As I have said many times before, this was originally supposed to be part of an e-book. However, since I anticipate too much effort and time being spent on designing the book and thinking over how best to distribute it, I have decided to shorten the content and publish it over 3 posts instead.

Do look out for the two remaining posts over the next couple of weeks!

Background

My first foray in the stock market happened in November 2010, half a year before my graduation. Using some of my savings, I plonked down $6,200 to purchase 10,000 shares of Kingsmen Creatives. (Interestingly, right now, even after 5 years down the road, I am still holding on to this particular stock.)

Just like almost every other person, I believed that I had the foresight to pick individual stocks and beat the market’s return. Ploughing through listed companies’ annual reports during ...