reach 10 meters in front of you, what do you need to do if you want to see the road 20 meters in front of you?”. I proudly told him that the answer was simple, “Just walk forward 10 meters, so that your torch light can reach another 10 meters in front of you!”.
That was a wakening call.
No matter how smart, how widely-read you are, you need to take action and take small steps forward, in order to reach the goals you want to achieve.
I know my report on this little assignment is not flawless, but I am quite happy that I have moved forward with my little torch light and no matter how small the steps were, I know I am already closer to where I want to be.
I am happy because I have taken action. And I feel much cleverer after the assignment, and I hope I will become slightly richer soon.
Infinite Wealth 