YTD Performance: +28.45%
Performance since Inception: +4600%(?) There are some price data missing so the app calculated those with just last transaction price i made. The time weighted gain probably is not that accurate.

This post was originally posted here. The writer @vincentwong10, is a community member and blogger on InvestingNote with 700 followers.

It’s 5 years already. What a fruitful journey. I did quite well so far fortunately.
Let’s do little recap…Started investing in Singapore stocks and some US stocks. Had a wonderful starting year with triple digits returns every year, whether it’s bull or bear (only 2018 so far) markets. End of 2018 start to focus on HK listed companies. I might’ve jinx them that their index fell from peak 33000 when I enter to 28000 in the mist of bull market. Luckily, I did fine with all the riots, trade war, and virus.

I’ve bought a total of 28 companies so far in this 5 year. 4 of them are unprofitable which range from -7% to -34%, they are TianLi Education, Empire Snack, Fuyao, and Pinduoduo. Funny thing is, all of them would be very profitable if I had held them till today. Some were mistakes, some were sold because of opportunity cost which turned out great.

Fortunately, the rest are profitable, 6 of them at least doubled within a year, and they are my largest position taken. Out of the 6, 3 of them were bought to more than 70% of my portfolio size and 2 of them close to 50%. And my portfolio size is about equivalent to my net worth.

Ironically, my first and most profitable purchase (10 baggers), Best World, was suspended 2 years after I sold the company. Even though my research and limited accounting knowledge at the time allow me to sense the troubles and moved on. It is the worst company I’ve bought.

That really tells me that in investing, I could make money even if I did the wrong thing, and I could lose money even if I did something right (and screw up later). When an event, which had a 10% chance of occurrence, happened, in hindsight people tend to think that the probability of it happened is 100%.

So, the record so far means little as the sampling size is too little and the time is too short. I think 10 years is the minimum timeframe to judge a person investing skill.

However, for now I’m at least more confident with my capability than when I started (I think should be little above average). I’m comfortable with uncertainty and complexity. I think I see probability and magnitude different than most people.

Sharing – how I started
As I’ve told you guys, I’m no guru. I don’t think I could teach anyone how to invest, my record is too short and sampling size is inadequate. but I could share how I get to where I am so far. Maybe I’ll write a short one.

As some of you know that I’ve once been a cook for more than 10 years. I can’t say that I had a successful career but managed to survive in some of the best restaurants and hotels in Singapore, Malaysia, and Germany. And more importantly, it’s enough to feed myself while using the surplus to invest in stock at the latter stage of my culinary career.

That’s when I started searching for the right method, reading all the articles and books that I could find, like many people, naturally lead to Warren Buffett and his school of value investing, which luckily, subsequently got to know Charlie Munger. All the things that he said just click with me.

I thought I could be a competent investor by following not just his approach in investing, but also his way of learning, attitude in general. I had a great time reading and watching all his recordings as well as his book recommendations.

One of the most impactful one to me is his speech “A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom as It Relates to Investment Management & Business”.
What he meant by acquiring elementary (math, probability& statistics, accounting) and worldly wisdoms (key concepts from all the disciplines like physiology, law, biology, sociology, history etc) might sounds intimating to many people who wishes to learn just how to invest. Luckily, I’m extremely curious in nature, might be an unexpected gift from ADHD that plagued me when I was younger, but let’s not go there yet.

My brain rewards me chemically when I figured out new things about the world. Learning excites me, and it doesn’t feel like work. So, I typically read or watching free “Fundamental of X” from universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford etc.. about 5 hours per day while try to pick up math and accounting myself. As a result, it actually affected my job performance in kitchen. It usually left me only an average sleeping time of 5 hours. I thought I need to make a choice, and gut instinct told me that I could make a living with investing. Therefore, I decided to go back to school again to slowly build my qualifications. I passed the entry test. And luckily found an office hour job at Apple Inc (yes that iphone apple) to cook for their staffs so I could attend evening class. And later decided to quit kitchen to focus on my investment and study while looking for job opportunity in accounting or finance related field.

Learning fundamentals of different field, especially history, allow me look at the world differently. It really changes the way you think. It is one of the best things that happened to me. Also, I cannot be where I am now without google arranging information on the internet (and later WeChat). They are only ways for me to get information needed to make investment decision. And Curiosity really is the key driver in investing. It drives you to make deeper research across many industries.

I couldn’t imagine where I am now 5 years ago. Some of you know that I wish to work in fund management field, but from what I know of the industry so far I think I won’t enjoy working under most firms. And I was somehow naïve as the field is ultra-competitive, like who would hire an ex-cook who suddenly wanna do finance?But ok la.. now that I could slowly afford being naïve. I understand myself and build up my principles. Just do the right things and do things rightly, and pray that somehow, I’d get to do the work that I love to do and hopefully achieve something eventually.

And I would try to write something about my investment if I have time.