Benjamin Graham, the father of “Value Investing”, has made a profound impact on my view of investing. 10 years ago, when I started the financial advisory business, I was only focused on one thing; to help my client make MONEY in the SHORTEST possible time. In essence, I was a TRADER, rather than an INVESTOR. I told people that I am an investor, but in actual fact, I was speculating the financial markets in the effort to make quick gains for my clients.
After the 2008 financial crisis and being a decade in the financial industry, I am convinced that there is only one true way of investing, that is VALUE investing. Essentially, value investing does not take into account the unpredictable future of financial markets. Rather it invests in the intrinsic value of the business and determines whether it is overpriced or underpriced in the markets.
Value investing does not just apply to buying businesses and stocks, even though it started from securities and equities valuation. I personally use it for valuing mutual funds. For mutual funds/unit trusts, I will go to online websites, eg. Dollardex or Fundsupermart in Singapore, do a comparison of all the funds in a particular sector or region, focusing on a few fundamental factors.
Sharpe Ratio: This is the amount of return (alpha) the investor will receive when it undertakes a unit of risk, i.e. return/risk reward ratio. The higher the Sharpe Ratio, the greater the potential of the fund generating decent returns while being resilient to market downturns.
Price/Earnings (P/E) Ratio: If the price over earnings is high, it means that the fund is oversubscribed. The ability of the fund to increase further in price will be diminished. To find out the price of the fund is very easy. However to determine the earnings of the fund/sector/region will be more difficult. You can go to Bloomberg to find out the information, or take the overall earnings of the companies that are in the fund. Usually, funds only disclose the top ten holdings of the fund. So the earnings calculated will only be a rough estimate. But nonetheless, P/E ratio is still a good gauge of whether a particular fund is cheap to invest in.
Consistency of returns: Understanding and successfully applying the power of compounding will help our portfolios grow at exponential rates. Thus consistency of returns becomes a crucial part in determining whether a fund is attractive to invest. I would rather accept a consistent lower rate of return than a return that is high but volatile. Over the long term, portfolios which do the best are those with a CONSISTENT decent rate of return.
This factor also determines the superior skills set of the fund manager who is overseeing the portfolio. A skillful fund manager will select quality investments for his fund which can withstand market downturns and yet achieve consistent returns. He will also need to foresee shorter term fluctuations and adjust the portfolio accordingly, even though it is not the main factor why his portfolio is generating consistent returns. His main skill set is quality investment selection over the long term.
Thus for investor who do not have much time and resources to learn and access quality investments, hiring a trusted professional money manager will be of value to his portfolio. It will be best to engage a fund manager by referral from a friend who you can trust. If you understand the principles of value investing, you can screen any potential fund managers and select competent ones. And you can also better work alongside with the fund manager to create an optimal portfolio.
The Value of Value Investing
Benjamin Graham, the father of “Value Investing”, has made a profound impact on my view of investing. 10 years ago, when I started the financial advisory business, I was only focused on one thing; to help my client make MONEY in the SHORTEST possible time. In essence, I was a TRADER, rather than an INVESTOR. I told people that I am an investor, but in actual fact, I was speculating the financial markets in the effort to make quick gains for my clients.
After the 2008 financial crisis and being a decade in the financial industry, I am convinced that there is only one true way of investing, that is VALUE investing. Essentially, value investing does not take into account the unpredictable future of financial markets. Rather it invests in the intrinsic value of the business and determines whether it is overpriced or underpriced in the markets.
Value investing does not just apply to buying businesses and stocks, even though it started from securities and equities valuation. I personally use it for valuing mutual funds. For mutual funds/unit trusts, I will go to online websites, eg. Dollardex or Fundsupermart in Singapore, do a comparison of all the funds in a particular sector or region, focusing on a few fundamental factors.
This factor also determines the superior skills set of the fund manager who is overseeing the portfolio. A skillful fund manager will select quality investments for his fund which can withstand market downturns and yet achieve consistent returns. He will also need to foresee shorter term fluctuations and adjust the portfolio accordingly, even though it is not the main factor why his portfolio is generating consistent returns. His main skill set is quality investment selection over the long term.
Thus for investor who do not have much time and resources to learn and access quality investments, hiring a trusted professional money manager will be of value to his portfolio. It will be best to engage a fund manager by referral from a friend who you can trust. If you understand the principles of value investing, you can screen any potential fund managers and select competent ones. And you can also better work alongside with the fund manager to create an optimal portfolio.
Aaron G. Tay, Certified Financial Planner
Aaron Graham Tay
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