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    What I Learnt As An Analyst - 2nd Edition: Sharing of experience in investment and analysis
    What I Learnt As An Analyst - 2nd Edition: Sharing of experience in investment and analysis
    What I Learnt As An Analyst - 2nd Edition: Sharing of experience in investment and analysis
    Ebook293 pages2 hours

    What I Learnt As An Analyst - 2nd Edition: Sharing of experience in investment and analysis

    By Peter Lim Tze Cheng

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    About this ebook

    What I Learnt As an Analyst – 2nd Edition by Peter Lim Tze Cheng is not a get rich quick scheme nor is it a book on secret tips and tricks. This book on investment and analysis provides investors with valuable knowledge of analyzing companies. The knowledge that generally comes with years of experience. The author was not afraid to put out hard-hitting truth about investing in companies. He enlightens his readers on investment by owning up to his own mistakes. A point that he has made numerous times throughout this book is that there is no one way to go about investing. This book is based on the experiences and ideas of one man. A very raw piece of work on investment for professionals of the field and newcomers alike.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateApr 14, 2020
    ISBN9781098310066
    What I Learnt As An Analyst - 2nd Edition: Sharing of experience in investment and analysis

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    • 5/5
      A piece of sophisticated work. Everything in a financial statement is being peeled off layer by layer, for commoners to learn and apply.
      More importantly, this book also highlights the common psychological conundrum that retail investors always face (and the ways to help counter), be it in a bull or a bear market.

    Book preview

    What I Learnt As An Analyst - 2nd Edition - Peter Lim Tze Cheng

    1st edition: First published April 2018

    2nd edition: First published in February 2020

    Text copyright © 2020 by Lim Tze Cheng

    Editor: Priyanika Kirupananthan

    Cover design: Thineswary Govindasamy

    Comic artwork by: Jian Goh (akiraceo)

    Author’s photograph by: Jewel Ling

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

    Published by: Lim Tze Cheng

    Publisher’s Address: Setapak, Kuala Lumpur

    The publisher can be reached at whatilearnt@yahoo.com

    Preface

    I am not Warren Buffett. Neither am I Charlie Munger.

    Nor do I consider myself an investment guru.

    When I started to work on the first edition of the book, those three sentences were the first thing that came to my mind, and hence, I wrote them down. One may wonder why these three sentences are so significant to me. It is because I am not writing this book as a successful analyst and a fund manager and trying to tell you how you can be one from this book. That’s not the intention at all.

    What I learnt as an Analyst was written to share what I learned in my years as an analyst and a fund manager. This book is also not written to boast about my successes. It is a vital tool to equip readers with the right fishing rod and teach the techniques to fish - and not brag about the size of a fish I once caught.

    For the past two years, after the publication of the first book, the level of acceptance surprised me for the fact that I am a local author. I have received many requests on further sharing of my views on equity investments, which evidently, gave birth to this second edition.

    I must first admit that this second edition may not be popular for some, as my sharing could contradict popular believes or practices in the industry. It might also step on a few toes. Some chapters, like the one on Quantifying the Qualitative, I have pointed out that most equity valuation and finance theories that we learn in colleges may not be practical in real life.

    Another one, entitled Why Do You Want to be a Fund Manager, touches on some of the challenges faced by a fund manager and why investors need not become one to build a successful portfolio on their own. In another chapter, entitled What Drive Stock Prices, I have explained what are the drivers that resulted in share prices going up or down.

    In this book, there are two new chapters where I shared my personal views and experiences. In Who Would Have Thought, I shared about the blunders I have made in my career, and The Most Challenging Period I shared my most difficult period in my career as an analyst and fund manager.

    For new readers and those who are picking up this book for the first time, this book is divided into two parts.

    Part I: Unit Trusts as an Investment is written for individuals who want to invest in the stock market but do not have the interest or resources or time to conduct analysis on individual companies. For them, the most viable way is through investments in unit trusts. This part will guide investors on the ins and outs of investing in unit trusts.

    Part II: Shares as an Investment is meant for individuals who intend to invest directly into the stock market. Rather than jumping in blindly, this part will equip individual investors with the basic understanding of financial statements, financial ratios, basic valuation methodologies, and other aspects of analysis to be taken into consideration when analysing a company.

    For the unit trust investors, I hope this book will deepen your understanding on the basic mechanism of how unit trusts work.

    For investors who intend to invest in the stock market, my wish is that this book will equip you with the basic methodologies and concepts to use to analyse companies before investing into them.

    For those who are just starting to learn what is investment and those who wish to have some basic understanding of financial statements, I sincerely wish this book can be your first text book into the investment world.

