I would start featuring reader emails to me that deserves to be featured so that other readers will benefit from it also. For readers, if you have questions, you can leave a comment in any of the articles or you can directly email me. I will try my best to answer your queries as much as I can. In that way, there would be more interaction between me and my readers.

This would be the first set of emails that I received from 3 of my readers. I am happy that this blog is increasing its reach and readership base. I hope there would be a lot of readers that would benefit more from this blog.

Some questions are edited for brevity.

First question came from JP:

Hello Sir, I just want to ask for some help. Since, I want to start trying mutual funds (cause I am so eager to get rich and while researching on the net, I bumped into your site and since I was so eager to know how to start this mutual fund, I intended to search for your email and here I go.

Well, I already know a bit about mutual funds. I would just like to know, for example if I would like to start a  mutual fund with Sun Life and I don’t have time to go in their office since I am also working, are there any parties or online thing where I can start mutual funds? or do you have any idea (if there are) in the process to start mutual funds. Thanks for your time. And hey, I will now start to read your blog.

Hello JP, thanks for dropping by to my blog. Anyway, there are two types of mutual fund agent- internal and external agent. Internal agents are agents that are from the company itself, in this case, Sun Life. You really need to go to their office to be briefed about the details and to fill up their forms if you want to invest. Alternatively, there are external agents. These are agents from an accredited agency of the mutual fund. I met one before and she can probably meet you in your preferred location. I can give you her contact details.

The second question came from Paolo:

Regarding your stock trading experince. Do you mind sharing what I need to do to start? I want to earn from this. Is it a bad time to invest because of what’s happening in the US? Thanks!

Hi Paolo, thanks for visiting my blog. With regards to your query, it depends on your risk appetite. This time is a very good opportunity to invest in stocks as a lot of stocks are tremendously beaten by what’s happening in the US. This is ideal for those persons who are YOUNG and who have extra funds for investment since they have a lot of years before retirement. They can easily ride the volatility of the stock market. Just be sure that you are willing to wait for at least 2 to 3 years before you can experience a sizeable gain in your investment. You can read on my article as to how stock market works to know more about how it works.

The third and final question came from a reporter from Business World:

Good Day, I am Don, Securities and Exchange Commission reporter of Business World. I am writing a story on the quality of corporate governance here in the Philippines or the level of transparency that local companies exhibit.

I would like to get a perspective of regular investors if they are satisfied with the quality of information shared with them by listed companies through disclosures at the stock market or through their websites.

Here are my questions for your guidance:

-From where do you usually get the information you use to gauge whether a company is worth investing your money?

-Do you monitor the companies you are invested in using their disclosures at the stock exchange? Why or why not?

-What are your criteria for choosing a company to invest in?

-How big a consideration is a company\’s transparency this for you? If a major or minor consideration, please explain why.

-Are you willing to invest in a company that regularly deliver good performance, but has a tendency to be secretive about its dealings?

-Do you think that small investors are ably represented at the board of listed firms?

Thanks again for sparing the time to answer these. Feel free to distribute the questionnaire to others who might be interested in answering them.

Hi Don, first of all, thanks for contacting me. I hope my blog will also be publish in your newspaper. :) Please find below my answers to your questions:

From where do you usually get the information you use to gauge whether a company is worth investing your money? - I use the Philippine Stock Exchange Website. I also use the Report provided to us by my stock broker where I trade online.

Do you monitor the companies you are invested in using their disclosures at the stock exchange? Why or why not? - Yes, definitely I monitor them to take advantage of it. For example, if the company discloses dividends or any major buy-back of shares by the company, that would be an opportunity to sell the stock since there is high chance that it might go up. Any major issues such as the company’s net loss or if the company is involved in a legal case or litigation would probably lower its share price and hence an opportunity to buy. This was seen in the case of BDO and MBT before when they declared their exposures in Lehman which filed bankruptcy. Their stocks were dumped by investors.

What are your criteria for choosing a company to invest in? - The company should have sound value. By sound value, it should be a blue chip stock, with good management and actively traded. I also look for their historical values and their 52-week low and high so I can somehow gauge at what prices should I buy them.

How big a consideration is a company’s transparency this for you? If a major or minor consideration, please explain why. - Transparency is a major consideration of course. Being a public company, they should be open for transparency. We, as investors, have the right to know the company where we are investing.

Are you willing to invest in a company that regularly deliver good performance, but has a tendency to be secretive about its dealings? - No. The company, even though it reguarly delivers good performance should be transparent. It’s the trade off for being a publicly listed company. Besides, if there’s nothing to hide, why would they be secretive then?

Do you think that small investors are ably represented at the board of listed firms? - NO. I think that the rich and wealthy are the only ones capable to have a seat on the board. And because of this, they were the only ones whose opinions were highly regarded by the company. Small investors just ride with their opinions.

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