Tony Watson is an investment professional with more than 20 years of experience in Asia (ex-Japan) credit markets.  He joined Far East Investment Limited in 2016 where he is currently a Portfolio Manager and Responsible Officer.  He was regularly ranked by Asiamoney, FinanceAsia and The Asset as one of Asia (ex-Japan)’s top 10 publishing credit analysts between 2001 and 2007.  Tony joined the Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts in 1996 and became Vice President in 2017 and President in 2018. He was HKSFA’s Acting Managing Director from March to September 2015.  He was named CFA Institute’s 2015 Volunteer of the Year and awarded its 25-year Continuing Education Milestone in 2017. He became a CFA charter holder in 2000. He graduated with an MBA degree from Western Business School at the University of Western Ontario with an MBA in 1995 and BBA from St. Francis Xavier University in 1988. In this episode, Tony shared his story investing in a medium sized trust company that was priced at $10 per share and how it devastatingly dropped down to zero. Learn why it is important to know the risk involved in trust investments, why it is important to understand what happens to trust companies in times of credit stress.   “If the markets are telling you something, listen, don't find good reasons to continue in your path.” – Tony Watson What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 01:39 – Andrew gives a summary of Tony’s educational and professional experience 03:24 – Tony narrates how his investment in a trust company ended up as a big loss 06:58 – Sharing how this experience essentially helped him in his career as a credit analyst 09:14 – Andrew tells what he learned with banks and financing specifically in Asia 13:00 – Tony gives one actionable advice to avoid the same situation he did 13:26 – Andrew summarizes the six important and common mistakes in his podcasts 14:23 – Parting words from Tony: “Listen to what the market's telling you.” Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “A trust company is not a bank. A small trust company is not too big to fail.”– Tony Watson Lesson 2: “My big takeaway there is only the biggest banks are too big to fail, and only banks get bailed out.”– Tony Watson Lesson 3: “(The mistakes I did) Number one, do your research. Number two, things go the wrong way and continue...

Paul Sheehan has more than 25 years of experience in financial institutions, starting as a central banker at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  Subsequently, he was a Managing Director and Head of Financial Institutions for Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and ING Barings, and founder and CEO of Thaddeus Capital, an institutional fund manager.  He continues to advise governments, sovereign wealth funds, and multilateral institutions. Paul is a US citizen and was educated at the State University of New York, Yale and Harvard. He is currently the CEO of Melmotte Brothers, which is based in Hong Kong and covering emerging markets in Asia, Europe, and Africa. In this episode, Paul shares his worst investment ever story that was related to the sell-off of Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) in 2008, a transaction that almost caused him to lose his firm plus $37 million worth of shares in 15 minutes.  Learn why it is essential always to watch the market and to remember that a deal is never done until it is done.   “That concept of certainty is what leads you into trouble.” – Paul Sheehan What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 01:15 – Paul's professional background  03:03 – Paul narrates the series of events behind investing in an Indonesian bank 17:27 – He recounted why things didn’t go as planned and how it almost caused a massive amount of loss and considered his worst investment experience 25:21 – Sharing the valuable lessons he learned and the advice to avoid falling into the same situation 27:37 – Andrew shares a brief story when he sold his motorcycle and got the payment check only to bring it back to the bank because the payment was stopped 29:30 – Paul ends the episode with this advice: “Always talk about your losers because you don't learn anything from winning.” Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “Do not get complacent. Nothing is ever done until it's done.”– Paul Sheehan Lesson 2: “To say markets are discontinuous and the idea that if something goes wrong, you can get out, does not always apply even if I paid attention.”– Paul Sheehan Lesson 3: “Always watch the market.  If the market sells off 25% in 20 minutes, someone knows something more than you do, you should consider getting out no matter what.”– Paul Sheehan Lesson 4: “Never bet the...

Franki Chung is a CFA charter holder and has a massive 24 years of experience in equity/fixed income analysis and portfolio management in Asia Pacific ex-Japan.  He was the Chief Investment Officer of MEAG HK, the asset management arm of Munich Reinsurance. Based in Hong Kong, he and his team cover Asian equities and fixed income portfolios for Munich Reinsurance. Before joining MEAG in 2010, he was the deputy head of Asia Equities in Baring Asset Management and responsible for country allocation, stock selection and managing equity portfolios in the Asia Pacific.  He currently heads Prosper Global Asset Management, an investment company, as its Chief Investment Officer. Get to know Franki as he shares his worst investment story as a fund manager studying a recycling company portfolio. Learn the operational frauds that he discovered as he was studying this company. Know why it is important for a traditional active management manager to visit the company, know the stakeholder's values and build trust around the business model before considering adding the business to the portfolio.    “At the end of the day, the complete avoidance is almost impossible. If they want to hide from you, they can always hide.” – Franki Chung   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 01:09 – A brief introduction of the guest and how they crossed paths with Andrew years ago 03:05 – Franki narrates on how he, as a Fund Manager in CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) studied a recycling company and the unusual and odd operational transactions he discovered in it 09:03 – Unveiling the lessons he learned from this experience 10:10 – Andrew sums up his takeaways 15:17 – Franki's advise as a passive investor   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “At the end of the day, the complete avoidance is almost impossible that if they want to hide from you, they can always hide. So, the only thing is that through diversification to put all the extras. Understand the management, but you can do as much as you can.”– Franki Chung Lesson 2: “(As passive investors), we just actively studied the company, but in the end, we do not have the operational control or did intervene. We have to be active to some part, but like any one of us, we have to know our limit, how active we can.”– Franki Chung Lesson 3: “Fraud does come as a surprise at times.  And so, there's nothing you can do sometimes if someone's a very good, sneaky, tricky person.”– Andrew Stotz You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst...

Awais Abdul Sattar is an Investment Professional with 5+ years of experience in the field of Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management. He started his career as a buy-side research analyst.  He is currently Head of Research at MCB Arif Habib Investments, one of the top-rated asset management companies in Pakistan which are managing $700 million assets.  He favors a bottom-up approach in the analysis of stocks while factoring it overall asset allocation via a top-down approach. Awais believes abnormal returns can be generated by looking for stocks which are off the radar or not under active coverage. In this episode, Awais shares his story of loss when he ventured in the commodity sector specifically the textile industry. Listen to his story as he shared his rollercoaster experience of the commodity cycle, its peaks, and its trusts. Learn why it is important to find out at which part of the cycle you are in. And why you should be very cautious about the future outlook of the investment.   “Do take the risk, but do your complete due diligence and try to have a complete understanding of the business and sector you're investing in.” – Awais Abdul Sattar   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 01:56 – Awais tells about investing 15% of his portfolio in a textile company and the exceptional gains he received from it initially 06:00 – He shares the shocking and unexpected results of his investment after 3 months 07:15 – His realizations on this investment loss 09:41 – Narrating the three important lessons he learned from his experience 12:43 – Andrew provides a brief background of the guest 14:16 – Andrew sums up his takeaways and relating those in his books and research 17:12 – A very notable advice from Awais – “Do take the risk, but do your complete due diligence and try to have a complete understanding of the business and sector you're investing in”.   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “Commodities have their cycles. They have peaks, they have trusts and they are very easy to replicate. Anyone can imitate them. And investors should first try to find out at which part of the cycle the commodity is. If you are at the peak of the cycle, then perhaps you should be very much cautious about the future outlook.”– Awais Abdul Sattar Lesson 2: “If the margins are far higher than the historical level, generally it implies that it's a peak because margins have a tendency to revert back to the main level.”– Awais Abdul Sattar Lesson 3: “Never ever invest at the peak of a commodity business. And if you ever invested, do find it out. Do know about the emerging trends that are going in the industry. Don't ignore the developing trends in the industry in which you're investing in.”– Awais Abdul Sattar Lesson 4: “When I was analyzing the company, I ignored the degree of operating and fixed leverage. Companies with high degree of operating and fixed leverage tend to have very high sensitivity to earnings because they’ve got higher fixed cost...

Mr. M. Zia Islam is the Coordinator, External Relations, School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology Thailand. AIT School of Management is ranked among top 250 B-Schools in the World under QS World Rankings by Subjects 2018 under "Business & Management." He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computing & Information Systems from London Metropolitan University. In his free time, he enjoys reading books with a cup of hot latte.  He lives with his wife in Bangkok for eight years now. In today’s episode, Zia shares his social trading story, his loss and the lessons he learned from the experience. Know why it is important not to let emotions cloud your investment decision to avoid making irrational investment choices.   “The lessons I got are - you cannot be an emotional eater and go to the masters.  Learn something from the technical expert, then make decisions more logical and most practical.” – M. Zia Islam     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 02:25 – Zia narrates how he was introduced to social trading and how it ended as his worst investment story 07:01 – The two things he learned from his social trading experience  08:05 – Andrew shares his golden nuggets of wisdom in investing 11:07 – Zia’s final advice: “Go and find the masters.  Start to find a technical expert who can teach you first. Learn first before you go for action. That's why people lose money. But when you learn things, and then you lose, it makes sense.  Just don't go for any emotional investment and follow others without going the things what you're doing.”   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “The investors worst enemy is not the stock market but the emotions.”– M. Zia Islam Lesson 2: “It's the human nature to be emotional. You said human nature to be, but if it's an investment return, it cannot be an emotional investment.”– M. Zia Islam Lesson 3: “The first thing I always tell people is don't invest with people who call you.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “Every single trading strategy you ever do in your whole life is yours. You may be following somebody, but ultimately, it’s yours and your responsibility to put in the risk management systems and all of those things. You can't just follow because the problem about following is everybody will invite you in, very rarely will they tell you when to exit.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 5: “There are many people who are the beginner outside, their tracking biased and they think maybe it will bring huge income.  But you have to be more practical. Do your homework before you fell for it.”– M. Zia Islam Lesson 6: “I would generally tell people to stay away from online trading platforms, particularly related to commodities and currencies.  One of the reasons is because in currencies, first of all, it's the most massive liquid market in the world and that means that the players that are in it are the biggest in the world and that's who you're trading against.”–...