    The thoughts presented in this book are more of personal views and experience. Some may be acceptable and some may contradict the views of the majority.

    In addition to my effort to promote and spread financial literacy among society, this book also serves as my personal social enterprise project. All net proceeds collected from the sale and distribution of this book will be donated to Kriyalakshmi Mandir Shree Sai Gurukul Charitable Society (or KMSSG in short), a Non-Profit Organisation registered with the Registrar of Society of Malaysia.

    All KMSSG activities are posted on its official Facebook page @ KMSSG Charitable Society.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    PART I: UNIT TRUSTS AS AN INVESTMENT

    CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS UNIT TRUST?

    Difference between Investing in Unit Trusts & the Share Market

    - Investing in the Share Market

    - Investing in Unit Trusts

    What is NAV?

    Types of Charges & Fees

    - Direct Charges

    - Indirect Charges

    Management Expense Ratio

    Portfolio Turnover Ratio

    How does a Unit Trusts Work – From the Fund’s Perspective

    How does a Unit Trusts Work – From the Investors’ Perspective

    Impact of Expenses on Investors’ Return

    Types of Unit Trusts

    CHAPTER 2 WHEN TO BUY UNIT TRUSTS?

    What is Dollar Cost Averaging?

    The Impact of Volatility on Dollar Cost Averaging

    What is the Time Horizon for Unit Trust Investments?

    The Fund’s NAV is at its All-Time High. Can I Still Buy?

    The Importance of Knowing the Style of Investment

    CHAPTER 3 UNDERSTANDING UNIT TRUSTS’ DIVIDENDS

    The Arguments For and Against Dividends

    CHAPTER 4 UNIT TRUST INVESTMENT INFERIOR TO SHARES?

    Is it Possible for an Individual Who Invests Directly into Shares to Out-Perform Unit Trusts?

    PART II: SHARES AS AN INVESTMENT

    CHAPTER 5 WHAT IS A STOCK MARKET?

    Investing in Shares is Actually Investing in Business

    Stock Market is a Collective but Unpredictable Expectation

    CHAPTER 6 WHAT IS COMPANY ANALYSIS?

    Is it a Good Business?

    Is it a Good Company?

    How much are We Willing to Pay for the Company?

    CHAPTER 7 BASIC GUIDE TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

    CHAPTER 8 INCOME STATEMENT – MEASUREMENT OF PROFITABILITY

    Revenue

    Gross Profit

    Profit from Operations

    Profit Before Tax

    Income Tax Expense

    Is Net Profit the Actual Profit?

    Concept of Core Earnings

    What to Adjust?

    The Seasonality Factor in Earnings

    CHAPTER 9 BALANCE SHEET – MEASUREMENT OF FINANCIAL HEALTH

    Property, Plant & Equipment (and Depreciation)

    - How should investors look at depreciation?

    Goodwill

    - Why Would a Company Pay Higher than the Net Asset of the Acquired Company?

    Inventories

    Cash & Bank Balances

    Issued Capital & Treasury Shares

    Deferred Tax Liabilities

    Of Minority Interest, Associates, & Joint Ventures

    - Minority Interest

    - Associates & Joint Ventures

    CHAPTER 10 CASH FLOW – THE LIFE LINE OF BUSINESSES

    Cash Flow from Operating Activities

    - What is Working Capital?

    Cash Flow from Investing Activities

    - The Concept of Free Cash Flow

    Cash Flow from Financing Activities

    Putting it all Together

    Does Business Exist to Generate Profit?

    CHAPTER 11 PROFIT MARGINS – PROFITABILITY OF THE BUSINESS

    The Relationship between Margin & Volume

    The Effect of Associate & Joint Venture Accounting

    The Leverage of Low Margin

    CHAPTER 12 OPERATING RATIOS – EFFICIENCY OF THE BUSINESS

    Total Assets Turnover

    Days Sales Outstanding

    Days Payables Outstanding

    Days of Inventories

    Cash Conversion Cycle

    CHAPTER 13 FINANCING RATIO – INDEBTNESS OF THE BUSINESS

    Equity Multiplier

    Debt-to-Equity Ratio

    Return on Equity & The DuPont Model

    CHAPTER 14 THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: HOW MUCH TO PAY FOR IT?

    The Concept of Margin of Safety

    Price-to-Earnings Ratio

    - Trailing PE and Forward PE

    - How High is High? And How Low is Low?

