A New Beginning

By Puah Soon Lim

7 Oct 2017 was the date that I sent out the last copy of The Eggs N Tennis Balls Newsletter. I started this newsletter in the year 2013 on the urging of my clients who have been receiving them on a weekly basis. The intention then was to reach out to all those who followed me in my talks to quickly and easily get up to speed with what is happening in the financial market without following the news in the financial press. One could just spend a glance at the market barometer in the newsletter and quickly know whether this week’s market is in advancing mood or declining mood.

There was a summary of the market and a quote and a picture of the week segment. I told my newsletter subscribers that just by spending five minutes to go through my newsletter would keep them informed of the events that have unfolded in the week.  I also included links to articles which I have come across during the week which I felt would be beneficial to improving the knowledge of investors, especially a fundamentally-based value investor.

However, after some soul-searching as well as feedback from my readers, I have concluded that this newsletter was devoid of original content since most of it was curated from the internet. What this means is that, I am simply putting in place what is already freely available out there.  In fact, tools such as Feedly and Flipboard would have done a better job than me in this aspect. That got me thinking that a major revamp would be needed if this newsletter were to serve the role that it was intended - to help you become a better investor.

After the last publication in October of 2017, I send out an online survey to all my readers in Singapore and Malaysia, asking them just one question: When it comes to investing in the stock market, what is your #1 single biggest challenge that you're facing right now? Yes, it was an open-ended question. I do not want to constraint your response. I want to hear from the horse's mouth so to speak. For those who are keen to contribute more idea, the link is still live and you may have your say by clicking on this link to participate in the survey.

Separately, I also asked our Applied Value Investing Workshop alumni for more feedback on how I could further serve the needs of our subscribers.

As a result of that survey and the insights provided by our alumni, here are the findings (shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2).  Among the top five insights that I gather from my readers with regard to their biggest frustration related to investing are as follow:

• How to select stocks
• Understanding when to buy and sell
• Fear
• Selection tools and portfolio management
• Understanding Financial Statement

Figure 1: Distribution of Challenges Retail Investors Are Facing

Figure 2: Detailed Distribution of Challenges Retail Investors Are Facing

As for the feedbacks that were gathered from the alumni,  a number of you agreed that a large portion of the contents is already freely available on the internet or newspaper, there should be no need to replicate this aspect. What is lacking would be investing ideas and case studies that can hone the skills of the individual investors. Also, our alumni are also asking us for tools for doing backtesting on individual stocks.

What would I do in 2018?
For those who contributed to the survey, I wanted to say a big thank you. You have given me a direction on where I should contribute my effort in this investing education journey. Equitiespedia was named in the spirit of collaboration with all. The word “equities” (stocks and securities) represents collaboration with all that are involved - you, our employee and the founders, in the world of investment.  The suffix “pedia”  (means learning) symbolizes taking ownership in your learning journey and we are here to maximize your learning experience in your financial literacy and investing education. We are measured by the impact that we can create in your life. That is why our mission since day one when we founded this company is about enriching lives and fulfilling dreams.

Towards that end, here is what we plan to do in 2018:

• First off, we know that our strength has been in offering courses that can help you in the bottom-up stock selection. My team and I will be pouring our resources into this area. We are happy to say that courses such as investing in banks and REITs as well as how to read financial statements will be offered in the first quarter.
• Second, The Eggs N Tennis Balls Newsletter will be about looking at more practical examples and sharing resources that the small investor can benefit.
• Third, we will be pouring our resources towards developing a portfolio tool for you.

I will be sharing more in the coming days and weeks on the three initiatives that we have lined up for you.

We hope you will enjoy the workshop, tools, and articles that we are going to provide. We welcome your feedback and suggestion of what else you would like to see in this portal that is built specifically for you.

On behalf of Peter and Victor, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support.