How to Decide which Stock to Buy in Less than 10 minutes

In this time and age where we want everything to be done fast and quick, we want to decide if the stock that we are looking at is worth taking a second look to decide if we should take it further. With a large abundance of stocks being listed on various exchanges and an influx of upcoming Initial Public Offerings (IPO) interests being registered. A company's financial ratios have to be outstanding before investors will take a second look and uncover its hidden assets and be invested in its growth story.

In this article, I am going to share with you how I quickly decide if the stock you are looking at is worth your time to perform an in-depth analysis or if you should let go and move onto another stock instead.

Read: Best Free Mobile Apps for Investing

How I Perform this 10 minute Check

By utilising Investing.com Mobile App available on Android and iOS platform

First, go to Tools followed by Stock Screener

Read: How to Monitor Upcoming IPO's for Free

Select Country, Exchange and Sector to narrow down selection

Add Criteria: Industry, P/E ratio

Why I chose Industry as a criteria is so that the P/E ratio selection that follows will be applicable for the selected industry. The results might be skewed if the industry is not set in place as different industries have different industry P/E ratio.

Next, select the P/E ratio option and narrow the P/E ratio range to the mid mark.

The reason for using the mid-mark as the cut off point is because generally a higher P/E ratio can indicate that the stock is being over-valued. Also, a higher P/E ratio means investors expect higher earnings and it also implies that many are chasing this stock. I personally do not like to chase the stocks that are "hot" or trendy at the moment because I see it as a "bubble" that will burst once the craze is over.

Read: Beating the Street by Peter Lynch

Screener Results are presented

Read: One Up Wall Street by Peter Lynch 

Personally, I will only consider the instruments listed on the main board exchange. In this case, it will be NYSE and NASDAQ and disregard the OTC Markets.

Once the instruments are collated for the different industries, I will input them into my template with more detailed ratios and criteria where I will perform a detailed investigation for each company.

Know of any methods other than the above? Do share with our fellow readers so we can all learn from one another! Feel free to share in the comments section. 

One Up Wall Street by Peter Lynch

Book Summary on One Up Wall Street by Peter Lynch

How to Use What You Already Know to Make Money in the Market

For those Time Starved Professionals, I have compiled the list of points which I feel are relevant to the man in the street. Although this book is about navigating the financial markets, it is easy to read as Lynch wrote this with the intention for the everyday people to read. His aim is to show us that understanding the markets is not rocket science, arm yourself with knowledge and be patient. This book aimed at long term investors. If you are here looking for fast gains and strategy play, then this book is not for you.

How much does it cost to buy a Second Property in Singapore

Case Study

Cost of Condo: Suburb Properties - OCR
New Sale: $1.2 million
Currently Own HDB flat. Purchase Condo as 2nd House - Non-Residential.
Outstanding Bank Loan.

(i) Down Payment
Loan Tenure does not exceed 30 years and sum of loan tenure and age of borrower at the time of applying for the loan is below 65 years. Down payment is 50% of the purchase price or market valuation, whichever is lower. The first 25% in cash, next 25% in cash and or CPF.	50% x 1.2 mil = $600,000
Loan Tenure exceed 30 years (max 35 years) and sum of loan tenure and age of borrower at the time of applying for the loan is above 65 years. Down payment is 70% of the purchase price or market valuation, whichever is lower. The first 25% in cash, next 45% in cash and or CPF.	70% x 1.2 mil = $840,000
ABSD	- pay 12% of property value or purchase price, whichever is Higher
	12% x 1.2 mil = 144,000
	- need to set aside CPF minimum retirement sum before you can use excess CPF money in your OA account
Conveyancing Fee
Professional Legal Fees	$2000 - $2500
GST	7%
- Stamp Duty paid in cash/ CPF:
- First $180,000 - 1%
- Next $180,000 - 2%
- Next $640,000 - 3%
- Remaining Amt - 4%
Conveyancing Account Fee	$200 - $400
Total Upfront Payment = Down Payment + ABSD + Stamp Duty = 600,000 + 144,000 + 3000 = $747,000
However, If able to pay off 1st housing loan
- will be considered as 1st loan
- 5% downpayment in cash, 15% downpayment in CPF
- 3% stamp duty
- 7% ABSD
(ii) Monthly Re- Payment (Bank Loan)
Depends on Bank Loan Interest Rates	Rough estimate for calculation purpose = $2100
(iii) Monthly Maintenance Fee	Estimated $300/ month
(iv) Property Tax
Depends on the Annual Value of the home.
Based on rental income	e.g $3000 x 12 months = $36,000
	Residential Tax Rates (Non- owner Occupied Residential Properties) = (10% x 30,000) + (12% x 6000) = 3000 + 720 = $ 3720 annual
(v) Renovation and Furniture
Reno	$30,000
Furniture	$20,000

