Archive

Jared Seah

Youth -Your strength is you don’t know what cannot be done!

January 10, 2012 by Jared Seah
Whenever we have a new colleague, especially one fresh from school (even better if he/she never studied supply chain like me!), I would ask them for their feedback (after their probation) on their first impression of our company, our department, our retailers, our suppliers, etc. You’ll be surprised how many ideas I’ve “borrowed with pride” [...]
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My Experience Living in Athens As The Greek Tragedy Unfolded

December 26, 2011 by Jared Seah
Last week, NextInsight -  a hub for serious investors, invited me to write an article about my experience in Athens. Having a first person perspective here as the Greek tragedy unfolded… Guess what? I wrote from the heart and it was published yesterday on Christmas day! You should see me jumping around with glee! Laugh all you [...]
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What ABSD property curb? It’s to curb hot money inflows and limit the rise of SGD!?

December 14, 2011 by Jared Seah
The recent “surprise” Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty announcement to me is more a measure to limit the hot money inflows when Europe and US start their own “money printing” – a rose by any other name is still a rose! There is still a lot of liquidity out there. And when investors are spooked, they [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Listen to the walk; not the talk

December 14, 2011 by Jared Seah
Do read the below conversations between a newbie and 2 “seasoned” investors with a light-hearted touch: Newbie to Investor A “Is this stock a good buy?” “Sure! This stock’s P/E ratio is at all time low of 9 times; the forecasted growth next year is 20%; it’s selling at 30% discount to its book value; [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Why is the sky blue? (Mommy, why you so smart?)

December 7, 2011 by Jared Seah
Polly and Esther were 2 precocious 7 years old that were studying at the same primary school. They were the best of friends! Every day after school, their stay at home moms will pick them up and walk them home from school. Since they all are staying in the same neighbourhood, the 4 of them [...]
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To Serve Man

December 5, 2011 by Jared Seah
The world waited with abated breath as the alien spacecraft touched down outside the lawn of the American Whitehouse. Out came a tall and slim humanoid figure similar to what the sci-fi movies have portrayed as “aliens”. It’s about 7 feet tall, with elongated fingers and slender arms and legs. Its movement was almost “elf” [...]
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I was so wrong on Hyflux preference shares!

December 1, 2011 by Jared Seah
Can anyone still remember the hoo-ha surrounding Hyflux’s perpetual preference shares issue back in April? I wrote a tongue-in-cheek satire on it:   Can you lend me some money? With the benefit of 7 months’ hindsight, boy! Was I dead wrong or what?  I was skeptical on this Hyflux preference shares as I was wrongly comparing [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Sea turtles and minority retail investors

November 30, 2011 by Jared Seah
The life of a sea turtle is hard.  Even before it’s hatched, most of the hundred of eggs that were laid will be eaten by opportunistic seagulls…  After it’s hatched, the young sea turtle hatchlings instinctively do a reverse Normandy invasion – make a mad rush to the waters!  Along the way, many more will [...]
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Minority shareholders – what about your duties and obligations?

November 27, 2011 by Jared Seah
I can’t help be amazed at the way some retail “investors” sometimes mistake owning a few shares of a listed company as if there really “own” the business.  All this talk about aligning the management’s compensation with shareholders interests… How the laws and regulations can be better improved to “protect” minority shareholders, etc… I guess [...]
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Good and Bad Debts – My practical application

November 25, 2011 by Jared Seah
Do scroll down and look at my previous post Good debts versus Bad debts - especially the comments page if you have not read it previously. You would get the context and perspective for this post. We can basically group the opinions into 3 main schools of though: 1) It depends  2) Debt is bad 3) [...]
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Good debts versus Bad debts

November 23, 2011 by Jared Seah
No, I am not going into an academic discourse on what’s good or bad debts.  All of us would have our own bias and subjective opinion on this interesting topic based on our own life experiences or “what other people say”… But if you would indulge in me for a few minutes, by answering 2 [...]
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Listen to your Heart

November 21, 2011 by Jared Seah
Several weeks ago, a beautiful event took place – the King of Bhutan wed his young and beautiful queen, and they even visited Singapore on a private visit! It brought to focus Bhutan’s use of a Happiness index instead of the more commonly used Gross Domestic Product (GDP) index. Of course each index serves its [...]
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Sparrows, spiders, and unintended consequences…

November 18, 2011 by Jared Seah
During China’s Great Leap Forward campaign from 1958 to 1962, there was this campaign to rid China of 4 main pests:  1)      Rats 2)      Flies 3)      Mosquitoes 4)      Sparrows Unfortunately, the Chinese leadership realized too late that sparrows not only eat grains (that’s why they were on the list), they also eat insects too!  Without [...]
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There’s no bad weather; just bad clothes

November 16, 2011 by Jared Seah
My Scandinavian colleagues like to quote this saying:  There’s no bad weather; just bad clothes  It’s not clear whether its the Norwegians or Swedish who first coined this saying… Both countries claim credit to it. Just like Malaysians and Singaporeans debate whether Laksa is a Malaysian or Singaporean dish! LOL!  Just for a bit of trivial for those who are [...]

in Categories: Investing

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What if tomorrow never comes?

November 11, 2011 by Jared Seah
“Borrow with pride” from Swakoo’s posting I would like to share another “borrow with pride” moment!  We were having a great discussion at the below investors’ forum and I was totally inspired!  http://www.valuebuddies.com/thread-1566-page-4.html  Another forum member Orang asked a very thought provoking question: “Then what?”  We tend to think in linear terms. And we extrapolate [...]
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Which kind of shepherds do you prefer?

November 9, 2011 by Jared Seah
In my previous post on My England not Powderful, I briefly alluded to the below 3 kinds of shepherds: Wolves in sheepskins Fellow sheep shepherds Human shepherds Wolves in sheepskins– now that’s simple enough! These are crooks out to eat us alive. The trick is to identify them – despite their camouflage.  My method would [...]
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Counterparty risk – it’s more common than you think!

November 7, 2011 by Jared Seah
The recent collapse of MF Global has brought up lots of discussion on counterpart risk.  Some commentators were espousing why certain over-the-counter (OTC) products or derivatives were not suitable for retail investors…  2 legs bad; 4 legs good! Just like in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, it’s too simplistic to make blanket statements… I would like [...]
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What’s your learning style?

November 1, 2011 by Jared Seah
I have the good fortune of attending “free” trainings from my company from time to time.  And one of the best training I did was this learning style training: Kolb Learning Styles. It has helped me understand myself better, and during the journey of self-discovery, I’ve found out that I don’t know I actually knew [...]
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