Peter Emblin has diverse experience in global financial markets and corporate finance having worked in Australia, the United Kingdom, and various South East Asian countries.  His career experiences cover analysis, primary research, investment management, mergers and acquisitions from both the buy and sell sides.  He was a resident in Thailand since 1992 when he came there to help establish a newly authorized fund management company.  He is a Fellow of the Finance and Securities Institute of Australia, Chartered Director of the Thai Institute of Directors and a Director of the Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce, Seamico Securities and Delight Plus. Listen to Peter as he tells us how his initial $2,000 investments made a $40,000 profit and later ended up an awful loss.  Learn all the lessons, follow his advice and prevent the same mistakes he did. Hear this story in another episode of painful loss and sweet success.   “Trade around if it's close stock and you believe in it, and your research told you nothing has fundamentally changed. Rely on it. Standby it.” – Peter Emblin   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 01:01 – A brief background of our guest and the reason why he stayed in Thailand for over 25 years already 02:18 – Peter recalls investing in a publicly listed telecom company in the Philippines and how it turned out to be his worst investment experience 04:56 – Sharing the lessons he learned 05:54 – Andrew summarizes his takeaways 08:11 – Peter adds a piece of brief but actionable advice: “Do your research.”   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “Market prices move differently to the fundamentals of companies. And if you'll look an investment for long term reason, check your research, check what's happening.”– Peter Emblin Lesson 2: “Don't let the market moves get caught up because markets move for other reasons, the liquidity of sellers, which has nothing to do with the underlying company. So, stick to your guns is what I learned. If you’re buying the hold, don't get scared or worried my short-term moves.”– Peter Emblin Lesson 3: “Asia tends to be a much more volatile part of the world for the markets.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “You got to have a good plan when you're going into it, like a solid, even a written plan so that you know what you're doing and you won't be lured away by a quick gain.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 5: “Don't just put your money in and get it out and incompletely build your core positions. And then it's okay to trade around those positions with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50% of the core amount.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 6: “Trading around, hopefully, it'll give you some gain.  But in many cases, it could give you loss. But the point is it may satisfy an emotional need.  And the satisfaction of that emotional need may help you to keep the long position in place”– Andrew Stotz You can also check out Andrew’s books <a...

Mohd Sedek Jantan is an experienced and highly competent investment professional and financial planner.  He is currently connected with Standard Financial Adviser since June 2014 where he is the Head of Investment & Financial Planning.  He is primarily responsible for managing Corporate and high net worth investment portfolio, investment research and strategy. He is also involved with providing financial strategy and planning for government-linked companies and multinational companies. Mohd Sedek graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (with Honors) from National University Malaysia, and Master of Science in Business Strategy, Leadership, and Change from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He also holds the Islamic Financial Planning Certificate from Islamic Banking & Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM).  He is also a Design Thinking Practitioner from Genovasi-Design Thinking School Malaysia.  Get to know Sedek as he narrates his own story in investing and how influence from other people caused him to lose his investments. Understand why it is essential to believe in your investments based on research and logic and get other helpful pieces of advice to reduce your risks. All this and more in this another remarkable story to keep you learning and yearning to win.   “Be firm on your decisions.” – Mohd Sedek Jantan   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 00:38 – Andrew gives a brief background of about Sedek 02:31 – Sedek recounts the reasons why he felt competent to invest in stocks of a family business with a strong financial profile and how it ended as his worst investment experience 11:57 – Sharing the lessons he learned 14:15 – Andrew summarizes his take-aways 19:53 – Sedek’s parting advice: “You make a decision to invest because you believe on the investment based on research and logic.”   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “If the company have a strong financial profile and you believe with the data, never allow other people to influence your decisions.”– Mohd Sedek Jantan Lesson 2: “People tend to panic when the price has dropped so much unexpected price. And they said, really? They said you make the wrong decision.  And the worst part is after a few months, after few weeks that you find out they said the part is going out.”– Mohd Sedek Jantan Lesson 3: “In America, one of the things that they warn against is investing in a family business. You should invest in a professionally run business, but my experience in Asia is that in the end, you're going to be investing with a family in almost every case. And if you're not, you should be careful because professionally run companies may not have anybody really looking after it. The challenge is you've got to invest with the right family.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “Cutting loss is another way that some people do it when they manage a portfolio. By saying that there's some optimal number or percent. Now I've done both of these ways, and I can tell you if you do a stop loss, particularly in Asia, you'll probably be...

Dan Gramza is President of Gramza Capital Management, Inc.  He is a trader, consultant to domestic and international clients, an advisor to hedge funds, a developer of ETF / ETC securities and co-inventor of two issued security patents. He has published works and has appeared on numerous media outlets around the world.  He set up and ran stock and futures proprietary trading operations, given expert witness testimony in US Federal court, has presented courses to traders from over 36 exchanges, 450 institutions, four regulators in 35 countries and provides free daily commentary on 21 markets at dangramza.com which is viewed in over 150 countries.    Listen from Dan as he unveils his journey in trading, how his past experiences made him develop his strategies and how it made him a success in his fields.  Learn from him in this another episode of losing and winning it all. “I find looking at my losses refreshing, and the reason I do is my loss has had taught me trades as well.” – Dan Gramza   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 01:49 – Dan narrates his academic background and how he ended up successfully teaching from stock options to the Board of Trade 04:45 – His realizations when compared from his first year of teaching up to the present and the remarkable changes it made him 06:06 – Andrew shares his journey in teaching and a finance person and how experience and to focus tremendously helped him through 09:38 – How one good day turned the opposite and became his worst investment experience 17:00 – What he learned from this loss and other self-realization 19:59 – Telling about his investigation process and the three strategic questions he asked himself 22:27 – Andrew summarizes his takeaways 28:50 – Advice from Dan to avoid the same fate he did 32:03 – Parting words from Dan: “I find looking at my losses refreshing, and the reason I do is my loss has had taught me trades as well. My losses tell me, am I following my strategy? Am I not? My strategy has something changed. So, the losses are a significant parameter that I don't think, no matter how successful we are, we don't want to forget about.”   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “Risk is a beautiful thing. It's just a matter of how you and I manage it.”– Dan Gramza Lesson 2: “Whatever your strategy is, find the one that's right for you. Find the books that are right for you. Find the teachers that are right for you and start to implement your strategy. There's nothing wrong with that.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 3: “Understanding your modeling, questioning your model is critical.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “It's important that we understand the strength and weaknesses of anything that we use to expose capital to the market to risk by that, when does it work, when does it not work?”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 5: “Make sure you've got your system. Don't let your thinking in your emotion in the middle of it, shut it down. Follow your system.”– Andrew...

Dan Passarelli is an author, trader and former member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group.  He also founded Market Taker Mentoring, Inc., a leading options education firm that provides online options education, options newsletters and personalized, one-on-one coaching for options traders.  Dan began teaching both basic and advanced trading concepts to many leading options-based brokerage firms since 2005.  Dan also contributes to financial media such as TheStreet.com, FOX Business News, Bloomberg Television, National Public Radio (NPR), and the CBOE blog. And he has a weekly featured video on CBOETV.  Dan, on a personal note, is also a marathon runner, a musician, and a world traveler. Learn from this trading expert as he shares his valuable experience learning the ins and outs of stock options trading.  Listen also his equally important tips to drive more profits regardless if you’re a newbie or a veteran in this field.     “The more you learn, the more you earn.” - Dan Passarelli   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Dan Passarelli's book: Trading Option Greeks Dan Passarelli's book: The Market Taker's Edge markettaker.com/five Options trading blog Topics Covered: 02:07 – Dan briefly talks about starting his career as an option trader 03:01 – Sharing how he ended up with his worst investment over 03:44 – Explaining what volatility means in the stock market and how it works 09:20 – Lessons he learned from his loss in stock option trading 10:53 – Andrew stresses the importance of understanding the concept of anomalies 11:27 – Stressing the value of long-term experience and relating to Andrew’s experience as a broker 14:08 – Advice to listeners to avoid his mistakes 15:00 – Invitation to visit markettaker.com/five that will give listeners a free checklist on five strategies for trading volatile markets 16:19 – Parting words from Dan: “The more you learn, the more you earn.” Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “I learned a whole lot about how volatility and pricing model and cash, the cash component of stocks value work.”– Dan Passarelli Lesson 2: “You have to evolve or die. You have to keep moving forward. You have to keep learning because there's always somebody smarter than you. And if you want to be great, you can't rest on your laurels and think, Oh, I know this stuff.”– Dan Passarelli Lesson 3: “I think one of the things that's important for the...

Joachim Klement is Head of Investment Research at Fidante Partners where he investigates long-term investment trends, alternative investments, and listed investment trusts. He was previously Head of Thematic Research at Credit Suisse, Chief Investment Officer at Wellershoff & Partners and Head of Equity Strategy at UBS Wealth Management. He holds Masters degrees in Mathematics and Economics as well as the CFA and CFP designations.  In today’s episode, Joachim shares how his first investments were once doing great but ended up losing tremendously.  Know the two important lessons he got from this experience and why you shouldn’t make the same mistakes.  Get that one great actionable piece of advice from this expert that could make you a better investor.  Hear this and more in another story of meaningful failure and momentous success.   “Keep investing. Don't get frozen off just because you had some loses yet some bad mistakes in your past. That's what we're here to learn from all of us, and we get better every day.” - Joachim Klement   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 02:00 – Joachim talks about working from the bubble and tech industries in the late nineties and switching into finance in 2000 03:00 – Sharing the highlights and lowlights behind his investments in the tech and finance industries 05:50 – Two essential lessons he got from this experience 07:27 – Andrew gives his equally valuable takeaways in this story 08:52 – The meaning of diversification and why you should apply it in your investments 13:01 – Andrew shares the three words he likes to say all the time 15:49 – Advice from Joachim in avoiding the same mistakes he did Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “The eternal wisdom of everybody who saved for retirement slash is investing.” – Joachim Klement Lesson 2: “It's kind of important to talk for a moment about your first investment because it's a little bit like your first girlfriend, you know, you don't really know what you're doing, but you know the other people, and you think you know what you're doing, but in fact you don't know it all, but you know that everybody else is doing it.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 3: “Diversification means that you always have some stocks that do well. And it always means that also, unfortunately, that you have some stocks that you hate.” – Joachim Klement Lesson 4: “Everybody's busy. So, you end up spending so much time creating your wealth that you don't have time to keep on top of the investments that you're trying to grow your wealth.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 5: “The solution in that case for most people is probably to go with something highly diversified. Keep contributing to it over time and just let it grow. But the mistake that many people will make is they want to get into a fancy idea, but they don't realize they just don't have time to keep on top of that idea.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 6:...

