I agree that we must always do our due diligence. I know a person who is barely out of NS and calls himself an analyst as he specialised in REITs during his schooldays or something. I don\'t even know polytechnics teach such stuff. I was impressed by the knowledge that such a young person knows initially but I got burnt following his calls and, yes, it\'s back to the drawing board. If we want to be an investor, we have to know fundamental and technical analyses. Of course, as we grow older, we accumulate priceless experience. There is simply no substitute.
Actually, I feel the same way about Olam - super high debts, with issuance of CB now and very razor-thin margins. And way too hyped up in terms of business model and growth. There is only so much economics can do for a company and it CANNOT enjoy supernormal growth for an extended period of time. Thus, one must ask if one is willing to pay a premium for so-called \"growth\" which may inadvertently and inevitably slow down as the years go by. I am not saying the Management is lousy (in fact I have a lot of respect for Sunny Verghese) but there is always a limit as to what one should pay for purchase of shares in any company. In this case, the numbers do not add up for me and I will avoid Olam. On the issue of analysts, yes most are young and inexperienced and have NEVER run a real business before. They are, in a way, doing textbook analysis and only the more experienced analysts who have visited the company and been through several years observing the busienss dynamics are qualified to comment. It\'s better if investors can do research on their own - there\'s enough public information out there anyway. Cheers.
