First time investor

[roychen]

Hello,

I have just attended Dennis' 2-day stocks seminar over the last weekend. Dennis introduced many concepts which I have to take more time to digest, but in the meantime I would like to ask for some advice.

I have never made a single investment before, and I was thinking of constructing the "all-weather proof" portfolio Dennis mentioned.

Assuming I have $10,000 available to me, I was thinking of doing the following:

1. Allocate 10% ($1000) to buying silver as insurance.
2. Buy 1 lot of STI ETF ($3100+).
3. Allocate the remaining ~$5800 to some promising stocks (before doing so I will do the appropriate FA/TA to justify why I decided on them)

Any comments on whether my approach is feasible would be welcome.

Thanks!

[Dennis Ng]

Hello,

I have just attended Dennis' 2-day stocks seminar over the last weekend. Dennis introduced many concepts which I have to take more time to digest, but in the meantime I would like to ask for some advice.

I have never made a single investment before, and I was thinking of constructing the "all-weather proof" portfolio Dennis mentioned.

Assuming I have $10,000 available to me, I was thinking of doing the following:

1. Allocate 10% ($1000) to buying silver as insurance.
2. Buy 1 lot of STI ETF ($3100+).
3. Allocate the remaining ~$5800 to some promising stocks (before doing so I will do the appropriate FA/TA to justify why I decided on them)

Any comments on whether my approach is feasible would be welcome.

Thanks!

Hi roychen,
it is feasible.

For amount less than S$3,000, perhaps getting silver through iShares Silver Trust would be lower costs as UOB Silver Saving account has minimum fees etc.

Many of the good stocks I shared in the seminar can be invested for less than S$1,000. eg. 1,00 shares of Chip Eng Seng is S$455.

When I first started, I also had very little money just like you. It's what you learn, the good news is after you learned, S$10,000 and S$1,000,000 is just 2 more zeros behind, that's all. And by then you buy shares may be 100,000 shares instead of 1,000 shares, that's the only difference.

So start, the sooner you start, the sooner you reach the First Million Dollars. The First Million is the hardest, after you reached S$1 million dollars, to double it, is S$2 million already..double again S$4 million, it simply gets easier. I'm speaking from my own personal experience and also the experience of my multi-millionaire sifus.

[cool]

Hi,

I am a new student. Just open a trial account with shareinvestor.

I went into Fundamental - stock comparison ( 3 stocks) 1) Cambridge 2) First Reit 3) Frasers Comm. It shows everything there! Fundamental looks ok except Cambridge Rev Growth is negative -0.284. First Reit 0.371 Frasers Comm 63.084 . All three Dividen Yield are good 8.6%, 8.202%, 6.5% . I also take alook at Factsheet. Cambridge cannot buy coz I thought is cheaper than the other two reiths?

Dennis, any other things that I need to look at?

I also want to invest in silver. For info, website given by my frend who invested.

1. Check prices here:

http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/investme ... pid=pb2003
2. Check chart here (delayed):

http://www.kitco.com/charts/techcharts_silver.html

Thanks

[Dennis Ng]

Hi,

I am a new student. Just open a trial account with shareinvestor.

I went into Fundamental - stock comparison ( 3 stocks) 1) Cambridge 2) First Reit 3) Frasers Comm. It shows everything there! Fundamental looks ok except Cambridge Rev Growth is negative -0.284. First Reit 0.371 Frasers Comm 63.084 . All three Dividen Yield are good 8.6%, 8.202%, 6.5% . I also take alook at Factsheet. Cambridge cannot buy coz I thought is cheaper than the other two reiths?

Dennis, any other things that I need to look at?

I also want to invest in silver. For info, website given by my frend who invested.

1. Check prices here:

http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/investme ... pid=pb2003
2. Check chart here (delayed):

http://www.kitco.com/charts/techcharts_silver.html

Thanks

Hi cool,
revised the notes on the few factors I consider for REITs. Does Cambridge have strong shareholders?

[zipink]

For amount less than S$3,000, perhaps getting silver through iShares Silver Trust would be lower costs as UOB Silver Saving account has minimum fees etc.

Hi roychen,

As what Dennis mentioned, there are fees for UOB silver savings:

"An annual administrative fee (in ounces of silver) as low as 0.2 ounce per month or 0.375% per annum on the highest balance per month, whichever is higher. The fee is subject to GST, which will be deducted from your account in ounces of silver also."
http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/investme ... etals.html

S$1,000 can buy you about 20oz of silver only. With a fee of 2.4oz per year (0.2x12), you are actually paying 12% annual fees. It's way too high.

If you want to open UOB silver savings, I suggest a minimum of 100oz. Or else stick with iShares Silver Trust.

[roychen]

Thanks Dennis and zipink for your replies.

I am indeed planning to start soon, hopefully within the next week once I open my stockbroking account.

I didn't know UOB Silver Savings charged such a high annual fee, thanks for the information. Yet another reminder that I should check annual/management fees for relevant stuff.

[JasonT]

I apologise for a very blur question... but I have a OCBC trading account with iOCBC, are we abvle to buy iShares Silver Trust there or where can I purchase that? Thanks!

[ngtfook]

I apologise for a very blur question... but I have a OCBC trading account with iOCBC, are we abvle to buy iShares Silver Trust there or where can I purchase that? Thanks!

Hi JasonT,

Yes, you can buy iShare silver (SLV) via iOCBC. You need to submit W-8BEN form to trade US market. Your broker should able to help you on this.

[roychen]

Hi everyone, I apologize in advance if this is a silly question.

When doing any sort of investment, we must always analyze the upside versus the downside. Dennis advises that the upside must at least be twice the downside. He personally advocates a 50% possible return to a 25% possible loss.

What is not really mentioned, is HOW to analyze the upside/downside of a particular investment?

For example, silver - Dennis has mentioned the historical lowest price and highest price of each unit of silver. From this it is easy to calculate the upside/downside of silver, based on current market price.

However, say I want to invest in a REIT. We should only invest in REITs with a price to NAV ratio of 0.7 or less (as one of the criteria). From this, we can see that the upside is at least 30% (since the share price does not reflect the true asset value of the REIT), but how can we calculate the downside in this case? Should we look at the 5-year low price of the REIT?

For "regular" stocks (non-financial/property based), again, how can we analyze the upside/downside of a particular stock? Is it once again based on the 5 year high/low price of the stock, or even the historical high/low price of the stock?

[randwick]

Hi roychen,

Strongly recommend that you read through the posting for the stock "Lion Chiang Teck", started by one of the mentor, jamestai.

The methodology is explained very well there.

http://www.masteryourfinance.com/forum/ ... sc&start=0

[roychen]

Hi randwick,

Thanks for the tip. Have just read through the post, very informative. I have a better idea now of how to combine FA/TA to check the upside/downside potential.

[randwick]

Hi roychen,

Welcome & good hunting!!