Having over 20 years of experience in asset management and wealth management industry, Sornchai Suneta is currently leading the Investment Advisory Practice, CIO office at Siam Commercial Bank (SCB). Also, he was appointed as Advisor to the sub-committee on Monetary, Banking, Financial Institutions and Capital market, Thailand legislative Assembly, in addition to serving as one of the CFA Society Thailand’s Board of Directors and also CFP Board member.  Before joining the Bank’s Investment Advisory team, he was the Chief Investment Officer at SCB Asset Management; he managed assets over THB 1 trillion approximately USD 35 billion. He holds a Bachelor degree in Finance from ABAC University and Master of Science in Finance from the University of London.  In this episode, Sornchai shares his worst investment story which was investing in the currency market during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. He shares his insights about his investment experience in the developing markets that have volatile and illiquid markets, across the debt, equity and currency spectrum.     “The first thing for a trader, investor, or the fund manager to think about is that you have to survive first before thinking about getting more profit.” – Sornchai Suneta What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 04:47 – The circumstance that leads to Sornchai’s worst investment ever during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 06:18 – Interest rate moving up to 15% making SOrnchai lend his position to the traders and expecting to cash-out his profits after a week but it never happened, interest rate went up to 100% because the financial crisis came and happened 07:34 – Lesson Sornchai learned from his investment experience 08:11 – Andrew’s takeaways from Sornchai’s story 11:32 – Sornchai’s advice to people who wants to trade currency: You should have enough liquidity to that currency. 13:57 – Sornchai’s actionable advice quoted by Andrew: “Whether its stocks, bonds, other assets, or currencies you still need to build a diversified portfolio so that you don't end up overexposing yourself to any one currency.” Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: If you are playing around with emerging market position you have to be very careful that everything can happen at any time. When you buy an investment, you have to be diversified.” – Sornchai Suneta Lesson 2: “The benefit of having experience in the market is that you know what the worst case could be.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 3: “When you think about investing in currencies it's probably better to say I'm going to ride the slow appreciation of a currency rather than the fast way to get in. And as we say in sometimes you're catching a falling knife.” – Andrew Stotz   You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth...

An award-winning analyst, Michael Mcgaughy has a diverse financial background spanning buy- and sell-side equity research, fund-of-hedge-funds, and private equity. He first came to Asia as an exchange student in 1985 and has been involved with the region ever since, having lived and worked in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore, for different companies including HSBC, the old Crosby Group and StoneWater Capital.  He currently manages a global value fund that looks for companies owned and controlled by quality people have structures that align minority and majority shareholder interests and trade at valuations that are below fair value if not outright cheap.   In this episode, Michael shares his investment story which was getting it wrong in the Ukraine Stock Market. For the experience, he blames the currency that accounts for most of his loss. The Hryvnia declined by 65% vis-à-vis the USD since his initial investment in March 2014. The currency decrease hides the fact that he made real investment blunders. His biggest mistake was not sticking to his my investment process.   “[An old Rothschild's saying] The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets.” – Michael McGaughy     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Investment Confessional: Getting It Wrong in Ukraine   Topics Covered: 05:47 – The circumstance that leads to Michael’s worst investment ever: missed opportunity to invest in Indonesia and the quick doubling of his money when he spent in Greece’s stock market 07:10 – Stock market opportunity in Ukraine that pops up in 2014, the Maidan Protests that lead to Ukraine stock market to dive cheap. A crisis that did not work out, Michael losing 65% of his portfolio in the next 18 months of investing 08:45 – The fall of the Ukranian currency against US dollars 08:56 – The lessons Michael learned from his investment experience 10:22 – Andrew asks Michael about the qualifications he considers for his chosen stock market venture and how did he knew that the currency would not devalue, what are his parameters and metrics 12:18 – Andrew’s takeaways from Michael's story 14:39 – Michael’s one action to recommend to the listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate: “If you're going to go and look at really cheap assets look for really cheap assets. It's probably good to wait for the crisis to occur rather than get in before.” Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “I think there's a lot of key takeaways. I guess the first thing is patience. One reason I'd like to go to the country is you can see the value and do a lot of research. Who is good and bad. Just by looking at kind of past IPO prospectuses or rights issues prospectuses, reading newspapers, talking to people. You get a lot of insight regarding what the...

Dr. Patrick Woock is a Passionate Strategic Entrepreneur, Idea Creator and Thought Leader who is driven to build next-generation tools for Transnational Entrepreneurs. Skilled in International Negotiations, Global Business Planning, Startup Coaching, and Sales. Dr. Woock was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Science and Technology of China. He has received numerous recognitions for his teaching at USTC and Tec de Monterrey. He is also a responsible, open-minded and confident individual, gives a great deal of care for nature and society, family and education. In this episode, Patrick shares the story of his worst investment ever that wasn't just about dealing with monetary loss, rather than the idea of investing in and believing in people. He shares his insight that trust is the essential elements of any long-term and satisfying partnerships and strategic alliances relationship.   “One thing you shouldn’t do is break people’s trust. If you trust and care for people, you got to keep doing it.” – Patrick Woock   What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 02:29 – Patrick shares his worst investment ever: loss of investment opportunity 03:23 – How they started their career in China with his friend in 2002 04:45 – Structuring their business during the SARS outbreak 07:30 – The price he had to pay by making the early judgment to what his partner was doing 09:26 – Why it is essential to believe in your partner’s intention of your business and holding to their character 10:43 – Andrew narrates his personal story about his partnership with his friend 13:12 – Wise parting words from Patrick Woock– “Believe in yourself.”   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “The biggest challenge we have as an entrepreneur is not about, 'Do we trust our partner?' The real question is do we trust ourselves in our judgment.” – Patrick Woock Lesson 2: “Take time to build something. When you build something, do not give up on it. If you have colleagues in it that you are committed to, sit down with them and fight for them too. .” – Patrick Woock Lesson 3: “People contribute in different ways in business. They do not necessarily contribute in the way that myself or anybody else contributes. Does not always mean they do not contribute.” – Andrew Stotz You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever <a href=...

Odilon Costa is a Sr. Emerging Market Research Analyst with the emphasis in commercial real estate and fixed income. He started his career working at large investment banks, such as ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, and HSBC, in Brazil and France. His activities are currently focused on providing strategic services for some research platforms, such as REDD Intelligence and Eleven Financial, and asset managers, covering high yield and distressed debt. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from FGV at Sao Paulo School of Business and was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge. He has published several papers in the field of real estate finance and investments.  In this episode, Odilon talks about the pros and cons of distressed debts investing, how lucrative and promising this investing is, the complexities of restructuring that are involved in this type of investment, and the challenges involved in getting accurate information about it which limits the number of investors who can adequately invest in them. Listen and learn from this expert as he will tell you more about the highs and lows of purchasing distressed debt.   "Regardless of how much you study a deal, you can't just underestimate the risks." -Odilon Costa What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 0:38 – Odilon Costa’s background as an investment professional 2:41 – Recounting one of the investments he acquired  and how it turns out  bad and the backstory of how he was convinced to venture into the investment 4:00 – Sighting the conflicts that made his investment fall short 6:26 – Strategies that he carried out to improve the returns of the investment as well as the risks management that they did 8:34 – A rundown of the lessons he gained from his experience 9:13 – A sensible closing advice from Odilon Costa: “Regardless of how much you study a deal, you can't just underestimate the risks." Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: "You really can't underestimate income risks. So, if you're going to close a deal, if it's a distressed deal, you need to understand how incomes are going to come out of that deal. – Odilon Costa Lesson 2: “You can't let confidence affect you. You have to be cold and manage risks in a way that they do not affect the way you'll see the deal.” –  Odilon Costa Lesson 3: "Finance adds no value. It’s the entrepreneurial aspect that adds value"  – Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: "The income risk is really about how we want to stay focused on our business, products, and services. Finance oftentimes manipulates the liability side of the balance sheet." –  Andrew Stotz Lesson 6: "The job of finance ultimately is to support the entrepreneur to do their business better, faster, stronger, cheaper. What we're doing is supporting the allocation of capital to the people that are making the products and services that people want.” – Andrew Stotz You can also check out Andrew’s books <a href=...

Rajeev Gupta has an immense 20-years experience investing and building technology companies.  He worked for almost a decade at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York focusing on listed and unlisted technology companies.  He then moved at Tribeca & Merricks Capital where he ran global technology funds and eventually built his own 25-person technology start-up company, Geckolife.  He is also currently a Partner at an investment company, Alium Capital.  Rajeev graduated from the University of Sydney with an Honours degree in Finance & Econometrics. On the other hand, Rajeev spends his personal time with his four kids and is fond of traveling, watching tv and skiing. In this episode, get to know Rajeev as he recounts why he considers meeting Jack Ma in 1998 his worst investment ever and his valuable realizations in it.  Listen and learn from this expert as he will tell you more why you should be investing in technology now. Hear this and more in this another great story of loss to keep you winning. “As an investor, you must be able to detect tenacity.” – Rajeev Gupta     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com   Topics Covered: 02:55 – Rajeev explains why he loves to meet 8-10 companies every day and what excites him to do that 03:49 – He shares how he ended up with his worst investment and the story behind it 05:04 – Telling what the key differentiator is in investing 05:55 – He reveals his 3 worst investments and his realizations on it 07:31 – Defining what efficient frontier is 08:21 – Why not having conviction is a very weak way of investing 10:14 – One important actionable advice in investing 11:43 – Andrew sums up his opinions on the topic 13:42 – Andrew narrates his personal story about tenacity and what he learned on it 17:02 – Wise parting words from Rajeev – “If you come across anything in technology that sounds dumb today, it can be almost guaranteed. You look back in 10 years and say, why did I not support it? So, if you think something's done, don't be dumb.”   Main Takeaways:  Lesson 1: “As an investor, you must be able to detect tenacity.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 2: “So my worst investment has been a) not having conviction, b) not putting my balls on the line and c) not writing themes that you hear about, but do nothing about through that journey.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 3: “Conviction to me is the most important part of investing both positively and negatively.  My worst investment is not putting more money to work in what was looking at me in the face.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 4: “I think the best way to invest is have a big chunk of what you do and I'd say 50 percent or maybe slightly more in super risky stuff which will give you at exorbitantly high return.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 5: “If you focus on the risky stuff, the risky investments, yes, they can

Alvin Fan is the Chief Executive Officer of OP Investment Management, one of Asia’s leading hedge fund platforms focusing on emerging managers.  Part of the Oriental Patron Financial Group running assets of over USD 10 billion primarily in private equity, OPIM separately partners with emerging hedge fund managers with assets collectively more than $750 million across 25 managers.  Having worked in Asia since 2000, Alvin has over 15-years’ experience in Strategy and Investment Management - from Private Equity to Publicly Listed Funds overseeing assets across Asia & Eastern Europe.  Enjoys working with entrepreneurs and growing fund managers across Asia.  He is forever a student of business strategy, innovations, and the pursuit of greatness.   In today’s episode, Alvin Fan shares the story of the teak timberland investment in Costa Rica that he was pursuing. Based on his investment thesis, teak falls to the ‘good investment’ metric- are real assets, nationally appreciate over time, exponential rate or return. But the returns are just one side of the performance coin, on the other side are other risks like country risk, marketability and the tedious work involved in monitoring and management of the plot lands where the teak are planted. Listen from his story and learn about the specific risks involved when considering investing in timberland and know what you need to do to avoid doing same mistakes Alvin did.   “Every mistake is a golden opportunity to learn. And the value of that lesson is immeasurable. It really does pay forward.” - Alvin Fan     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment   Topics Covered: 00:54 – Alvin Fan’s professional and investment background 07:57 – Sharing his teak timberland investment in Costa Rica, the projection of its high-yielding return 11:04 – This timberland investment checked off all the ‘good investment’ metrics, are real assets, nationally appreciate over time, exponential rate or return 11:53 – The different risks he and his team had to go through every time that they needed to do their due diligence 13:25 – What’s in their pitch book they present to the Asian investors 15:08 – Thoughts of his two uncles who are known as the grandfathers of the private equity industry in Asia about his timberland investment 16:21 – Importance of due diligence and due diligence follow-ups in this type of private equity direct investments and the accountability that is needed to answer the different questions from the investors 23:28 – Andrew’s takeaways from Alvin’s experience 27:14 – Alvin’s investment advice to listeners: At the end of the day, investing is a serial condition. Just as is being an entrepreneur. It means that you just keep going. And at some point, it will get better. Just make sure that...

