Having just opened my Malaysian trading account, I also read a few book on investing to shake off the rust that settled in recent years. The first one is How To Make Money In Stocks
The book recommend buying stock following the “CAN SLIM” methodology. CAN SLIM is a formula Mr. O’Neil found after many years studying the markets and which he credits with his success in trading. What I liked about it is the hands-on of / no BS of his formula. Here are are my notes.
C- Current Quarterly Earnings per Share
- Only buy stocks which QEPS have risen by a minimum of 20% year on year
- Make sure the last two quarters are positive
- If two successive quarters are in the red, the stock may be trouble
A – Annual Earning Increase
- Only buy stocks that have a compounded growth rate of earning superior by at least 25% year on year
- It is imperative that this is coupled with the +20% QEPS
- P/E ratios should be ignored
N- New Management, Products, Highs
- 95% of stunning successes have a new product or management
- Look for companies emerging from price consolidation patterns
- Forget cheap stocks, they are usually cheap for a reason
S – Supply and Demand
- Small supply = better performance
- Stocks with a large percentage of ownership from Management are good bet
- Regular share buy-back may lead to higher earning per shares
- Lower debt ratios are better
- Look for volume increase when stocks are going up
L – Leader or Laggard
- Buy the best two or three stocks in a group
- Stocks’ relative price strength need to be superior to 80
- Overall strength line should not be going down (ex. 85, then 80, then 78)
- Sell the worst performing stocks first
I – Institutional Sponsorship
- Winning stocks need 3 to 10 institutional owners (funds, pensions, insurances etc.)
- Shy away from over owned stocks by institutional
- Try to find the intelligent, highly informed institutional to follow their actions
M – Market Directions
- Track and interpret the daily price & volume chart of the general market
- Follow the leading stocks evolutions
- The big money is in the first two years of a Bull Market
I found the rest of the book to be less interesting. Still a few gems to extract, but otherwise, the author was mainly sharing his experience and going into more details about his past 35 years as an investor. Here are the few gems I extracted
- Sell if your stock take a dive.
- Ask yourself regularly “Do I want to buy this stock now ?”
- Limit your lossed to 7% or 8% for each stock
- Get out while the stock is up and has a chance to break
- Only buy 6 to 7 stocks at one
- No well run portfolio should have losses carried over 6 months
- Never short sell in a bull market
- Never short sell thinly capitalized stocks
- If you like mutual funds, big money is made long term – i.e. 10 to 15 years or more, and increase your investment when in a bear market as a fund always recover
- Keep things simple !!
Here it is folks !
All in all, a highly recommended read.
How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad
Bersih 3.0
The news of the past few days is that BERSIH, disappointed by the Election Commission report and recommendation, announced it would organized a sitting on April 28th 2012.
The incumbent did not lose time claiming that a street protest would “disrupt the public”. A BN parlementarian even went as far as saying that Bersih should not hold a 3.0 sitting as most of the NGO’s demands have been addressed by the parliamentary select committee (PSC). Their thorough and very convincing answer can be found here: Response From Bersih 2.0 To The Recommendations Of The Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform.
I personally think that if some wish to manifest, they should be able to. Especially as the government recently passed a Peaceful Assembly Act. As long as they let DBKL and the police know what their route will be and when their sit-in will take place long enough before-hand, then why shouldn’t they be allowed to protest ? Unfortunately, it seems that while they will allow for the event to be held, they will still try to impose their views on where it can be held and how it is to be organized. In the words of Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein:
What’s the use of having the (Peaceful Assembly) Act if we allow street protests, that is a basic thing.
Kind of goes against the spirit of the Act in my opinion. If the trouble is the safety of the people, then why don’t the police and DBKL, both paid by the taxpayer, some of whom are also Bersih supporters, be deployed to ease traffic congestion. The last time around, the PDRM road blocks in the city and roads leading to the city were creating more trouble than the manifestation itself. Removing them would solve most of what the government claim to be problems in the first place.
In the end, I wish Bersih 3.0 to be a resounding success, with many showing up, and most importantly, that it be held in peace and harmony.
PostSecret
I’ve been looking forward to discovering new secrets on the every Sunday for a few years now. Frank WARREN, PostSecret‘s founder, created a space where people truly connect through sharing their secrets anonymously. No restrictions are made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before. As Mr. WARREN puts it very well
“Secrets can take many forms — they can be shocking, or silly, or soulful.”
I liked the concept from the first time I heard about it. Maybe because of my christian upbringing. I see some similarities between sending a mail to Post Secret and going to the confessional. But instead of sharing your secret with an individual linked to an organized religion, you open up and share with a community that is areligious.
