We have launched a series of short interviews called #InsightsInterview, to understand how reputable financial experts, bloggers and influencers in the InvestingNote community think as winning investors.

This series is to showcase financial experts, influencers and bloggers on a personal and insightful manner, to get glimpse of their investment journeys and their insights on the market in the near future. Every one of them have different styles of investing, expertise in different types of securities and also have their own story to tell.

This is #InsightsInterview Episode 1, with Terence from TUBinvesting.

T.U.B investing is short for “The Unique Bunch”. His investment methods are heavily influenced by value-investing concepts and fundamental analysis and the stocks he invests in, consist of mainly small to mid caps. That being said, he also invests in blue chips when the timing is right.

We sat down with him one evening over tea and got him to bare it all, including insights:

Tell us more about yourself and how did you get started?

TUB: I started investing in 2009/10 during my days in university and had my fair share of mistakes at the start of my investing journey. The worst time was when I exhausted all my saving to bet on warrants, losing half of it.

It was only after reading the book, Value Investing: Tools and Technique for Intelligent Investment by James Montier, in 2011 that I realise the need for a more consistent value-focus strategy. I tried to read more books, but it became apparent that the more information I gather, the more confused I was. Thus, I stopped and came up with my own way of analysing companies’ financial statements by gathering key concepts from each of the books I read. 

My subsequent investments resulted in more hits than misses, giving me the confidence to declare that I have found my unique way of investing – The Scorecard Method.

What is the most extravagant thing you have done?  (amount invested, company experience etc)

TUB: Prior to my current investing strategy and pre-2017, OCBC (I have since divested) and Singtel used to contribute almost 45% of my overall portfolio. Back then, I did not apply any portfolio sizing as part of my strategy. 

On the other hand, I previously purchased 1 lot of DBS when the Swiber saga came above. But I sold it for a loss of about $100 due to all the noises around me and the social media. If only I had followed my set-ups. 

What is your average time horizon for your investments?

TUB: Whenever I invest in any company, I will have a long-term view of holding the stock for 1 year. However, this does not mean that I will not sell if I deem to have made enough gain.

In the event if I made a mistake, I will try to relook into my analysis of why I invested in the company. If my analysis is wrong or no longer holds, I will sell quickly.

When you evaluate a company, how much time do you spend on understanding the business versus doing the valuation work?

TUB: Currently with the help of Fundamental Scorecard website, I spent very little time on valuation work – Like at most 30 mins. Even when an idea came up, the first action is look at the website – if it fails badly. Then it is “Forget it”!

With lesser time spent on quantitative analysis, I am able to spent more time on reviewing business and its qualitative information. I will read up on the annual report, news, blogger’s write up, etc.

This change in my investing style has also been reflected in my blog posts as I started to focus more on Moats of a company.

Do note that, at times, I would try to have a cool off period of maybe a few days to even months if I am unsure about the company. This cool off period will allow me to regroup my thinking and take away all my biased emotions towards the company.

You have a blog about your fundamental scorecard, can you elaborate more on how it’s used?

TUB: Fundamental Scorecard website has 2 scorecard methods currently – Full Analysis Scorecard created by Simple Investor SG and Ultimate Scorecard created by me.

Full Analysis scorecards has a more “Warrant Buffett” approach towards investing. It allows me to put a number towards qualitative aspect of the company and also look at the historical financial performance of the company.

On the other hand, Ultimate Scorecard has a more “Benjamin Graham” approach towards investing. It will inform me whether the company is undervalued at that share price based on different aspects of its financial performance, such as dividend yield, PB ratio, P/FCF, PE ratio, etc.

What are the key fundamentals you look for in a stock and how do you do it? (EPS)

TUB: Previously, it has been cash and FCF. Now it is cash, FCF, as well as margins and returns. 

Does investing becomes more difficult as the size of the account gets bigger?

TUB: Not really and it really depends on your investing method as well.

I am someone with a lot of ideas because I read up on regularly on news and I am on InvestingNote everyday! Thus, there are so many ideas on a daily basis that one could probably purchase.

In addition, as investors, if the size of our accounts get bigger, you can always start to look overseas.

On the other hand, if you are someone involved in focus investing (a huge concentration position in each company), then you just need to spent more time researching deeper into each company.

Both methods above require more time and effort on analysis. So, if someone told me it gets difficult, I just feel they are just reluctant to put in more effort. But then again, that is your own money.

What do you think of the current market conditions right now?

TUB: It’s great. Although my portfolio is still in the red (down by about 5%), but volatility creates opportunities for us to invest in companies that we have in our portfolio or in our watchlist.

If my analysis still stands, why are you worried?

Which sectors of the stock market should investors look at and avoid?

TUB: From my experience, oil and gas sector are easily manipulated by the different governments around the world. Thus, I will avoid them as of now.

What gives you an edge in the market?

TUB: I felt that ever since I created the scorecard method – it gave me an edge over many investors.

Other than spending less time on quantitative aspect of investing and more on qualitative aspect, I got an edge as it provides me with different perspective from other investors views.

Basically, in my opinion, if everyone look at each company with the same perspective, then the only one with different view will stand out and possibly make more gains than others.

 

Terence currently has more than 1,000 followers on social media. Follow him to get the latest updates and insights on the Singapore stock market.

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