Roongkiat Ratanabanchuen is a Thai banking professional who has an impressive portfolio in the areas of a pension fund, mutual fund, and microfinance.  He is currently a full-time lecturer in Finance at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.  He also worked as a Risk Management Officer at Bank of Thailand.  He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Automotive Engineering at Chulalongkorn University and earned a Master’s in Quantitative Finance at Cass Business school in London.  He finished his Doctorate in Pension Fund Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  He was awarded the 2017 CFA Institute Best Paper Award in Micro Structure which is a research scholarship in microfinance from the National Research Council of Thailand.  Recently, he won another research scholarship in the area of risk management of saving cooperatives from the Thailand Research Fund. In today’s episode, Dr. Roongkiat shares some of the investment mistakes he did when he risked it all on a falling stock. The time he spent managing that falling portfolio, caused him to miss other investment opportunities and for a time affected his confidence. Listen from his story and learn what you need to do to avoid the same mistakes he did.   “Learn to diversify and put that into action.” - Roongkiat Ratanabanchuen     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com   Topics Covered: 00:54 – Andrew introduces Dr. Roongkiat’s educational background and his research scholarships 02:23 – Sharing his worst investment ever and the story behind it 03:12 – Dr. Roongkiat tells the reason why he retained his investment and other problems encountered by the company 06:29 – How time lost and faith in the company brought him further problems 08:14 – Lessons learned from both Dr. Roongkiat’s and Andrew’s investments 13:25 – Citing his recommendation to avoid suffering the same fate   Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “When you invest in a company, you need a lot more experience because this is quite difficult for us when the company can build around.”– Roongkiat Ratanabanchuen Lesson 2: “When you invest, you need to have some discipline that you need to limit your concentration of risk in a certain company.”- Roongkiat Ratanabanchuen Lesson 3: “Don't put too much money on one stock, because if something happens, then you may decide and then you may end up in a situation when you don't know what to do next. You know I do because I don't allow flexibility on my portfolio.”-Roongkiat Ratanabanchuen Lesson 4: “I basically came to the conclusion that 10 is the number of stocks that the average individual investor should hold in Asia.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 5: “My next recommendation is they should hold them in equal weighting.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 6: “Each investment that...

Michael Garcia is  CEO and Chief Investment Officer of MDG capital, a boutique investment advisory firm based in Manila.  MBG Capital serves as investment adviser to Seahedge Philippines Fund (Bloomberg: SEAPHFA:KY), a Philippines-focused equity fund domiciled in the Cayman Islands. Before establishing MBG Capital in 2011, Michael worked for nine years as the Head and Chief Investment Officer of the Trust & Investment Services Group of Union Bank of the Philippines, where he oversaw US$1 billion of client portfolios.  Michael is a CFA charter holder. He holds an MBA degree from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and an undergraduate degree in AB Management Economics from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. In this episode, Michael shares how he invested in one particular investment company in Vietnam without taking into consideration management ethics. He will also tell us how not sticking to step by step process in investing and observing due diligence could cost big time.   “You have to take the time in your due diligence to meet the management. There's a lot you can learn, in a personal meeting.”   -Michael Garcia What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 02:42 – Michael thoroughly relating to the ferry boat company he invested in Vietnam 04:12 – Mentioning about his  particular stock portfolio and their Vietnam stock exposure 04:54 – The events that happened which contributed to the company's fallout 06:22 – The eventual failure of Michael's investment and  the losses he incurred 07:36 – How Michael didn't see it coming, the fallout of the company he invested in and what to learn from it 08:48 – Michael's lessons on his worst investment ever 11:59 – Telling in hindsight about management ethics on this particular company Michael invested in 13:01 – On dealing with stocks in Asia and about liquidity, volumes and stop losses. 13:57 – Michael advises: "Don't rush into your investment capital." Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “You have to take the time in your due diligence to meet management. I mean, there's a lot that you can learn, in a personal meeting, vis a vis, just reading financial statements.”– Michael Garcia Lesson 2: “You don't rush into things, and you have to apply your investment process steps in a very disciplined manner.”– Michael Garcia Lesson 3: “Ensuring that management ethics and...

Adam Butler is Chief Investment Officer of ReSolve Asset Management. Adam is an author of the book Adaptive Asset Allocation: Dynamic Global Portfolios to Profit in Good Times and Bad and contributed to the best investment writing volumes one and two, and he is ranked in the top one percent of authors by papers downloaded on SSRN. Adam also holds a CFA and CAIA charters. In this episode, we will hear Adam's ironic realization he got from his worst investment experience - that you can be right for a very long time before you are wrong. His jarring investment experience affected his confidence and made him doubt his expertise and the value that he could do for his clients. Learn how he regained his confidence and bounced back into the investment game armed with the takeaways he got from this worst investment ever.    “The absolute number one fundamental takeaway I would like to share is that diversification is the best protection against  ignorance.” -Adam Butler     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Adaptive Asset Allocation: Dynamic Global Portfolios to Profit in Good Times and Bad by Adam Butler The Folly of Forecasting: Ignore all Economists, Strategists, & Analysts by James Montier Topics Covered: 00:29 – Andrew telling us all about Adam Butler's career background and what he does at the moment 03:07 – Adam sharing  the whole story of his worst investment ever 07:06 – How that failed investment kept him rudderless for months and why he still held on for the longterm reason 08:10 – Lessons learned from his failed investment and narration of Dr. Tetlock's work on the accuracy of forecasts 11:18 – Andrew sharing his own story of a study he made himself about forecast accuracy 12:36 – Adam discussing the books of James Montier about behavioral investing and the folly of forecasting and expounding more on Dr. Philip Tetlock's studies about forecasts 19:17 – Adam on what his views are on researching thoroughly about a particular subject about what happened to his failed investments 22:02 – The concept of diversification 24:14 – The idea of randomness and the awareness of randomness Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: "One of the most disruptive and ironic things about investing is that you can be right for a very, very long time before you are catastrophically wrong.” – Adam Butler Lesson 2: "It was a shocking and jarring experience,

In our lifetime, we thrive to create, grow, and protect our wealth. We create wealth through different business and investment ventures. We look at different investment vehicles to grow our wealth. Alongside those investment opportunities, we ensure that we understand all the many risks that are involved in our ventures so that our wealth is secured and protected. In our 30th episode, Andrew shares his golden nuggets of takeaways talking about the ‘6 Ways You Will Lose Your Money. All from the heartbreaking tales of investment misfortune from investors and financial titans from around the world. Discover the best practices for risk management that will keep you in the game for you to continuously create, grow, and protect your wealth. “Nobody can take care of your money like you can. Ultimately, it's your responsibility.” – Andrew Stotz 6 Ways You Will Lose Your Money1. People Invest in a Startup company         Everybody knows the odds of a startup company making it to success. True success is tiny. Yet everybody feels excited about the opportunity of investing in a startup.2. Fail to monitor your investment People abdicate their responsibility for their own investments and instead they hope and they expect that the people who are supposed to be taking care of their money are doing so correctly.3. Misplaced trustBusiness and investing are built completely on trust. People tend to misplace trust into individuals or into structures into investments that in fact they probably should have checked in more detail about and they've probably not should have not trusted them.4. Driven by emotion or flawed thinkingIf you're driven by emotion the number one the number one situation in this is overconfidence.5. Fail to properly assess risk<span...

Jotak Nandwana is a keen follower of the Indian stock market and has been investing money since 2010. He uses the CAN SLIM style to screen for growth stocks. He has been working as an Equity Analyst for MarketSmith India, since its inception. Jotak has been involved in extensive studies on biggest winners in the Indian market. He manages the MarketSmith India model portfolio along with other research for William O'Neil India. Jotak holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Management and a Master's degree in Commerce from Sukhadia University. He has also completed all the three levels of the CFA program. In this episode, Jotak shares his learnings when he focused on his investment scoreboard more closely rather than the purpose of merely monitoring his gains. Watching the scoreboard affected his investment behavior significantly that resulted in some bad investment decisions. He then realized that even good investments can turn sour, given a dose of uncontrolled events.   "Talking about your bad decisions will help you to improve as an investor." - Jotak Nandwana What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Canceling Method William O'Neil Topics Covered: 00:48 – Andrew introduces Jotak Nandwana and shares that they follow the same method in investing 03:14 – Jotak shared why CAN SLIM Method is an effective style in investing 04:18 – Jotak narrates his investment with Bajaj Finserv and the lessons he learned 06:26 – The fixation with price and profit resulted in Jotak's "huge" mistake. 08:43 – Andrew's thoughts on capital gains tax 10:40 – Jotak reveals the mistakes he committed in the stock market and the learning experience he had 12:06 – Andrew give listeners advice about determining their investment horizon, and their goals must be to build their wealth in a long period 14:35 – Andrew throws light on the benefits of focusing on cutting your losses and letting your winners run 15:37 – Jotak added the importance of using Four Pillars rule in investing. 17:07 – Jotak gave a warning on looking at the scoreboard and its effects on your behavior and investing Main Takeaways Lesson 1: "Selling winners too quickly and holding on to losers are the eternal mistakes that are committed in the stock market."– Jotak Nandwana Lesson 2: "Even if you're able to invest in the right companies, you won't make much money if your behavior is not ideal. Behavior is often ignored, but it counts the most. If you want to be a successful investor." – Jotak Nandwana Lesson 3:  “Successful investors always take care of their biases because they have no place for emotions in their investing style.” – Jotak Nandwana Lesson 4: "Don’t get too worked up if a stock goes up after you have sold it, instead carefully analyze the business and if it still ticks all the boxes in your checklist, there is no harm in buying a good stock at a higher price.”– Jotak Nandwana Lesson 5: "Do a post-analysis on a yearly basis and look at all the stocks that...

