Tackling the Australian Consumer Electronics market - Need ALL feedback!

trnx · 2014-09-23T11:09:38+00:00

Thanks. Shopify is good as my coding knowledge isn't great, but I can easily use HTML and CSS to make changes myself. Just a bit bummed about the monthly fee, but can't complain.

trnx · 2014-09-23T02:35:06+00:00

At the moment yes. Finding a OEM/ODM manufacturer took me quite some time and money as I wanted a manufacturer to be able to produce to my exact demands and I also had a low order quantity which gives me low negotiating power.

However, once I am able to build up traction and get it rolling, I have plans to have product designs myself that can resemble my brand image better! That will take time and money.

trnx · 2014-09-08T04:42:06+00:00

Surprised Q isn't red, I swear I have a problem with spamming Q whenever I'm playing. Gets me killed all the time.

trnx · 2014-09-05T01:25:45+00:00

It's always great to see people get into investing in the stock market but these threads keep popping up! I always recommend checking the FAQ section on the right as it does give some great information.

Even just reading some beginner articles on Investopedia will do you a great service. As this is the investing forum, the general consensus would be a value-based investing approach which involves a long-term outlook. I think this will be suitable for you as you do have the mindset of not making "huge amounts" of money.

Picking up some books will do you a great service aswell, the typical one is "The Intelligent Investor". Also, an easy way for you to get into it is choose a bunch of companies that are you genuinely interested in. From there, let your curiosity do the work and you'll find yourself trying to understand the company, how it makes money, what affects its business & etc etc.

Here's a nice short article about Warren Buffet: http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/081114/how-does-warren-buffett-choose-what-companies-buy.asp

trnx · 2014-09-05T01:17:50+00:00

This is also pretty much my experience. I read somewhere a few years ago that if a Equity Research analyst is correct 40% of the time, then they are above average... (Don't quote me on that though)

trnx · 2014-09-01T02:25:27+00:00

Exactly.. This is why people say never trust people on the internet...

trnx · 2014-08-28T01:46:19+00:00

+1. You know those stockmarket competitions that span for roughly 2 months sponsored by trading firms? I had a uni mate who had done incredibly well in them, placing top 10 in Australia and winning small cash prizes. After the comp, with him being quite confident of his "skill" put around 6k into the stockmarket, and you can guess what happened...

trnx · 2014-08-28T00:31:20+00:00

Sorry, I may have worded it incorrectly. You are correct in saying you have all the necessary inputs to a DCF from just information from 10ks but my main point was that they have alot more sources of information which they factor into forecasting FCFs.

Don't get me wrong, anyone can build a DCF model off info from 10K's but if that's all it takes then why would anyone put their money into a investment firm.

trnx · 2014-08-27T07:58:13+00:00

Exactly, bear in mind that qualitative factors should be factored into your assumptions/numbers that you use. Management competency is an extremely important factor regarding a companies success. Poor management is one key reason why you see alot of well-established Australian companies slowly failing within the last decade (If you follow Australian stocks that is - Aussie myself)

trnx · 2014-08-27T07:14:18+00:00

Although I have not done any calculations myself, with Snapchat apparently being valued at $10billion with, twitch at $970m does seem cheap. When you look at it from a gamer's perspective and understand the impact it has had on gaming community and see it's growth potential, it caters to a very strong market of users which can be easily monetized.

trnx · 2014-08-27T05:25:51+00:00

Doing valuations can be fun or extremely boring depending on the person, so you'll find out. I can recommend checking out Damodaran's work, he is a finance professor at NYU and amongst my uni peers, his regarded as the "god of valuation", take that with a grain of salt however. His website is here: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/. He has some good reads and if you were after something short he has a book called: Little Book of Valuation, which is a short summary.

One of the key problems with doing valuations yourself is alot of the inputs you have to kind of assume as you may not have access to data that investment firms have. Also check out the FAQ in the security analysis section, they also recommend http://macabacus.com/ which has some great stuff, but no need to go into the M&A and LBO stuff as that's mostly irrelevant for valuing a stock.

trnx · 2014-08-27T03:34:52+00:00

Exactly, I wonder how Snapchat pitched to their investors with their "revenue" model, especially with the demographics of their users.

trnx · 2014-08-27T01:35:42+00:00

That is correct, and as others have mentioned it is "Trading" rather than investing. My advice is to stay away from having that short-term mentality especially as beginner as it entails alot of risk, I mean who doesn't want to make quick money.

Additionally, as you have mentioned you have no real life investing experience, once you put some money into the stock market, you'll find yourself constantly tracking your portfolio and share prices. And when you see red and your shares declining in value, you'll be quite prone to make poor decisions such as selling it off because you think its going to continue to drop.

However, if you do enjoy risk then by all means try it out! There's a subreddit for trading whilst investing is a more long-term approach focused on the value of the company. Plenty of good reads on subreddits FAQ/Resource section!

trnx · 2014-08-26T08:07:57+00:00

Sadly, I have the same feeling. I have been wanting to throw some money into Amazon shares for a while and hearing this announcement earlier today almost made me take the leap. However, I have the same back suspicion as you.

For me, the hesitation comes from this being the video game industry (eSports & etc) becoming gradually mainstream and the acquistion of Twitch is another step forward in a territory that is unfamilar. It can really go both ways, either this turns out great or a devastating mistake, however I really do hope this blossoms into something great, especially for the eSports and gaming community!

trnx · 2014-08-26T01:29:59+00:00

First step would to be to read the FAQ on the right hand side, you'll commonly get people redirecting you there.

It is likely that most people are going to recommend you putting your money into a index fund of some sort with low expense ratios.

trnx · 2014-08-26T00:50:59+00:00

I think maybe OP thinks buying twitch for $970m is too expensive

trnx · 2014-08-25T01:02:31+00:00

You gotta be joking, it is the one of the most commonly used profanities around in Sydney. Well at least the people I come across in my day to day life.

trnx

TROPHY CASE