Looking for research helper

[Thriftville]

Hi buddies, i'm too busy to dig for companies that has great potential. Looking for someone who has strong interest in stock analysis. Hope to find someone who live, eat, sleep value investing...

Willing to pay for your manhours. please PM me your hourly rate.
i will send questions for you to work on. then will pay you accordingly.

[mrEngineer]

I would be interested in the offers you are getting. Can share the range of the hourly rates offered? haha.
I can imagine d.o.g hourly rate would be $100-200/hr

[Thriftville]

Hey mrEngineer, thanks for your interest! please check your PM

[mrEngineer]

I think my post was misleading. Sorry. I was just interested if you have received any offers. I am too busy myself to do research work as well.

[Thriftville]

Hey buddies,
Apologies for not making things clear. I need to know potential buddies who has spare time to research, so when opportunity comes, I know where to go for assistance.
Please read more info below:

Area of research:
1. Competitive advantage of company.
2. Growth rate
3. Financial of company. Any frauds? or things that may trigger problems in future
4. Industry trend
5. Corporate management style, etc.

Why pay for your manhours?
1. I'm short of time to read so many reports.
2. Most analyst reports are poorly written.
3. We need buddies who have knowledge or interest in that industry to give us more insights
4. Speed up the decision making process, in order to get high quality company at cheap price
5. What's the rush? because usually good deals don't last very long. I nearly puke every day reading reports during the Lehman collapse. Only managed to get a few good deals.
6. Please quote your manhours, so it helps us to manage our research budget.

If you're free to help out, please let me know:
1. Your area of interest. Which industry? or stocks?
2. Hourly rate or by project basis?
3. Your profession. financial / engineering? Helps us assign more relevant task.

[freedom]

I believe the areas of research you desired are quite subjective. How do you measure the success of one's opinion and pay him/her accordingly?

I think it would be easier for you to hire someone to just read annual reports for you and get you information you wants and maybe just a little personal opinion.

---

I would be interested in the offers you are getting. Can share the range of the hourly rates offered? haha.
I can imagine d.o.g hourly rate would be $100-200/hr

I don't think any honorable fund manager would go against its clients' interest.

[BlackCat]

Interesting idea, but I think most people here would be willing to do this on the forum anyway....Why not simply suggest any companies your'e interested in, and...most importantly, *why* they has the potential to be such great opportunities.... If people are interested they'll look further.

I believe the things you want could not be packaged into paid work....too hard to specify, and the info is often unavailable.

[d.o.g.]

I need to know potential buddies who has spare time to research, so when opportunity comes, I know where to go for assistance.

IMHO you should be clear about how much you are prepared to pay, whether per hour or per report. You can always ask for an old report to gauge the quality of the work. Remember that anyone whose work is worth your time to read is likely to charge a steep fee.

The simple reason is that the best research is not sold but used.

The best analysts become fund managers, invest their own money and become rich enough to retire early. Fortunately for their investors, many continue to work, for the love of the game, long after they become financially independent. Obviously, their research is not for sale - the only way to get access to it is to be a client.

Think about it - someone who does good research and uses it to invest his/her personal savings should be able to make a small fortune over time. I know several people who have done so. Producing paid-for research takes time away from the personal investments and slows the compounding of wealth. Therefore the fees charged must reflect this opportunity cost. The better (and wealthier) someone gets, the higher this opportunity cost.

Some ballpark guesses:

Someone new:
- might charge $1-2k per report, but the work may not be any good.

5 years experience:
- probably a decent job, but the higher opportunity cost might mean the work would cost $10k.

10 years:
- probably too busy researching and investing for themselves to bother doing so for others
- it might take $50k to change their mind.

20 years:
- probably happily retired, and not willing to work for any price
- could be willing to share their wisdom for free, on a topic of their choice.

For investment professionals, the fees would probably be even higher since to avoid conflicts of interest such persons could not also be employed in a fund management capacity i.e. they have to live off their consulting fees in lieu of a salary.

As usual, YMMV.

[Thriftville]

Hey d.o.g.

Thank you very much for your time to explain the scenarios! I can see a better picture now...

I find it a challenge to look for bits and pieces of information about a company. Example, like Hyflux's membrane tech, is it as good as it claimed?
Or Why Hyflux is unable to secure projects in Saudi? etc.

So I hope to get people in this industry or know people in this line to get the data. That will help me to evaluate the strength of the company with less time and better accuracy. If I post questions on forum, the answer I get may be too brief for evaluation.

I certainly hope to gain access to the data of those top analyst. Could you advice how to get the good reports? via Bloomberg machine?
My broker sent me a few reports, but most not well-written.

[d.o.g.]

I find it a challenge to look for bits and pieces of information about a company. Example, like Hyflux's membrane tech, is it as good as it claimed?
Or Why Hyflux is unable to secure projects in Saudi? etc.

This kind of knowledge is in the heads of industry experts, either those working within the said firms themselves or as independent consultants. It will co$t you to get this knowledge. At my old firm we used an expert network to find these people. IIRC the average cost of a 1-hour phone call was about $2k.

Could you advice how to get the good reports? via Bloomberg machine?

There are no generically "good" reports, but some analysts are better than others. The better ones usually work at the big-name firms since these firms pay a lot better. But sometimes the local brokers have analysts who put out good reports too.

A Bloomberg terminal is about US$2k per month, it has a lot of features besides the analyst reports. Or you can also use ThomsonReuters - they have a service that costs about $10k a year I think, which collates the reports from participating brokers.