Large-cap Portfolio: Do the Right Thing at the Right Moment
Jan 23, 2001 - 13:01:12 HKT
QuamResearch
Some viewers may notice that we badmouthed the Year of the Snake a few weeks before the entrance of the new lunar calendar year. It might be unfair to the Snake family if we only talk about the negative side of their tribe without mentioning their merits, too.
In Chinese, when we say somebody is a snake, we mean that he/she is a lazy-bone because snakes hibernate in winter, giving us the impression that snakes love sleeping and therefore hate hardworking. That is probably inflammatory to the snakes. Most snakes do their best to earn a living during spring, summer and especially autumn in preparation for the cold winter. In other words, they are true believers and practitioners of the old adages "make hay while the sun shines" and "do the right thing at the right moment."
The wisdom of the snakes can apply to the stock market. As we said before, it is normally better to buy shares when everyone is disinterested in investing, and, even if you don't want to sell, you are reminded not to buy shares when everyone say that the stock is good. You have to be extremely doubtful about every word that a listed company chairman says if he tells you that a stock can grow by 100 times in five minutes. By the way, do you remember who said that the price of Legend (992) should not be valued based on its PE ratios but its price to revenue and Legend's share price should be over $300 (before four-for-one split, i.e. around $80 now) at the beginning of last year? Answer at the end of the article.
Tomorrow will begin the Year of the Snake. We wish you all good health and a prosperous Chinese New Year. We also hope every investor has learnt the snake's wisdom of having a foresight to prepare for wintertime.
The US Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan says that his main task is to take precaution for the unpredictable. We hope we could do the same job by giving to good advice before anything unpredictable happens. Personally, I am in the clouds concerning where the market is heading for. My best advice for the time being is to pretend to be a hibernating snake for a while before the clouds clear.
Answer: Richard Li, chairman of PCCW (8), speaking at a press conference with Legend.
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