Techcomp

Hi soyabean, My comfort level comes from the fact that I have been following this Company for the past 2 years and met up with the Chairman, COO and CFO 4x in these years. So far, their strategy has been consistent and they are still single-focus on the manufacturing division which they wanted to produce a Asian-brand laboratory equipment which can match the quality and precision of the Western. I was a bit upset with them over the forex losses issue in 2008 and emailed the Chairman and CFO several times. They were upfront that they made a genuine mistake in that they never encountered such volatility in the US-Yen exchange and did not handle the matter well, resulting in the forex losses. They did not try to hide or push the responsibility to others. They have also shared with me the ways that they are now taking to reduce exposure to currency risks. It is through these interaction with the management that I built up trust in this Company. So my own estimates of USD 10m in 2010 could be conservative if they could handle the forex as well as rise in labour costs, raw materials well. Any good ideas that you are looking at? Thanks.

Hi MacGyver, Glad to hear that. Well I can certainly see why you would be confident in this company, probably very much the same confidence I had when the share price was languishing at much lower levels back then. Like you, I was also very impressed with their ability to acknowledge their mistake and I felt this was the quality of management I was looking for. Not that I\'m no longer optimistic now, its just that I feel I\'m not as comfortable as I used to be. I also can\'t deny there is a slight tinge of regret for taking my profits perhaps a bit too early, though this is the 2nd time I\'m taking my profits off for this counter and I must say both occasions gave me generous returns. In fact I have a nagging feeling that the price will keep creeping upwards throughout these 2 months even as the crowd tries to stay out of the market. But oh well, can\'t take them all. I have a different set of rules towards investing and I acknowledge times like these my rules are not the best to use, but I still like to stick to what I am most comfortable doing. I hope I had good ideas to share as well, but unfortunately at this point nothing seem to particularly attract me. Currently I only have holdings in Starhub and Starhill. I believe these 2 counters are defensive enough and offer me good yield and beta, whether market goes up and down later on. Not necessarily saying they are good buys at current prices, just saying I am comfortable keeping these 2 for my exposure. I constantly try to run by my own emotions as a \"third person\" to see if I am affected by market gyrations and sentiments, so as to avoid following the herd. But this is constantly difficult also, my above thoughts may very well be a group think as well. Do keep your excellent posts coming.

Hi May I ask, wat is your target price for TechComp for short term and long term?

Hi soyabean, Can you share your rules on trading... I also wonder when its a good time to take profits, I will take profit if my profits drop by 15% after it hits my target. But I have problems identifying targets.. usually its by research reports or gut feelings.

I somehow have a frequent problem logging on and making any postings. Sometimes I just get \"booted out\" no matter how many times I click on the login button and trying to make a post after that, even though my status shows \"online\". Does anyone else have a similar problem? Basically I think giving a personal TP for any counter is overrated. It very depends on what your justification for getting into it is, and this differs greatly from person to person, as cliche as it sounds. Naturally it also affects the volatility that one is willing to stomach. Admittedly I am not good at determining exit prices as well. My personal set of rules just lets me take comfort whether to hold or not to hold, and I seriously doubt anyone can consistently expect the correct price movement even for a counter he/she is specialising in. I would say some observation is necessary always, sentiments do and will change over time, and this is a greater precursor of price movements to me than fundamental changes (which often is not easy to obtain in quicktime for us) or technical changes (which is reactive). Hence its more of a gut feel than any fixed formula. In any case, TPs based on a fixed valuation criteria or charting often gets discounted or over-run anyway, so its not an exact science.

Tx \'soyabean\' for your posting. Could you send me an email (admin@nextinsight.net) on the steps you went thru after logging in and what the result was? I will see if the problem can be resolved. Thank you.