Credits: Straits Time, EdgeProp, iCompareLoan, PropertyGuru, Dollars and Sense, 99.co, Ezbuy, HomeLoanWhiz

What to Consider Before Buying a Second Property in Singapore

A random thought led to this random article. Though I am well aware that I cannot afford to purchase a second property at this point in time, I still decided to do my research out of curiosity to see if I can afford to be the home owner of a second property.

One cannot only look at the mere figures for property purchase decision, he must also consider the qualitative factors before making a commitment. For the numbers and cost calculation, please refer to my blog post on How much does it cost to buy a 2nd property in Singapore.

How to Invest in Gold

As I go about building up my investment portfolio, I decided that it would be apt to include gold into my collection. I acknowledge the fact that there are other options for getting your hands on this asset. However, in this article, I am going to present my thoughts on investing in gold from the perspective of an average investor.


Why Invest in Gold

Gold is seen traditionally as a safe haven when the stock market is in turmoil. When there is high volatility in the stock market, the participants back off to get their hands on gold. Such behaviour is apparent such that it is known that gold has a low correlation with other assets and investors routinely uses gold to hedge against inflation. Gold is also used a tool for diversification and was conferred the highest honour of being a currency in its own right - the Gold Standard.

How to Decide on which REITS to invest in?

1.Highest yield - 5- 6% - to beat inflation rate

2. DPU consistency

3. NAVPS < Bid Price - to see if undervalued

4. AFFO - the 'real' Cash Flow

5. Leverage < 30%

6. D/E < 60%

7. Interest Coverage Ratio > 5%

8. Rental Occupancy

9. Rental Reversion - Positive is better

10. Undervalued P/B < 1

11. Diversification - property categories

12. Weighted Average Lease Expiry - improving market, choose shorter lease. Deteriorating market, choose longer period.

Growth or Value Investing?

	Growth	Value
Ratios
Growth Rate	5 - 10%
PEG	-	< 1
ROE	high
P/B	low	P≈ BV
P/E	high	low
D/E	-	D≈ E
Dvd	high	Consistent payouts
Operating Performance
low R&D, depreciation and interest expense
NI/ Revenue ≈ 10 - 20%
Healthy cash level
Increasing retained earnings
Qualitative Factors	- Durable Competitive advantage. If no CA, then choose firms with govt intervention that favours incumbents- geographical diversification- easy to understand biz models
E.g	IT, Technology, Mining, Industrial, Consumer Discretionary, Energy	Financials, Utilities
When to SELL
lost of competitive advantage
P/ EPS > 40

CANSLIM

System for Selecting Stocks


C - current Q earnings of a firm - last Q earnings have > 20% growth

A - annual earnings growth - annual EPS growth of 25- 50%
N - new product, service, management or new high in price level
S - supply and demand - smaller firms with smaller # shares < 25 mil

    - less #, more movement.
      Also, look out for re- purchasing which signals mgmt confidence
L - leader or laggard - relative px strength ~ 70% - ΔP stock/ ΔIndex over the same period of time
I - institutional sponsorship - ideally between 3 and 10 sponsors - over-owned, be cautious
M - market direction - uptrend/ under pressure/ correction - invest in time of definite uptrend - see Indices