    - Achieved versus Expectation

    - The Impact of Warrant

    The Concept of Enterprise Value

    Dividend Yield Approach

    Sum-of-Parts

    Price-to-Book

    CHAPTER 15 QUANTIFYING THE QUALITATIVE: A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE TOWARDS MODERN FINANCE THEORIES

    The Concept of Beta β

    The Concept of Correlations and Portfolio Risk Management

    The Impact of Multiplication of Assumptions

    CHAPTER 16 WHEN TO BUY?

    Does Industry Matter?

    Crisis is Mega Sales

    Only Invest if You Believe in The Product or Services

    Long-term Investing – Till Death Do Us Part?

    CHAPTER 17 WHEN TO SELL & INVESTMENT LESSONS FROM A SEASONED INVESTOR, MR. MAK TIAN MENG

    CHAPTER 18 WHAT DRIVE STOCK PRICES?

    CHAPTER 19 WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

    Falling in Love with the Company

    Overpaying for Growth

    Not Willing to Pay Quality Premium

    Business Model that Relies on Government Policies

    CHAPTER 20 WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE A FUND MANAGER?

    The Things We Have to go Through as a Fund Manager

    When We Lose Money on Unfamiliar Names…

    In Search of Liquidity…

    Daily Performance Measurement – The Pressure Cooker

    You Don’t Need to be a Fund Manager to be Successful in Investing

    Fund Manager is a Boring Job

    CHAPTER 21 THE MOST CHALLENGING PERIOD IN MY CAREER

    CHAPTER 22 UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE EXERCISES

    Share Split

    Share Consolidation

    Bonus Issue

    Rights Issue

    Warrants

    CHAPTER 23 INVESTMENT AS SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

    The Creation of iSERF

    PART I:

    UNIT TRUSTS AS AN INVESTMENT

    CHAPTER 1:

    WHAT IS UNIT TRUST?

    Unit trust is actually a type of Collective Investment Scheme (CIS). CIS is a concept where a group of investors pool their money together in order to take advantage of having a bigger pool of money to invest. If you have RM100 available to invest, you can’t buy much. But if 100,000 people each chip in RM100 into a pool, the pool will have RM10 million available to invest. The extent of investment choice and diversification that the RM10 million pool can achieve is definitely much greater than what RM100 can do. And this is the inherent advantage of a CIS.

    Difference between Investing in Unit Trusts & the Share Market

    [1]. Investing in the Share Market

    To buy shares, investors need to go through a securities/stockbroking firm as the middleman to conduct the transaction. Assume you wish to buy shares of Company A which is currently trading at RM1.30 for each share. You decided that you want to buy at RM1.25 a share. You then call your remisier (an agent, for the stockbroking firm, who holds the license issued by the Securities Commission) to inform him or her about the trade.

    What your remisier will then do is to find a seller who has Company A’s shares and wishes to sell at RM1.25 a share. If the remisier finds a willing seller at RM1.25, he will match and complete the trade. If he is not able to find a seller at the price you want, then either you have to revise your price to RM1.30 a share or wait for other sellers who are willing to sell at RM1.25.

    Figure 1 below shows the relationship. An alternative to a remisier is an online trading platform, where investors would be able to trade and manage their own transactions.

    Figure 1: Investing in Share/Stock Market

    One may ask why would we still need remisiers in this technological age, when we can trade on our own? Remisiers actually play a very important role for investors who just started investing in the stock market. They would be able to guide and hand-hold investors on what-to-do and what-not-to-do when investing. In addition, remisiers can help to monitor the trades on the investor’s behalf, compared to the investor having to keep checking on his trades.

    The mathematics for unit trust and share investments works the opposite way. Say Company A’s share is trading at RM1.30 a share. Shares are traded at a lot of 100 shares. So, at the minimum you must buy 100 shares of Company A, which is RM130, excluding brokerage charges. If you are buying two lots, you will have to pay RM260 (RM1.30 x 200 shares) before brokerage charges.

    [2]. Investing in Unit Trusts

    Unlike investing in shares, investors who wish to invest in unit trusts would need to get in touch with unit trust agents. Unit trust agents are representatives of unit trust management companies, and hold the license issued by The Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia.

    Now assume you want to invest in Fund B and you approach a unit trust agent for Fund B. The agent will assist you in submitting your request to the unit trust management company (UTMC) of Fund B. For unit trusts, there is no matching of trades needed. All buying and selling of unit trusts is between the investor and the unit trust management company, transacted at the Net Asset Value of the unit trust (or NAV, which we will explain further later). What this means is when you want to invest in Fund B, the UTMC of Fund B would need to sell you the units in Fund B. When you want to sell your units

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