Look what I've found

I was passing by one of the sportswear shops and saw these two socks selling at a discounted price. I was suitably impressed by the brands of it. My handphone camera quality isn't exactly fantastic, so I'm sorry if the second picture isn't at all clear.There seems to be a certain fetish for brands having a certain 'tick' symbol. Perhaps by emulating certain branded logo, other brands can stand on the shoulders of giant and ride on the wave of mad...

Read More

Full year results for china milk and pac andes

I was suitably impressed by the great showing of my companies that released their full year results today - china milk and pac andes.I admit that I did not buy pac andes on fundamental grounds. In fact, I entered it solely due to dbs brokerage report back in 2006. Back then, I did no technical nor fundamental analysis. As such, my knowledge of this company is severely lacking. I'm trying my best to correct this, so haha, bear with me :)Pac andes------------------------2008----------2007Gross margins---------21.6%---------17.8%Net PATMI margins---6.9%-----------7.3%ROE-------------------12.9%----------24.5%Currents...

Read More

How I read a financial report

I promised someone i'll do tat hong. In fact, I did it very briefly and posted it in the cbox, but I think that person didn't see it. Either way, May asked me to help out on reading tat hong's financial report, so here I am.First of all, I confess my accounting knowledge is lacking. As such, there are certain things that I might not know or understand. I try my best. This is what I'll look for:1. Income statementa. Calculate gross margin, net marginb. Check to see if there's any big changes in marginsc. Check to see if there's any big changes...

Read More

Paradoxical commandments

It's an inspiring book, "Anyway - The paradoxical Commandments" by Kent M. Keith. This book is about finding meaning not in other people's applause, but finding it in the very act of doing things that you think is right. Here's the 10 paradoxical commandments:1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.4. The good you do today will be forgotten...

Read More

CSC review

Today I trimmed off CSC from my portfolio, cutting out all my stake in it. It was a love-hate relationship.I bought it entirely on technicals, held it with speculative hope, thought I'm holding it for investment but sold it on a rational and businesslike manner. I believe CSC will have a splendid FY08, but I couldn't care less anymore. This is simply a business that holds no place in my revamped portfolio.I went in 5 lots at 0.305 on 16th April,...

Read More

HSBC chart using chartnexus!

Below is the chart for HSBC. I looked at the chart after I updated a newer version of chartnexus today. Now they even include HK stocks :) Amazing..and it's free too :) To all the guys/gals at chartnexus, thks for all the great work!As mentioned in previous charting of hsbc, there is a rising wedge. But as I looked at it today, I realised that it didn't really breakdown as the pattern indicated. Instead, the price seems supported by ema20d and is...

Read More

How to detect and kill mozzies

Today I killed another 5 more mosquitoes. I affectionately call them mozzies. I still keep a running tab of how many I manage to kill, just for the record. You can check it out here.I must confess that I take no pleasure in killing these irritating insects. If it wasn't for the fact that they can create life threatening diseases to humans living around my area, I wouldn't be bothered. Ants and spider live a happy existence in my home.Having killed so many mozzies, I think I can write a little more about how to go about detecting them and subsequently...

Read More

Peter lynch's checklist

Here's a checklist from Peter Lynch's book, One up on wall street:Stocks in general:P/e ratio – is it low or high for this particular company and for similar companies in the same industryThe percentage of institutional ownershipWhether insiders are buying and whether the company itself is buying back its own shares. Both are positive signsThe record of earnings growth to date and whether the earnings are sporadic or consistent (the only category where earnings may not be important are asset plays)Whether the company has a strong balance sheet...

Read More

China Hongxing intiation report

Was alerted to China hongxing when I saw a thread in cna forum regarding its excellent results. I did browse through its quarterly results and found it pretty impressive, hence my initiation report on China hongxing.What impressed me most is the high net margins generated from china hongxing business. They specialised solely on selling sports shoes, apparel and distribution business. The gross margins hovers around 30-40%, which is what I'll expect....

Read More

To read or not to read

I just finished reading the Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom. Not particularly a good read for me, so I'll rather not review it. Sometimes I do wonder if the sequence of the readings will affect the satisfaction of reading a book. I think so, to a huge extent. When I didn't know better, I suppose I'll have thought that the Warren Buffett way will be a good reading. But for me now, it seems a little diluted and leaves me craving for more.In...

Read More

Earthquake in China

Seems like it's one disaster after another. Myanmar had barely finished with its cyclone and China is struck with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake.A couple of china companies listed here came forth to offer help and aid to survivors - something which I found touching. There's a lot of announcements today regarding whether any of them got hit by earthquakes.1. China Sports - not affected. Only 4% of assets are held around the region but no points of sale in affected region.2. Synear - production plant is in Chengdu. Plant did not suffer material damage,...

Read More

Hongguo - Management

ManagementThree of the founders of Hongguo, Chen Yixi, Li Wei and Miao Bingwen are serving in the board as directors. Chen Yixi is the executive chairman, Li Wei is the Managing director and Miao Bingwen served as the executive director until 1st March 2007, where he became a non-executive director.There is no employee stock options plan, hence no issues of the shareholder’s stake in Hongguo diluted. Furthermore, there is no stock buyback by Hongguo....