Guest profile  Brandon Gaille is an entrepreneur who has founded five multi-million-dollar companies over the past three decades. Currently, he runs a self-named Internet marketing firm that helps clients acquire more customers through SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. He also has a thriving online course that teaches people a blogging system that propelled his blog to more than 1 million monthly visitors in less than two years. The man and his businesses have been featured in nationally and globally recognized business publications Fast Company, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Adweek. He is also the host of The Blog Millionaire, considered one of the most popular business podcasts on the Internet. On a personal note, he lives in Houston, Texas in the United States, with his wife and two sons.     “Let go of a loss and then accept it and move on right away.”  - Brandon Gaille<span...

Meredith Jones is an internationally recognized researcher-writer and speaker. She's worked in the investment industry for 20 years and is the author of Women of The Street: Why Female Money Managers Generate Higher Returns (And How You Can Too) which won an Axiom Award Gold Medal in 2016.  She was named one of Inc. magazine's “17 Inspiring Women to Watch in 2017”.  She has been a regular columnist for Institutional Investor and is a contributor to Market Watch. She focuses on alternative investor investments diversity in investing and responsible investing.  On the other hand, Meredith is a foodie and wine lover and uses charcoal and open flames when cooking.  She is also a figure skater and is inexplicably addicted to decaffeinated coffee. Get to know Meredith as she narrates not only her own story on finances and investing but listen and learn more as she shares her golden tips so you won’t make that same mistake again.  Hear this another great story in today’s episode of losing and winning it all. “My worst investing mistake was not investing.” – Meredith Jones     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Women of The Street: Why Female Money Managers Generate Higher Returns (And How You Can Too)   Topics Covered: 01:38 – Meredith tells about her beloved Nashville – healthcare and booming financial hub in the South 03:39 – She shares her personal circumstances as a kid and why money was a big deal to her family 05:56 – How she ended up in the investment industry and the job insecurity she felt 08:17 – The financial crisis in 2008 and how it freaked her 12:21 – Lessons learned and self-realization from investing in the market 13:22 – Andrew recounts his own experience in investing in the market and the valuable lessons he learned 14:30 – How defining her acceptable personal level of cash made her a better investor 15:19 – The number one rule in investing 17:27 – Why spending should be a long-term game and how it will grow your wealth 18:02 – Rules-based investing and why it works Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “What I want to do is make sure that I am taking an appropriate level of risk so being able to sleep and still have enough cash so that I don't freak out all the time and that's the balance that I've had to come to, but really my worst investing mistake was not investing.”– Meredith Jones Lesson 2: “I may get lucky from time to time, but I'm not going to outsmart the market.”– Meredith Jones Lesson 3: “You can't make money if you're not willing to lose a little bit of money. .”– Meredith Jones Lesson 4: “Paying too much attention can sometimes make you indulge in behaviors that are not profitable.”–...

Guest profile Eslam Shaaban Radwan is a civil construction manager with 13 years of experience in the construction field in the Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council. He is an international real estate investor, investing in USA, Turkey, Thailand, Brazil & Caribbean. His investments including hotel apartments, single-family house, multi-family house & plots.  Currently, he is enjoying his work at Gulf together with his wife and two kids. He then dreams of managing his own business someday. In this episode, Eslam shares his worst investment story, his wrong decision of not following the right procedure when purchasing a property without visiting the location and relied only on his friends.   “Any investment has a risk but you have to reduce your risk in order to win. In order to win, you have to cover all points. Don't trust anybody. Only trust yourself and ensure everything is legal.” Eslam Shaaban Radwan   Topics Covered:  00:29 – Introduction of Eslam Shaaban Radwan 02:56 – How Eslam was trapped in his worst investment ever: buying a property from a fake property management company 10:12 – Is the company Legit or a Scam? 11:28 – Lessons he learned in order not to do the same mistake in investing on a property. 12:17 – Andrew’s takeaways from Eslam’s experience. 14:56 – Domino effect on Eslam’s other investments in Brazil, Caribbean, and Thailand, stopped. 16:48 – One actionable advice from Eslam to avoid experiencing the same investment fate:: You have to reduce your risk in order to win. Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “Do not buy anything unless you visit, unless you checked all documents with your lawyer, your attorney at law has to check everything and if its house is in USA single or multi you have to assign a third party for an inspection. Get the Inspection Report then you get the evaluation of the price for the house from the market conditions. Check your ROI per year. Then after you purchase the house, took this decision. You have to find a strong management company from the local market with good credit.” –Eslam Shaaban Radwan Lesson 2:  “There's a higher level of due diligence. That's the first thing.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 3:  “The second thing is that what I also take away and I think it's important for everybody listening is the idea that property investing is an illiquid type of investment. It's not easy to sell. Unlike let's say a stock if you bought a stock in the stock market you don't like it. You can sell it.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “So my lesson that I always try to share is that when you're facing financial trouble at a business. You have to communicate if you do not communicate about it. You are starting to get yourself into trouble. So that's a third

After graduating with a post-doctorate degree specializing in accounting and finance, Mitchell embarked on a career in academia working at major research universities in Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore and Australia.  During 15 years, Mitchell published more than 50 international peer-refereed journal articles and several research book chapters, a research book, and various professional related articles.  During his academic career, Mitchell instructed at undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. Overall, Mitchell has successfully supervised 10 doctoral students researching a variety of accounting and finance issues.  In 2012, Mitchell left academia to pursue private sector interests full time. Aside from working in several financial services sector roles, he also launched two start-up firms. One start-up focused on providing logistical and events management services, whilst the other start-up concentrated on providing investment consultancy, research and asset management.  After 7 years following private sector pursuits, Mitchell decided to return to academia taking up a graduate level professorship at a university in Dubai at the start of 2018. The opportunity to live and work in Dubai has provided the chance to broaden and enrich Mitchell’s international accounting and finance knowledge. His move to Dubai, however, was not solely work related as it also provided an opportunity to follow a life-long passion for experiencing new cultures.  Also, Mitchell is a CFA charterholder, and qualified CPA. In this episode, Mitchell shares his worst investment ever story relaying on his past venture’s performance without setting up his stop loss. And heading towards over exuberance about pay on making money wishing and hoping that the past wins he had from the company will repeat itself.   “I was not looking at the fundamentals of the company. I just went on and reinvested my money. The parent company was once successful and I just blindly went into it.” - Mitchell Van Der Zahn  What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered:  01:05 – Mitchell Van Der Zahn’s professional background 03:20 – His worst investment story venturing in the volatile market of oil in gas in 2010 06:32 – Private equity firm offering the parent entity the chance to sell their subsidiary 7:015 – The subsidiary was privatized, he got his money back from his investment plus a nicer return leaving him with a nice big chunk of change 07:36 – Parent entity announcing the joint venture of injecting  assets in the dormant subsidiary turning it into an offshore vessel company. 10:14 – Mitchell’s investment decision based on the past performance of the parent company, the success he had before with the subsidiary company and with the parent company 10:49 – Running on a wish, a hope and an expectation that because they were successful before they will be successful again, not worrying about the finances, fundamentals and failing to look at the macroeconomic picture even if at the point that the oil crisis was happening 12:11 – Catching falling knives: What made Mitchell’s investment worse was basically just kept thinking all the oil price would come back and that everything was just a momentary blip....

Sopon Srisakunpath has three and a half years experience working in Thailand at the big four accounting firms of KPMG and PwC. He has analyzed and observed business processes and coordinated with the management of large public, non-life insurance companies. He is completing his MBA at the Sasin School of Management where he majors in Finance and Strategy. He is also currently representing his university in the CFA research challenge in Equity Research Valuation Competition. In addition to all of that, he's also a health tech start-up, co-founder and CFO of Welly, a physiotherapist platform. In this episode, Sopon talks about his first worst investment ever in a seductive online trading platform without ever understanding their business model and lost a hundred thousand baht in it.                                          “Study hard about what you're investing in. Investing should be something you really know.” -Sopon Srisakunpath What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 00:04 – Nuggets of wisdom from Andrew and introduction of what he does 00:36 – An introduction to Sopon's Educational attainment as well as his career background 01:35 – What he is up to and what he loves most doing 02:25 – Sopon telling his story of his first investment and how it failed 04:53 – Lessons learned from his online trading investment 05:06 – How greed gets you excited first hand and how to watch out for it when investing 06:50 – The confusing business model presented and how you should be warned about it 05:06 – Making sense of that inner voice in you when something doesn't seem right 8:33 – Insights into the first failed investment 9:25 – Wise Words from Sopon: "Study hard about what you're investing in." Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: “ Study hard about what you're investing in. Investing should be something you really know.”–Sopon Srisakunpath Lesson 2: “My lesson is that I shouldn't have invested in something I didn't completely understand. I shouldn't have trusted people too much.”– Sopon Srisakunpath Lesson 3: “And I think that what I would like the listeners in the audience to think about is that that inner voice will come out when you know that when you feel like something's not right.”– Andrew Stotz...

Jonathan Freedman is the managing member of Consilience Capital Management LLC. He began his career at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. as a clerk in 1992 quickly moving up to research assistant to the Chief Investment Strategist, followed by a promotion to research associate. Subsequently, he was promoted to research analyst for the firm’s equity hedge fund product with responsibility for industrial cyclicals. In 1999 Jonathan joined Ulysses Partners as a research analyst. Then in 2000 and 2001, he started managing personal and family portfolios. In 2002, he founded Consilience Partners LP, a long/short value hedge fund with $1.5 million of capital raised. During his time managing Consilience, he had tremendous initial success with select small capitalization ideas. A seed was planted. In 2004, he began to manage a separate account focusing on US small cap value strategies for a multi-strategy hedge fund as an external manager. In 2009, he completely upgraded his idea generation, research, and trading capabilities to tackle global small-cap investing. In 2018 he relaunched his strategy using friends and family capital on a path to once again build a stand-alone investment firm. In this episode, Jonathan shares the importance of developing a strong sense of business ethics and philosophy. This was brought about by his worst investment ever story working for a hedge fund that collapsed in spectacular fashion, got its management arrested and offices raided. Although he operated independently and had absolutely no involvement in any of the wrongdoing this experience brought crushing disappointment to Jonathan’s life.     “…when you're dealing with money to make sure you are in a complete alignment.”  -Jonathan Freedman     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Jonathan Freedman's Linkedin Article: If I'm Being Totally Honest Topics Covered:  00:45 – An account of Jonathan’s educational and career background as well as his personal life and what he does for good causes and charities. 03:09 – Jonathan relating his worst investment ever and the lessons and insights about that business failure. 09:17 – Talking in hindsight about the downfall of Jonathan's previous business. 11:58 – Explaining business ethics and investment philosophies. 14:38 – Jonathan talking about the value of honesty in business dealings and how his father was his biggest influence on that matter. 15:50 – Valuable lessons learned from a failed business and the long-term consequences of every decision you make especially in business. 18:58 – The thing about the sixth sense in business dealings. 19:48 – Jonathan sharing his thoughts on decision making and the power of chance. 23:10 – Nuggets of wisdom from Andrew on zero-based thinking. 22:10 – Jonathan's specific action: Self-reflect and align yourself in a better way.   Main...

