12 Critical Elements in Building Succesful Investment Sytem (by Mark Tier)

I just finished reading "The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffet & George Soros" by Mark Tier.
(This book is highly recommended for those who are serious want to succeed in investing).

Mark Tier analyze the methods of Warren Buffet and George Soros and see why they are so succesful - both of them use different approaches and their methods are very different, yet Tier show, the keys to their success are amazingly similar.

The author mentioned that each Master Investor's system is built from the same 12 CRITICAL ELEMENTS:

(1) What to buy

(2) When to buy

(3) What price to pay

(4) How to buy

(5) How much to buy as a percentage of portfolio

(6) Monitoring progress of investments

(7) When to sell

(8) Portfolio structure & leverage

(9) Search strategy

(10) Protection against systemic shocks such as market crashes

(11) Handling mistakes

(12) What to do when the system doesn't work


We have to list down our 12 Critical Elements in investing, follow thoroughly the system.

I am listing down my 12 Critical Elements to build a better system for my Investment!

Will i trade for a catalyst play? Why?

If i remember correctly, i made about $5k from trading of Matex International and $17k from SBI Offshore from catalyst play in 2014.

I hold Matex for 3 days only (contra) and SBI Offshore for a couple of weeks. Am i happy now to be able to guess correctly from this trading and make more than $20k in less than a month?

My answer is "No".


Since i started my blog middle of last year, i have promised myself that i will not be doing trading for catalyst play anymore. I want to focus on long term investing, invest in a company that i am comfortable with, based on my findings. If i continue doing trading for catalyst play, i am very sure i will get burned one day in the future. When? I do not know.

When i continue to profit from this kind of trading, i will get addicted and in my subsequent round of trading, i am very sure i will bet higher and higher amount of money comparing to my previous trading. This is bad for a long term investor, and i should keep this kind of mindset far away from me.

Personally i think, the key in successful investing is to find a right strategy that meets our personality & philosophy, and to stick to that strategy (be consistent).


This is solely my personal view for my own personality. I just need to keep reminding myself.

Investment Books

Below are the list of Investment Books i have read/reading:

(1) One Up on Wall Street --by Peter Lynch
(2) The Zulu Principle --by Jim Slater
(3) Intelligent Investor --by Benjamin Graham
(4) Common Stocks & Uncommon Profits --by Philip Fisher
(5) The Essay of Warren Buffet --by Lawrence A. Cunningham
(6) Behind the Berkshire Hathaway Curtain --by Ronald Chan
(7) Value Investing in Growth Company --by Rusmin & Victor Chng
(8) Investlah --by Serjing, Sudhan, Wei Lin
(9) Buffet's Bite -The Essential Investor's Guide to Warren Buffet's Shareholder Letters --by L.J. Rittenhouse
(10) Your First Million - making it from stock --by Dr Michael Leong
(11) The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing --by Jason Kelly
(12) The Value Investor --by Ronald Chan
(13) Fooled by Randomness --by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (not completed yet)
(14) Security Analysis --by Benjamin Graham (not completed yet)
(15) The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffet & George Soros --by Mark Tier (still reading)


It is a short list, i am doing my best to read at least 1 book in 2 months time, so 6 books in a year.

My Portfolio Update as of 12th February 2017

I added some shares of 800 Super last month. 

Below are my latest Portfolio update as per 12th February 2017:

(1) Sunningdale Tech: bought @$1.02/share
(2) Best World: bought @71cts/share (ex-cludes Bonus Share of 4 to 1)
(3) Global Invacom: bought @12cts/share
(4) Avi-Tech: bought @28.85cts/share
(5) 800 Super: bought @84cts/share
(6) Innotek: bought @24.4cts/share
(7) Tai Sin Electric: bought @38cts/share

Actually i feel a little uncomfortable with Global Invacom with their performances so far (not the share price, but the business performance from their reports).

I will wait for their Q12017 in May 2017, then will decide from there if i will divest all my shares in this company. 

The best company to invest in and yet the most challenging task for an Investor is?

Personally, i am doing my best to look for a company that i can hold or i wish to hold in a time frame of indefinitely, meaning hold the company for as long as i can. Why?


This kind of company offers:

(1) A good economic moat,

(2) A discounted price to value (my buying price to the real value of the business),

(3) Business run by reliable and good management who care for the business more than the shareholders,

(4) A good business which most of long term investors are interested to own the shares and keeping them for longer term,

(5) Shares of this kind company which are not usually loved by traders/punters, thus the price of the share will be less volatile.


This is a very challenging task in investing. It is not easy at all, but it is the best type of company to invest in.