Value Investing Academy - Global

Have you ever looked at an investment return and thought: is that good or bad?

GIC, the fund that manages Singapore's reserves, just reported a 20-year annualised real return of 3.4%. That is the lowest figure in six years. And at first glance, it sounds like something went wrong.

But here is what the headlines do not always explain.

GIC deliberately chose to take on less risk this year. The lower return was not an accident. It was a strategic decision to protect the portfolio during uncertain times. And they measure performance over 20 rolling years, not one quarter or one year.

That is a very different mindset from most retail investors, who often focus on short-term gains.

The investing lesson here is simple: return and risk are always linked. When you reduce risk, you typically accept a lower return. Whether that trade-off makes sense depends on your goals and your time horizon.

Beginners often forget this. They chase the highest return without asking what risk comes with it.

What do you think? Would you rather have a steady, lower return with less risk, or aim higher and accept more volatility? Share your thoughts below.

Follow our page for more beginner-friendly investing education every week.

⚠️ For education only. Not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.

Have you ever bought something just because it was suddenly available somewhere more convenient?

That's exactly the trap some investors fall into when a stock gets listed on a new exchange.

Grab is joining SGX as one of Singapore's first US SDRs. That means you can now buy Grab through a local broker instead of needing a US brokerage account. It's a practical step for Singapore investors.

But here's the investing lesson: easier access does not mean better business. The SDR listing does not change how Grab earns money, whether it is profitable, or what its competitive position looks like.

As a value investor, the first question is always about the business. How does it make money? Is it growing in a sustainable way? What are the risks?

The listing venue is just the door. The business is what you are actually buying.

Have you ever made an investment decision based on convenience rather than fundamentals? Share your experience in the comments.

Follow Value Investing Academy for more plain-language investing education.

⚠️ For education only. Not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.

💰Huat with ViA Atlas!💰

This evening is another fun and rewarding session where our Exclusive Members have learnt some powerful features inside our ViA Atlas which includes an Automatic Intrinsic Value Calculator and CFOS ROI Calculator.

We have also upgraded our case studies profile page where they have real time access to key fundamental information about the company.

Nothing beats ending the class with games and prizes!

Special thanks to our ViA Coaches and in-house staff.

Learn more at www.viaatlas.com.

At ViA, We Care to Make You a Better Investor!

Have you ever seen a company sell off part of its business and immediately thought: something must be wrong?

It is a very common reaction. But in investing, it is not always the right one.

HSBC recently agreed to sell its Singapore insurance unit to Allianz for US$2.09 billion. On the surface, that sounds like HSBC is shrinking. But here is a different way to think about it.

When a company receives billions in cash from a sale, the real question is what they do next. Do they buy back shares? Reinvest in a faster-growing business? Pay down debt? Or do they make a poor acquisition that wastes the proceeds?

That decision, how management allocates capital, is one of the biggest drivers of long-term shareholder value. It is something value investors watch very closely.

The lesson here is simple: do not judge a divestment just by the headline. Judge it by what comes after.

Have you ever changed your view on a company after watching how they handled a big cash payout? Share your thoughts below.

For education only. Not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.

You see a headline: "Oracle wins $7 billion Pentagon contract."

Your first instinct might be to check if the stock moved. That is a very common reaction. But here is what a value investor does instead.

They ask: what does this contract actually mean for the business? Is the revenue spread over 10 years or 2? What are the delivery costs? Can Oracle defend this relationship when the contract comes up for renewal?

Government contracts can be a genuine competitive advantage. They are hard to win, sticky once established, and backed by one of the most reliable payers in the world. But not every big deal translates into strong profits.

The lesson here is simple. A headline number is a starting point, not a conclusion. Understanding the business behind the number is what separates investors from speculators.

Have you ever bought or avoided a stock based on a headline like this? What made you change your mind? Share in the comments.

Follow our page for more plain-language investing breakdowns every week.

⚠️ For education only. Not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.

Have you ever looked at a leveraged ETF and thought: this is just a faster version of a normal ETF, right?

That is one of the most common and costly misconceptions in investing.

South Korea's financial regulator just announced it will stop approving new listings of single-stock leveraged ETFs. These are products designed to deliver two or three times the daily price movement of a single company's stock.

The problem is the word daily. Every day, the product resets. Over time, this daily compounding works against you. You can lose money even if the stock you are tracking ends up exactly where it started. That is not a quirk. It is how these products are mathematically designed.

Regulators in South Korea saw enough retail investors getting hurt that they felt they had to act.

This is a good reminder of a core investing principle: the first question is never "how much can I make?" It is "do I actually understand what I am buying?"

Value investing is built on that idea. Know the business. Know the product. Know the risk.

Have you come across leveraged products before? What was your experience? Share in the comments.

👉 Join our free Value Investing Masterclass to learn how to analyse businesses properly before putting your money in. Link in the comments.

⚠️ For education only. Not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.

Have you ever looked at a company's results and thought everything seems fine, only to see the profit number heading the wrong way?

That is what SIA Engineering's latest quarter shows. The aircraft maintenance business still has airlines sending planes in for servicing. Demand has not collapsed. But net profit came in at S$40.3 million, down 6.1% compared to the same period last year.

The reason? Costs are rising faster than revenue. That squeeze shows up in the margin, which is the portion of revenue a company actually gets to keep as profit.

This is a really common pattern for investors to learn from. A company can look busy and active, with plenty of customers and contracts, but if it cannot control its costs, earnings slowly erode. Over time, that matters a lot more than a single quarter.

For beginners, the habit to build is this: when you read a profit figure, always ask why it moved, not just by how much.

Have you come across a company that looked healthy on the surface but had shrinking margins underneath? Share your experience in the comments.

Follow Value Investing Academy for weekly breakdowns of real business results.

⚠️ For education only. Not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.

🥰 ViA Transforms Lives! 🥰

Last minute, we have inserted in another batch of Value Investing Programme and we were lucky to have another full-house batch.

Special thanks to the team led by Irene Lai & Adallyn, our ViA Coaches came much earlier at 7+am to set up 🆙 and we managed to get things done on time.

It was another fun day of learning Value Investing.

More exciting knowledge will be covered tomorrow!

At ViA, We Care to Make You a Better Investor!