Daniel Egan is currently in charge of Behavioral Science and Investing at Betterment, where he integrates behavioral finance and passive investment management to help customers achieve their goals. He evolved from Behavioral Finance Specialist to the Director of Behavior Science and Investing. He researches into what drives, and how to prevent harmful financial behavior. This includes how to increase savings behavior, reduce speculation and increase planning by them more effectively powerful.  Daniel holds a Master of Science degree in Decision Science from the London School of Economics and BA (Distinction) in Economics from Boston University.  Daniel enjoys speaking to academic classes and industry conferences, and do it often.  In this episode, Daniel shares his worst investment story venturing in a double leverage Oil ETF that cost much more than his lost investment money but the value of his greatest assets---time and confidence.    “Always be aware that your time and your attention is a really valuable commodity.” – Daniel Egan What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered:  00:43 – Dan’s professional and behavioral finance background 03:09 – Circumstances leading up to his worst investment ever: green shoots appearing from the oil industry during the financial crisis, big reserves of oil people that were kept offshore 04:02 – a double leverage Oil ETF called DXO, a vehicle to express Dan’s view that oil was going to be going up as things got better. 04:31 – A speculative play to take at least six months if not a year. 05:09 – Dan’s applying the things he knew from his behavioral finance background 05:25 – The lessons Dan learned from his investment experience 07:25 – Deutsche Bank backing out their sponsorship to DXO, they decided that it was way too much risk on their books 08:28 – Andrew’s takeaways from Dan’s experience 12:29 – Diversifying instruments versus the diversification benefit 13:35 – Dan’s actionable advice: Keep it simple. Main Takeaways Lesson 1: Be honest about position sizing versus cost. So you can have a great idea but you have to have a big enough margin that you're going to cover your transaction costs be it just commissions or taxes afterward.”– Daniel Egan Lesson 2: “You got to take into account how much it's going to cost you in indigestion, sleepless nights and how much it's going to take away from you spending time on your real job.”– Daniel Egan Lesson 3: “You have to really understand what you invest in. What I missed out on or with the cost that I didn't see was my time. I could have been doing something much more productive for a kind of like my earnings potential or my life at that point in time. I actually view it as like a pretty serious loss because I just like had an opportunity cost that was hidden.”– Daniel Egan Lesson 4: “You really have to think about the complete costs of an investment. And I think people often really overlook that there is you know we've already heard about the costs of the actual transaction. We've heard about the costs of...

Asif Khan is the Managing Partner at EDGE Research & Consulting Limited, an independent equity research provider based out of Bangladesh which caters to foreign institutional investors. Prior to starting EDGE in early 2018, Asif had worked in both buy and sell side roles for around 9 years. Around 4.5 years were spent with an Emerging Markets fund called Caravel Management LLC where he looked at South Asian equities. Later he made a career switch to sell side where among other roles he worked for Exotix Capital, a frontier market focused investment bank based in London In this episode, Asif Khan shares his worst investment ever story, buying cheap value traps when he tried growing his portfolio not building up a diversified portfolio of good quality companies.   Any stock that is not cheap looked expensive in my model.  And I ended up buying value traps. Whereas, I could have bought the best stocks out there. – Asif Khan What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com McKinsey & Company Book Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, 6th edition Topics Covered:  01:46 – Asif Khan’s professional and investment background, actively engaged with CFA Institute in Bangladesh 03:56 – His worst investment story: falling prey to value traps, hunting for a bargain 06:05 – Being aware that it is not sustainable when you raise interest rates to solve inflation or currency problems. 08:14 – Summary of the lessons Asif learned from the experience 09:29 – Andrew’s takeaways from Asif Khan’s story lost 13:01 – Asif’s actionable advice: Build your proper valuation model.   Main Takeaways Lesson 1: “Human being feel more paid when things come down.”- Asif Khan Lesson 2: “Really understand how to form a proper Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model.”- Asif Khan Lesson 3: “Keep in mind that a lot of things are cyclical – interest rates, inflation, even economic activity like GDP growth, those indicators as well…just being aware can help one avoid the mistakes. ”- Asif Khan Lesson 4: “When we're doing a calculation were the inputs that we're putting into that calculation for the valuing of a stock using any DCF or Discounted Cash Flow model is ultimate to infinity. I think one of the mistakes that people make is that when interest rates are low, they tend to input very low discount rate and when it rates your high, they intend to input a very high discount rate and therefore they're missing the point that that discount rate needs to be applied to those cash flows over the next let’s say 20 years.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 5: “Always make sure that we are keeping ourselves up to date and making sure our calculations and assumptions are structured right.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 6: “Build a diversified portfolio of good quality companies.” – Andrew Stotz...

Alexander Burstein works in the pharmaceutical industry, first doing a sales career in Merck KGA and Angelini, then a marketing career. And the last 18 years, he is in business development for Sanova, a company of the McKesson Group. In his leisure time, he loves to do sports like jogging and hiking, and he is a passionate historian.  In this episode, Alexander shares his worst investment ever story losing 90% value of his biotech stock investment. Relying on stock news and tips only and not researching further about the investment.   “People, in general, tend to overvalue the positive information and to undervalue the information about risks.” - Alexander Burstein What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered:  00:46 – Alexander Burstein’s professional and investment background 02:30 – Sharing his worst stock investment story venturing in a rising star biotech company with Phase 3 Projects. 03:43 – From 2000 Euros to 200 Euros: Biotech Company’s stock price crashed after the Phase 3 Project results announcement 06:20 – Andrew’s summary of Alexander’s story       09:30 – Andrew’s strategy to minimize the risk to a stock with a binary outcome 09:53 – Alexander’s one actionable advice listeners can take to avoid suffering the same fate: Divide your risk by investing in several assets. Main Takeaways Lesson 1: “I trusted news about news. I listened to people telling news about those shares. But I did not spend the time to really make own investigations.” –  Alexander Burstein Lesson 2: “If you had done a lot of research it's quite possible you could not have come to the conclusion that they were going to fail Phase 3 of the trials. Why do I say that? Because there must have been other professionals and analysts looking at the company. And if they thought that there was a high probability or probability that this company was going to fail they would have been giving out warnings or turning their recommendations negative.” –  Andrew Stotz Lesson 3: “The number one error that most people make which is a failure to either do research or to only do a limited amount of research before investing.” –  Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “If a person a listener was so inclined to invest in this type of a company where there is a binary outcome, either it's going to pass or it's going to fail. And as you said 7 out of 10 failed. The strategy to reduce the risk is to try to buy 10 of them, knowing that seven of them are going to fail but the three that path is going to fly.” –  Alexander Burstein You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market <a href=...

Shagun Jain holds a Master's degree in Management Studies (MBA) from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute (JBIMS), Mumbai specializing in Finance. Heis also Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). His professional career exposed him to sales, research and consulting resulting in a rare blend of expertise in the financial services space. He worked as a relationship manager with Standard Chartered Bank in Transaction banking, handling corporate clients across industries and across regions like Mumbai and Delhi. After that, he moved to McKinsey and focused on strategy building and PE due diligence for the banking sector in India. He currently works at Kotak Mahindra bank and manages transaction banking for one of the largest verticals - CIB at the bank. He maintains a keen interest in equities with special attention paid to turnaround stories, special situations & mispriced stocks. In this episode, Shagun Jain shares how he got carried away investing in the retail stocks, how he stopped and rethink when he lost 90% of his investment value and eventually how he reboot back again.    “I took an undue risk. I thought that focusing on one investment can be a life-changing investment.” - Shagun Jain What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered:  01:00 – Shagun Jain’s professional background 03:30 – His worst investment story: beating the market, pioneering the retail space, overlooking free cash flow for growth expansion, ballooning companies debt despite the retail boom 06:57 – The fall of the consumer spending, incremental cost of capital not serviced by the incremental revenue 09:18 – No exit strategy in place, no stop loss plans 10:22 – Summary of the lessons he learned from his investment experience 12:13 – History of the dividend of the retail stock 12:45 – Andrew’s takeaways from Shagun Jain’s story of loss 15:45 – Shagun’s actionable advice to help people avoid making the same investment mistake: I think cash flows are the most important metric to look at. Main Takeaways Lesson 1: “If a company is using debt to expand you will have to see how the capital is. Look at the margins and the incremental margin on the new business being generated should be substantially more than the cost of capital.”- Shagun Jain Lesson 2: “The company should have free cash flows. Operating cash flows are better. There must be some amount of free cash flows which will then service your debt.”- Shagun Jain Lesson 3: “You've got to research from the beginning to the end on every single thing that you invest in.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “The concept of stop loss. I don't like the word stop loss because it's so negative. I like the word preserve capital. And as I look at it basically,  there's a point I do a rolling stop loss meaning as the share price goes up, I recalculate that stop loss on a three-month basis. Every three months, I do that and then I look at between 15%- 25% percent stop losses based upon that.” – Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: “The...

Daniel Crosby, Ph.D., is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations understand the intersection of mind and markets. His first book, Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management, was a New York Times bestseller. His second book, The Laws of Wealth, was named the best investment book of 2017 by the Axiom Business Book Awards and has been translated into 5 languages. His latest work, The Behavioral Investor, is a comprehensive look at the neurology, physiology, and psychology of sound financial decision-making. In this episode, Daniel shares his worst investment ever buying a big house of his dream thinking that it would central to his happiness equation.    “Money can keep you from some level of heartache, but it can't buy really much happiness at all.” - Daniel Crosby What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management The Laws of Wealth: Psychology and the secret to investing success How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market Topics Covered:  00:54 – Daniel Crosby’s professional and investment background as a psychologist and behavioral finance expert 03:19 – Daniel shares his backstory that led to his worst investment ever 05:57 – Expected annual appreciation of houses at 13%, according to Robert Schiller considering inflation and opportunity cost 07:40 – The money pit of his dream house: high property tax, high maintenance cost 05:57 – Expected appreciation of houses is at 13%, considering inflation and opportunity cost 08:50 – Lesson Daniel learned from his investment experience 09:50 – Geographical cures as Andrew explained 10:34 – Andrew’s takeaways from Daniel’s story of loss 13:43 – Daniel’s actionable advice to help people avoid making the same investment: Go speak a therapist that has some acumen around talking around financial issues. Main Takeaways Lesson 1: “Money is so wrapped up in considerations of self-worth and happiness. And disentangling those things would have been powerful for me. And would have led me to a better decision, I believe.”- Daniel Crosby  Lesson 2: “Money is better at buying the absence of worry or the absence of sadness than it is at buying happiness.”- Daniel Crosby Lesson 3: “One of the foundational things in my life is going through that period of time where I had no money, and I had complete happiness. It always tells me that money buys nothing. It does not buy happiness. It does not by sadness, it just is neutral.” – Andrew Stotz You can also check out Andrew’s...

