The Beginning

Today, I have decided to share my investment ideas. By doing so, I hope I can get feedback from others about the ideas and also theirs ideas as well. Of course, I also act on it too, thus, I am not just talked about it but also act on it. So, what will happen is that I probably have acted on (buy or sell) the shares and then I share my ideas.

My history in the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) goes back around 2006. I started small with managed fund. Back then, I was still an employee and a part time students. Since I have free cash flow, I decided to put my cash to work. But where is the ideal place to put my cash? I have thought about opening up a small business but there are 2 main problems which I was unable to answers ie the kind of business and the amount of cash required. So while pondering those two questions, I decided to try managed fund to park my cash temporarily.

I heard about managed fund but I have no idea about it. But I remembered 1 reason why I would like to try it ie its return is more than cash deposit over a long period of time (min of 5 years). So I read up on strategies about managed fund. Out of so many strategies, these particular strategies stuck with me:

1. Dollar cost averaging
2. Rebalancing
3. Not many stock professionals are able to beat the Index fund

Anyway, 2006 to end 2007 was very good years for stock, and thus my managed fund. One of mine double the value in less than a year. Wow!

In 2008, unfortunately, subprime mortgages exploded and so did stock. Mine too! Along the downhill, I pumped in more cash into managed fund. It was very scary at that time and took a lot of courage to pump in more cash. I also cashed out some of my managed fund position. I cashed out not because I panicked but because I want to create my own portfolio. I would like to cash out all of my non index fund and start my own portfolio due to the following reasons:

1. Not many stock professionals are able to beat the Index fund
2. Not many funds, after its cost, are able to beat the Index fund
3. I love Warren Buffet.

I knew that I would not be a success overnight so my strategies were and are:

1. Dollar cost averaging
2. Buy when it is cheap (this is the hardest strategies, what is "cheap"?)
3. Take into account taxes and inflation
4. Keep on reading and learning
5. Think of buying stocks as business that you would like to own

My first stock was ANZ at $14.10. I sold it 4 months later at $16.00. This is my first mistake (I realise it only lately). From then till now, I have bought CBA, WBC, TLS, WDC, WRT, PME, IDT, KSC, SNL, IRI & RCT and I have analyzed lots of other stocks. I also have developed my own book keeping to keep track my performance and to compare it with the Index. See if I can beat it =) just like Warren did.

This is just the beginning, whether I will succeed or not, only time can tell. So far, I am not far behind the Index.

I hope my blog can be beneficial to you and myself.

Good luck

Manager
Vocus on ASX