Old Investing Advice Gems from Wallstraits days

[hyom]

I have Wallstraits to thank as well as generous forumers like d.o.g., dydx and (yes) Dennis Ng too (for his personal finance advice like do NOT buy a car).

Dennis Ng was the top poster then in terms of quantity. He provided good financial advice free of charge. Unfortunately, he left the forum after quarrels with some forummers. dydx has not changed much. He still provides good stock picks as in the past.
d.o.g, was and is still the best in terms of generosity of sharing his knowledge and taking the time to compose long, quality posts.

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My old posts were more cautious and neutral. My recent posts are more skeptical. I think the change was shaped by my experience in the fund I joined when I first entered the industry.

Actually, your posts had always been skeptical. I remembered in the paid WallStraits forum when you pulled no punches and demolished Curtis's portfolio. It was like seeing two Kungfu Masters trained in the same school (Graham and Dodd) in action. A great learning lesson for us but I thought he must have felt quite humiliated. After all, he called himself Sage and someone made a fool out of a Sage. I remembered some forummers who probably copied Curtis's portfolio did not take too kindly to your negative comments when you indirectly talked down their portfolio by criticizing Curtis's.

I am still active on the forum, partly out of interest and partly out of gratitude. My first client was a Wallstraits member. Without his support, I would not have had the courage to strike out on my own. So in a way I feel obliged to give back to Wallstraits - and its spiritual successor ValueBuddies.

This is a virtuous cycle where acts of kindness without thoughts of rewards ended up receiving substantial rewards which in turn prompts further acts of kindness. Meanwhile, I am glad that once again, I get to free-ride on another Wallstraits member. The forummers here can continue to look forward to your postings.

It was only in 2004 Dec that I bought my first share - Suntec REIT, and what followed was a 2-year period of discovery where I tried many things such as contra, trading and IPOs. All flopped but because of the bull market I was able to somehow extricate myself, but was still slightly negative overall. Then in 2007 I read up on value investing and Warren Buffett, and also discovered Wallstraits, and the rest was history (cliched yeah I know).

Musicwhiz, you did much better than me. At least, you made money in your first year of contact with value investing. I lost $$$ in my first year in a year when STI rose 17%. Ouch! It is already painful enough to lose money. To lose money in a year when everyone else seem to be making tons of it makes me want to vomit. The big loss was caused by a concentrated position that arose from numerous averaging-down in a Chinese stock. Ouch! Forummers can read the investment lesson learnt in the first post of this thread.