Posts: 8
Threads: 1
Joined: Jul 2014
Reputation:
0
Hi,
I am a beginner.
Is it possible for me to succeed in the long run, in value investing, without paying anything like paid screener systems, paid alert or reports, etc., other than the broker per-trade commission?
If yes, how do I proceed on doing it? E.g. reading graham's book, using free screeners/filters (which ones), free alerts/group sharing if any? etc.
I will appreciate it.
Posts: 8
Threads: 1
Joined: Jul 2014
Reputation:
0
Indeed, you already proved #5. Thanks.
I want to do paper trading first. It makes sense to open e.g. an iOCBC account, even if I wont trade real money yet (OCBC said there is no penalty if I dont trade for a long time) to take advantage of their free tools.
Posts: 1,767
Threads: 14
Joined: Jan 2011
Reputation:
15
25-07-2014, 01:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 25-07-2014, 01:13 PM by corydorus.)
Investment is about Probability. To have an edge, Annual Report is a Must Step for me. Serve me well so far. Of course VB forum gives us different perspectives and education which are important.
Posts: 8
Threads: 1
Joined: Jul 2014
Reputation:
0
Which (e.g. iocbc, poems, etc.) broker has 'good enough' free tools for real trading? And are they only for account holders or free for the public?
Posts: 21
Threads: 1
Joined: Jun 2014
Reputation:
4
You mean trading in the sense of speculation/statistical way of buying stocks,
or you actually mean investing in the sense of value investing?
I think most of the tools available are for account holders only.
Posts: 179
Threads: 3
Joined: May 2014
Reputation:
1
You still need to do your own home work.
ShareInvestor has a lot of tools, but you need to subscribe to it (Singapore and Malaysia markets).
Puntergallery forum is more for punting trading/punting. No tools available.
ValueBuddies has a lot of quality postings.
SGX is free source of information.
Paying a small fee for good tools is good as it save you time and alert you when opportunity come.
Posts: 54
Threads: 0
Joined: Jun 2014
Reputation:
7
27-07-2014, 03:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 27-07-2014, 03:28 PM by Fish Head.)
i would suggest that you start by reading annual report of those companies surrounding you. Like Vicom for your car inspection, Breadtalk if you buy food from them, CapitalMall if you go shopping. To gain an idea of business instead of share prices. Read the discussion on this forum is helpful also.
At one point when you are familiar with a few companies business, and financial figure, and price is not too high (measure by PE, PEG or dividend yield), start with smaller amount, increase the money when you are comfortable.
It may take months or years for the above process depend on people, but don't jump into it after doing it for only weeks. it will be painful to move too fast.
Paper trading for me is meaningless, key successful factor for value investing is mindset, without real money, you would not be able to test your mindset. You need to have the ability to overcome the situation that share price drop 50% for a great business, and newspaper, friends, TV and etc all tell you that tomorrow is the end of capitalism, but you still spend thousands of money to buy more. Then you are successful value investor.
Posts: 8
Threads: 1
Joined: Jul 2014
Reputation:
0
For a beginner, I agree that it is much better to trade for real as compared to paper trading, during the 'learning process'.
We are still in the learning process, so we ideally will trade the smallest lots possible only, e.g. 1 smallest unit possible that can be bought.
1. You will get to use the actual tools that you will use when you decide to increase the volume of your purchases.
2. You can increment the volume of your purchases as your confidence grow.
3. You can use more than 1 broker to observe and choose which broker/s fits your personal trading preferences.
4. You will not get the real 'sweat' as compared to when you are trading big volumes, but you will have a feeling of being 'in' the market as the prices change, as compared to paper trading.
What we wont learn during this small-lot trading activity are:
1. Actual 'sweat' that we will have when we are in the market, with a big volume of stock units, as the price moves significantly against you, and the 'overwhelming excitement' as the price goes in your favor.
2. The actual broker technical turnaround when you are trading big lots. For example, requests actually getting filled, and how fast.