Brian Portnoy is the Director of Investment Education at Virtus Investment Partners, where he develops the firm’s content on behavioral finance and investment solutions. Mr. Portnoy has worked in the mutual fund and hedge fund industries for the past 18 years. Prior to joining Virtus in 2014, he held senior investment and strategy roles, including at Mesirow Financial and Morningstar. Brian is the author of The Geometry of Wealth: How to Shape a Life of Money and Meaning. Published in summer 2018, the book explores how money figures into a happy life. He also published in 2014 The Investor’s Paradox: The Power of Simplicity in a World of Overwhelming Choice, which helps investors make better decisions about both traditional and alternative investment strategies. He has spoken to audiences globally about investing and decision-making and has lectured at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its Leading Authors series on the history and future of hedge funds. Mr. Portnoy pursued his research and teaching interests in political economy at the University of Chicago, where he earned his doctorate. He earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan. Mr. Portnoy is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.    In this episode, Brian shares his worst investment ever story. Their portfolio manager invested the fund in the US financials. Despite the capital market rollover during the Q4 of 2008. The portfolio manager ignored the due diligence and assessments that they presented. Unfortunately, Brian and his team cannot do anything. Their money was in a three year lockdown period.    “You really have to check yourself. You’ve got to have your own discipline, but then you have other people around you, coaches and counselors and colleagues and peers who say, ‘Do you know what you are getting into? Is it really worth it?’.” - Brian Portnoy What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com The Geometry of Wealth: How to shape a life of money and meaning The Investor's Paradox: The Power of Simplicity in a World of Overwhelming Choice  Topics Covered:  00:54 – Brian Portnoy’s professional and investment background 03:25 – Sharing his worst investment story when he was Mezirow’s Head of Research leading a hedge fund’s due diligence 04:51 – Building up their companies’ global book with an emphasis on European and Asia equities 06:00 – The dangers of scarcity: an invitation-only opportunity that retrospect part of the investment problem 06:30 – The mosaic process of piecing together the history of trade the portfolio made, digging into the investment performance and investment process as part of the due diligence 12:20 – Projection of the success of their portfolio manager based on what he did in the past and the type of scenario they have 14:22 – The nature of the stop loss discipline, their portfolio manager ventured in the US financials of Q2 of 2007 until Q4 of 2008 buying at every tick down 19:15 – Andrew’s...

Frank Moffatt is an International Best Selling Author, Motivational Speaker, Lifestyle Coach, Music Producer, Movie Producer, TV Producer, and founder of Your Second Fifty. Today Frank is focused on his position as CEO of Your Second Fifty (YSF)- home of inspirational education to improve and enhance one’s life throughout their second fifty. In addition, Frank looks forward to serving those seeking to find their purpose through one of his latest ventures, Play at Creation (PaC). He is also Co-founder and CEO of AP Teacher Training Institute and International TEFL Canada. In this episode, Frank shares his worst investment experience, putting $50,000 in a thinly managed mining penny stock.     “Part of the excitement of being an entrepreneur is we make bad investments and we learn from it.” - Frank Moffatt What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Your Second Fifty Rising Above the Myths of Aging Topics Covered:  01:04 – Frank Moffatt’s professional background, being  a pink colored glasses guy that sees the positive in all situation 03:20 – Sharing the circumstance leading to his worst investment ever 03:50 – His $50,000 worth of investment in a thinly managed mining penny stock 04:52 – the painful slide from $50,000 down to $3,000: his thoughts about his investment when the market crashed, his exit strategy 06:26 – Lessons Frank learned from the stock market investing experience 10:06 Andrew’s takeaway from Frank’s story 13:36 Frank’s Actionable Advice: Take a little more time to do a little bit more research. Just slow it down so that it's not an impulse action that is going to come back and burn your fingers to the bone.   Main Takeaways Lesson 1: “When you invest in the stock market, don't invest for the short term, invest for the long term.” - Frank Moffatt Lesson 2: “Don't get in if you don't have the money to back yourself up.” - Frank Moffatt  Lesson 3: “If anybody contacts you by phone, verbally or anything about an investment, that's your cue not to invest in that.” - Andrew Stotz Lesson 4. “When people come into the stock market for the first time, sometimes they just think, hey, this is how it's done. You know, this is how people make it because they get a good tip from somebody and they got the guts to go in and do it. But the reality is that at that time you knew nothing about all of this. So you, you went in like ready to give away your money.” - Andrew Stotz    You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock...

Attila  Koksal is a Board member of Unlu Securities, Turkey’s leading investment house. He began his career in 1985 at the Center for International Financial Research, Inc., in Princeton. Between 1988 and 2001, he held senior positions in Turkey’s leading financial institutions and associations until he became a partner at Dundas Unlu. He currently serves as a board member of Unlu & Co., Turkey’s leading investment house and holds board positions in a number of Turkish and international institutions. He served six years on the CFA Institute Board of Governors. He also previously served as Presidents Council Representative of CFA Institute EMEA region, and as President of the CFA Istanbul Society. He holds an MBA from Drexel University and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Bogazici University. In this episode, Attila shares his worst investment ever story venturing in the power generation industry and how government policy interference affected their business.    “With every investment, you should do your homework. You should really understand the implications of the investment and the possible outcomes.” - Attila Koksal What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   www.myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered:  00:54 – Attila Koksal’s professional background as a serial investment banker 03:25 – Sharing his worst investment story venturing in the volatile market of the energy sector 04:15 – Setting up a co-generation plant to aid the power shortage in Turkey 04:44 – Their well-planned business feasibility: electricity to be sold to the grid and the by-product steam to be sold to local industrial companies close to their plant. 06:00 – He shared how they funded the plant: personal saving and bank leverages 07:23 – Factors affecting the energy prices: energy market regulators, an agreement between Russia where they import their natural gas, and government mandates 08:21 – How Turkey’s elections and the government’s populistic moves affected the electricity price 09:07 – The start of the plant losing money: high natural gas costs and they could not sell the steam 09:41 – Having an IRR is 10-12% for project 10:22 – The time they decided to stop operating and the start of selling off the energy production plant’s equipment 11:21 – Having a recoup of around 10% of their initial investment from the equipment that has been sold 13:44 – Factors that affected their revenue line: competition, government incentives for the use of coal for energy production 14:45 – Lessons Attila learned from the experience and the thing they missed that caused the loss 15:50 – The impact of the political intervention to any investment 17:58 – Did his relationship with his partner got affected after the business failed? 19:36 – Andrew’s takeaways from Attila’s story about failing in business Main Takeaways Lesson 1: “I don't think you should invest in an industry or a company which can be subject to political interventions.”- Attila Koksal Lesson 2: “With every investment, you should do your homework. You should really understand the implications of the investment and the possible outcomes.” -...

Karl-Mikael Syding was a hedge fund manager for 15 years. In 2010, Futuris, his 1.3 Billion dollars global long and short equity hedge fund received Hedge Fund Review's award as "The European Hedge Fund of The Decade". As one of three partners at Futuris, his responsibilities included investments in financials, software & IT services, plus professional support services and leisure. Before joining Futuris, he was the head IT analyst at Sweden’s largest bank, covering mainly Nordic Software and IT services stocks.  Mikael has a Master’s degree in financial economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. He retired from Futuris in 2014 to pursue the meaning of life.  In this episode, Mikael shares his worst investment ever story, how their Futuris hedge fund lost over $100-million during the Greek government debt crisis. Because of this experience, he realized the importance of neutrality when making big financial decisions.    “Do not be afraid. Losing is the lesson that you will benefit the most from.” - Karl-Mikael Syding What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   www.myworstinvestmentever.com The Retarded Hedge Fund Manager  Topics Covered:  01:01 – Karl Mikael Syding’s professional and personal background 02:12 – His breakthrough moment realizing gratification from luxury lifestyle is not the true fulfillment 04:15 – His advice for people who want to pursue buying luxury things, the importance of awareness in identifying wants and needs 04:15 – His advice for people who want to pursue buying luxury things, the importance of awareness in identifying wants and needs 06:22 – The financial backstory of his worst investment 08:01 – Massive debt build-up: Impact of low-interest rate and Greece overspending habits 12:35 – The defining moment of his worst mistake- European Central Bank’s reinterpretation of the Rulebook of Central Banking and the support to the Government 15:33 – His partner’s decision to close the position 17:07 – Lessons from the experience, taking neutrality, relearning old lessons of finance 19:03 – Andrew’s takeaways from Mikael’s experience, taking about zero-based thinking 22:17 – Mikael’s actionable advice to help listeners protect their investment: Avoid hiding and hoping. Talk about the situation and explain it in details to others. Main Takeaways Lesson 1: Take some kind of a pause or break. If it is in financials, just neutralize the position for a while and think about it. Because then you might get another kind of perspective on what you are doing. Because as long as you are in the heat of it is difficult to think clearly. Lesson 2: Realize that if things are going against you in such a big way, then there is something you are not understanding. Even if it is not on the fundamental level it could be something completely different. It could be the flow of money, other people’s perceptions. Just be open to the idea that an unsustainable situation can actually be prolonged for a very long time.  Lesson 3: Politicians will really do anything....

Yoshimasa Satoh, CFA, is APAC’s Product Strategist and Solutions Specialist. He is also the Vice President at eVestment, which is a NASDAQ company. He has been in charge of portfolio management, multi-asset investment strategy and asset allocation model development throughout his career. Previously, he served as a portfolio manager of quantitative investment strategies at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and other companies. He started his career at Nomura Research Institute, where he led Nomura Securities’ equity trading technology team. Yoshimasa is a member of CFA Society Japan. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree of engineering from the University of Tsukuba. In this episode, Yoshimasa shares his worst investment ever story. He did not use his time horizons to plan his goals in life. He did not contemplate on thinking about his future. Instead, he worked so hard doing jobs he did not like at first. It was a good thing that later on, he took the leap to learn and exposed himself to the financial management industry which is his interest.    “You have to find your own career path. Find the best one for yourself and live your own best life.” - Yoshimasa Satoh     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com   Topics Covered:  00:57 – Yoshimasa Satoh’s professional and personal background 02:22 – Yoshimasa shares his worst investment ever story not investing his time for himself early on in his life 06:04 – Lessons that Yoshimasa learned from the experience, knowing what you really want to do and creating a long-term career plan for yourself 07:20 – Andrew’s breakthrough story with her sister, doing the things we are good at and doing the things we like and what we enjoy 11:37 – Yoshimasa’s actionable tip to avoid people from going through the same pain Main Takeaways Lesson 1: To keep always be looking for the things you enjoy. For work and in like and try to pursue those. Not from an extent that you are always going to be happy, but you’d be doing the things you enjoy, rather than just making money from the things you did not enjoy. Investing in yourself is the best return on investment you can have. It may be investing in learning a new skill, personal and professional development or pursuing your passion. You need to give time to yourself so you can align your plan and achieve the life you want to live. Lesson 2: To focus on your future. You should always be writing your plans. It is like driving a car. When you are diving a car, you’ve got to look down and you’ve got to also look up. You just can’t focus on what is right in front of you. Or you’ll eventually crash. Lesson 3: Think of long-term. If companies are short-term focused, that gives a great opportunity for those companies that are long-term focused. So do not be afraid to take a long-term view, in your personal and professional life. It is not always going to be popular. But I can tell you over time you can win. You can also check out Andrew’s books <a href=...