There are some secrets that I really connect with, that help me feel a little bit more connected to the world out there. I strongly invite you to go check the website if you haven’t done so already. I’m sure you’ll discover a few secrets that you relate to. Alternatively, you can take 10mn to watch the following video. It is more powerful than chopping a bagful of onions.
Game of Throne Season Two
Both me and my wife are huge fans of the Game of Thrones series. We first discovered the books a few years back, and within two months, we both read the 4,000+ pages and spread the good word among our friends. George R.R. Martin’s medieval fantasy masterpiece is a vividly real world, with charismatic and very well-drawn characters, and best of all, a surprising and complex plot that manages to keep you on your toe while remaining coherent.
While the books were already a huge success, many discovered the series thanks to the TV series last year. HBO’s picked up the rights to the series and their adaptation of Westeros is simply superb. I’m not the only one to think so, the first season received many acclaims and won many awards. The same goes for the season two opener that we just saw yesterday. It just picked up where the first season left us. I can’t wait to watch episode two !
- The Book – A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)
- The TV series – Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray]
To tutu or not to tutu — Art Harun
The latest viral phenomenon in Malaysia is not a new singer from Malaysian idol or a yummy recipe from Masterchef. It is the abrupt cancellation of shows by a Singaporean ballet troupe because of their “indecent” tutus. I’ve thought about it for a while today, but couldn’t best this piece of writing from Art Harun.
Fit for the Daily Mash !
To tutu or not to tutu (breaking news) — Art Harun
Fearing a riotous backlash from Malaysia’s hyper-sensitive, albeit slightly blur, rakyat, the Malaysian Bureau of Riotous Eccentricities & Delusions (BORED) yesterday decided to ban tutus or any performances involving tutus anywhere in Malaysia.
Tutus, apparently, from now on, are deemed riotously indecent as it may cause a proclivity to immense sexual desires which in turn may result in an increase of illegal shagging, which, ultimately, will end in baby dumping, change of faith (especially among the Muslims) and an inexplicable — and highly undesirable — liking for Barry Manilow’s songs.
It remains hazy — as it always is in Malaysia around April every year — whether short skirts, tight hot pants, bikinis, swim suits, G-strings, kebaya Nyonya and tight kain batik as well as Aznil Nawawi are going to be deemed indecent anytime soon.
Speaking on the condition of absolute anonymity, a spokesperson for the Organisation of Malfunctioning Governmental Shit-Heads (OMGosh) — a new NGO established to defend riotous edicts by various governmental agencies — said yesterday that tutus are Christian Zionists’ propaganda tool which is insidiously aimed at the sub-conscious zone of every person, especially males of between 13 and 84 years of age. Tutus are thus malevolent agents of the Christian Jews who are hell bent on destroying the rakyat through sex, sex and sex.
Says the spokesperson (quoted verbatim):
“We iz very the worried at diz tootoo coz dey iz work below the otak and the rakyatz not realise wen dey see tootoo dey all become like zombie like dat, dey no realise dey being converted by diz jahat evil Kristian Zionis. We at OMGosh tink diz tootoo is same with der tattoo which last month dat Erika Badu wanted to use to brainwash the rakyats.”
OMGosh, according to the spokesperson, has a 42-minute video (in HD) to prove its allegation that the poor and very weak Malaysian rakyat are being cock-and-bull-washed by tutus. It is estimated that to date, 17,000 rakyat have been totally “turn-around upside down” by the tutus.
Meanwhile, another NGO, Centre for Complete Kookooness (COCK), today released the result of a recent survey involving about 300 males who watched the uncensored version of “Black Swan” in controlled environments, including their bedroom and toilets. The survey reveals a shocking five of them having a complete hard on during the full duration of the movie, even during the scene where Nina-the-ballerina-in-a-tutu was lying bleeding.
That proves that tutus are indecent, says the chairman of COCK.
The chairman further says that although he is definitely not racist or anti-Semitic, the fact that Natalie Portman, who plays the leading ballerina in that movie, is Jewish did not escape his attention. According to him:
“Dat ah, pruf ferder dat der tutu and der Juice are axiz of evil.”
As of the time of writing, it remains unclear — as is usual here — whether Datuk Nicol David will be allowed to play squash in Malaysia wearing a short skirt as she usually does in every other tournament around the globe. It also remains completely a mystery whether in the next SEA Games, Malaysian bodybuilders are going to have to perform in kain pelikat and oversized baju batik.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated, but most probably connected, news, the organisers of a public forum on “Christian Aqidah — are we threatened by Dong Zong?” today announce that they are seeking a clarification whether the tutu ban will affect Bishop Desmond Tutu’s visit to Malaysia next week. He is supposed to deliver a keynote address at the forum.
Ternama News Agency: 5th April 2012 (four days after April Fool’s Day). — art-harun.blogspot.com
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