Read More

Hongguo - Financial health

Financial health of HongguoIn the midst of analyzing the ROE, I’ve calculated the financial leverage ratio. Financial leverage ratio gives a good feel of the amount of leverage used. The figures are as shown:Financial leverage---------Year1.44--------------------------20031.43--------------------------20041.46--------------------------20051.38--------------------------20061.37--------------------------2007Judging from the ratios, we can see that...

Read More

Book reflections on Peter's Lynch "One Up On Wall Street"

What a prolific day today! I had one of the free-est saturday that I can recall from recent memories. I managed to finish Peter Lynch's One up on wall street today in the library.One up on wall street is really a great reading! His style is more informal. Coupled with his wit and humor AND his enlightening advice, I think this is really a page turner for me. It mentioned on the front cover, "More than 1 million copies sold" - I think it is really...

Read More

Hongguo and Prime Success Price/EPS chart

...

Read More

Hongguo - Profitability part 2

EPSLooking at the graph below, we can see that for the trio, earnings are pretty good and is consistently getting higher. I do find it strange that even though Hongguo’s portfolio is behind both Belle’s and Prime’s, its EPS is actually the highest among the three.If this trend is sustainable, it doesn’t even matter to me if Hongguo is ranked 3rd or ranked 1st, since it’s the earnings that ultimately drive the company, not the market share of their...

Read More

Singtel chart

NO dream, I'm not going to back to the dark side! :)I've quite a free day today, so was talking to stub about some of the companies that is interesting. Singtel crop up in our conversation and I thought it's interesting too. At least it passed my screening, though need to look more into it and compare with the other 2 main competitors before deciding anything.Charting is fun for me, though not always so lucrative for me, hoho! Anyway, I know that...

Read More

Hongguo - Profitability part 1

ProfitabilityLet’s take a closer look on the profitability of Hongguo. To really see how good/bad Hongguo is, it’s inevitably that I’ll have to look through its main competitors – Belle and Prime Success again. Below is my calculated data, after spending days poring hunting down annual reports and compiling them.Prime Success is the longest listed company out of the trio, while Belle is the youngest, having been listed only in May 2007 (though it...

Read More

Analysis on my reading pace

Grey remarked that I am a very fast reader. Let's see if I really am (I thought I'm pretty normal, since compared to my gf, my speed is like a toddler learning how to read).From this financial year starting 1st Jan 2008, I managed to read:A total of 21 books,excluding 4 books that I'm currently reading (semi concurrently). This also includes 2 books that have little relation to investing but have profound effect on my philosophy. This leaves a total of 19 financial books which I've read so far. I exclude the tonnes of annual reports and announcements,...

Read More

CSC chart

CSC chart. Been trying to sell off this as I found that the characteristics of the business no longer suits my portfolio....

Read More

Book reflections on Common stocks and uncommon profits

Some books hit on you straight away, leaving you with a proverbial light bulb glimmering brightly over your head. For others, you need to slowly grow with it.Phil Fisher's Common stocks and Uncommon Profits and other writings belong to the second type. The book didn't particularly strike me as "AH-HA", yet the more I read, the better it gets. I guess when I read it the 2nd and 3rd time in the future (I intend to get this book), I'll be able to derive...

Read More

Thoughts about STI

While trying to find out more about the compounded returns of investing in STI ETF today, I managed to crunch some numbers for the adjusted close of STI since inception on 28th Dec, 1987 till now. The data that I used comes from Yahoo! finance. Below is the chart (linear y-axis) of STI from inception till last close, on 2nd May 2008.We can see from the STI chart that there are notable periods of time that it dropped sharply. In 1990, 1998, 2003...

Read More

Hongguo - Valuation

ValuationI did up several analysis to determine a ballpark range of which the price of Hongguo can be expected to appreciate in the coming years. The first one which I did was the constant ROE analysis, with projected EPS shown below.As the name suggests, I assumed that the ROE for Hongguo is constant at 22.19%, which is the 5 year average value from 2003 to 2007. I also assumed that the payout ratio (dividends per earnings) is 25%. Sparing you...

Read More

Hongguo - Growth prospects

Growth prospectsIn the annual report for FY2007, Hongguo mentioned that their future plans are:1. To build a multi-brand portfolio in order to cater for diversifying market niches, by forming 6 to 8 brand package in next 2- 3 years OR through in-house brand development or collaborations with renowned foreign partners2. Sales network will be enlarged to support 260 more stores, comprising 200 for in-house brands and 60 for cooperative brands with...

Read More

Hongguo - signs of monopoly

Signs of monopolyHongguo does show signs of having a good business. Earnings is consistently increasing since they were listed in 2003, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.3% since 2003 to 2007. The key word here is consistent; Hongguo has never dropped its earnings since IPO in 2003, and in fact it has been steadily increasing.ROE is also pretty consistent (in fact showing a slight uptrend), around 20 to 22% since listing, giving...

Read More