Stuart Leckie is based in Hong Kong and advises on investments and pensions in Hong Kong and Mainland China. He is the author of books titled "Pension Funds in China" and "Investment Funds in China". He was Founding Chairman of the Hong Kong Retirement Schemes Association, acts as an advisor or trustee to a number of funds and was the Chairman of the CFA Institute Advisory Council on Standards and Financial Market Integrity.     Stuart. Leckie worked in life insurance in the UK before moving to Hong Kong. He served as the Chairman of Willis Towers Watson (formerly Watson Wyatt) in Asia-Pacific and as Chairman of Fidelity Investments, Asia-Pacific. He has advised the Chinese Government on pension’s reform and advised the Hong Kong Government on the establishment of the Mandatory Provident Fund.     In this episode Stuart shares his worst investment ever story, investing £500,000 in an affiliate product he did not deeply understand which was actually offered by a trusted friend. Eventually, he stopped investing further after realizing he needed to do more due diligence into the person he originally trusted.    “Do not be afraid to ask information to people. If they do not like it, the investment is not for you.” - Stuart Leckie     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Pension Funds in China by Stuart Leckie Investment Funds in China. A new look by Stuart Leckie and Rita Xiao Topics Covered:  00:44 – Stuart Leckie’s professional and personal background 02:33 – Stuart shares his worst investment ever story venturing into an affiliate product he did not understand 03:40 – Finding out that his trusted friend did not do his due diligence about the investment 04:28 – One of the personnel of the investment unaccounted the collected investment to the fund 06:11 – Availing the UK government grant for tax refund 07:16 – Lessons that Stuart learned from the experience 08:17 – The importance of reporting and transparency in any investment 09:42 – The circumstance that led him to invest in the fund his friend was offering him 10:40 – The different investment red flags Stuart encountered   Main Takeaways Lesson 1: Do not touch things you do not understand. Get proper due diligence done. Performing due diligence will give you the necessary information that you need and it will help you vet out a possible investment. Lesson 2: Do not be afraid to push people especially those who are involved in your investment. If they do not like it that means that the investment is not for you. Do not be patient with people who seem to follow the time in the world and do what he likes about it.  Lesson 3: Importance of reporting and transparency in any investment.  Regularly sending the newsletter about the investment is important. Listing over the 9-parts bad news and the one-part good news. Financial reporting is...

Alan Lim Seong Chun is currently a Senior Research Analyst at the research division of MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Berhad. He has close to 10 years’ experience as a sell-side analyst and has covered sectors which include plantation, property, REITs, and telecommunication. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with a first degree in Computer Science from University of Technology, Malaysia. Alan consistently achieved high Bloomberg ranking for stocks under his coverage. As of 21 August 2018, he is ranked No 1 for IOI Corporation Berhad, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, FIMA Corporation and Ta Ann.  In this episode, Alan shares how complacency brought by the property boom weakened his risk awareness leading to his worst investment.     “Success can lead to complacency. We thought that things that go up will probably go up further.” - Alan Lim Seong Chun     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Topics Covered:  00:57 – Alan Lim’s professional and personal background 02:33 – Alan shares his worst investment ever story and the circumstances that lead to it 04:10 – Acquiring his second property thinking that the same return like his first will continue 04:33 – Negative cashflow from the second property 05:32 – Alan shares his feeling from his first property success 06:45 – Why financial professionals do not apply their principles when doing their investment decisions? 08:06 – Lessons that Alan learned from the experience 10:18– Andrew’s takeaways from Alan’s investment story 14:02– Actionable advice that Alan recommend for people to avoid suffering the same investment mistake Main Takeaways Lesson 1: The concept of liquidity. When you buy a house or start a business, the liquidity of what you are buying is very low. It is very hard to get out. It is not an easy thing to get in and out of. Unlike in stock market or Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), you can buy and sell them in the stock market. Lesson 2: Property investment can be a trap. Because you do not have liquidity, you put your money in, you got the financing from the bank and all of a sudden everything falls. It is hard to find a buyer for it and you are basically stuck in it. Lesson 3: Buying condominiums and this type of properties and thinking you got to rent it out. Remember it is a whole business. There are people who are running a business of renting out, and therefore there is a lot of overhead, hassle and a lot to it. Lesson 4: You can earn a return in Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) somewhere between 5%-9% depending on the market that it is in. The capital appreciation is low for REIT it does not grow that much compared to a normal company but people can look at a REIT as a relatively safe low volatility way of investing money and getting a dividend or higher return. Not always, but that REIT is something that has liquidity and you could get out if it does not work. Lesson 5: Never believe what other people say about their investments. Because a lot of people only talk...

A few of the firsts in Michael Markels’ career include the origination of the World Bank’s inaugural Sharia-compliant MYR bond and swaps back to $US libor; the first securitization of bank loans in eastern Europe, which reduced mismatches on the balance sheet of Slovenia’s largest bank; and the execution of the inaugural “N” transactions, in which the Resolution Trust Corporation sold management rights, bond debt and equity in large pools on non-performing mortgages.   Michael Markels is an expert at raising funds at scale for rated borrowers and for pools of assets in structured transactions, in times of crisis and of growth.  He understands the strategy, having worked on the RTC disposition asset disposition strategy.  In addition to being an MD at Standard Chartered, responsible for the P&L generated by major financial institution clients, he arranged fund management products for their private bank shelf.  Mike has deep relationships in the financial markets, developed over twenty years in a series of resident assignments with the US Treasury (Bosina), the World Bank (Thailand and India) and with Stan Chart and ABN AMRO (Singapore and Thailand).  Mike teaches bank examiners in BCLMV countries, in the context of ASEAN integration.  Mike has been using his experience in the bond markets and in development to help UNDP take a leadership role in SDG finance.   In this episode, Michael shares the marital risk of financial investments, the importance of managing expectation when investing on a hunch and setting an exit strategy.    “Platinum moved away from us. Gold moved away from us. We just hung in there in the view that it will turn around. It never did.” - Michael Markels     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here!   Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Topics Covered:  00:26 – Michael Markels professional and personal background 03:21 – Gold and platinum trading investment Michael and his wife ventured in, and the circumstances leading up to their worst investment 05:16 – Their forecast on the platinum’s performance over gold causing them to lose $100,000- $150,000 07:21 – Michael describes their position on their platinum and gold investment 08:02 – What supported the investment decision? 09:28 – The emotional situation in their relationship during their exiting strategy 11:55 – Michael’s takeaways from their losers 14:55 – Michael’s actionable advice to help people protect their investment Main Takeaways Lesson 1: Be careful with the massive market. It is not easy to make money. The counterparty you’re trading against has a huge balance sheet. And the ability to act very differently other you may think. Lesson 2: In every single trade you make, you have to think about what is your exit strategy. An exit strategy may be executed for the purpose of exiting a non-performing investment. Lesson 3: Consider behavioral and emotional factor especially when investing as a couple. The behavioral factors and the emotional factor within the world of finance are so powerful if you decide to get involved with a spouse. When couples want to make the most of their investment dollars,

Colin McLean is the Founder and CEO of SVM Asset Management, an independent Edinburgh-based fund management group specializing in UK, European & Global equities. Colin is a regular member of CFA Institute and was elected to the Board of Governors in 2012. He is a Fellow of CFA UK, a Chartered Fellow of CISI and a Fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries. Colin is also an Honorary Professor at Heriot-Watt University, lecturing in behavioral finance, and guest lecturer at a number of universities. He is a regular contributor to financial media and conference speaker on investment, hedge funds, and behavioral finance. In this episode, Colin shares the importance of bringing in some contrary view and dealing with the emotion particularly challenges in value investors.  “It is a declining business. But of course, as value investors, you always think there is potential recovery. ” -Colin McLean     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Topics Covered:  00:56 – Colin McLean’s professional background 02:51 – The type of investment Colin ventured in, and the circumstances leading up to his worst investment 03:20 – Colin shares his value investing story: investing in a 100-year old legacy retail company 04:55 – Warning signs of a declining investment 07:47 – Colin’s takeaway from the experience 09:21 – Value investor insight, contrarian value investing 09:45 – How does a value investor reconcile prevailing wins against consensus 13:58 – Colin’s actionable advice to help people protect their investment Main Takeaways Lesson 1: You need to look much harder for what the negative view is. It is very important in owning a stock, not only to have a view of your own analysis. But to try to understand where the consensus is, where the market is because you need it in making a decision to differ from the consensus. If there is a disconnect between your analysis and what is happening with the share price, you need that contrary view into your own mindset. Lesson 2: Cut the position almost automatically if the things persistently move against your analysis. Taking a position is not a difficult thing to do, you can easily convince yourself with the remaining two-thirds of your portfolio, if you are right ultimately, because the two-thirds will be more than the recovery of the money but you are actually one step closer towards reducing the emotional impact of the loss. Lesson 3: Nothing is sacred in investing even 100-year old companies can go bust. Lesson 4: Trying to make money in a declining industry is hard. From a research perspective, identifying segments within the industry can potentially prevent you from overly pessimistic or optimistic about a general industry. Lesson 5: Be willing to immediately take a portion of the position off if a share price falls. Partial cut loss can protect your gains. It does not mean your analysis is wrong, it just means that it was possibly mean the wrong time. Lesson 6: Have a counter-narrative of your analysis. Let people...

Mike Matoney has been the CEO of New Directions for the past 7 years, and also the CEO of Crossroads & Beacon Health for the past 23 years in Cleveland, Ohio. Mike did his undergraduate and graduate MBA studies at Cleveland State University, focusing on Marketing and Quality Improvement as his primary field of study. He began his career as a supervisor at Huron Road Hospital in 1985 and eventually worked his way up through the industry to his current positions.  This episode tells a type of the worst investment... investment of time. Hear Mike’s relational investment story, how being in a relationship of convenience shattered his self-esteem and self-worth.    “You’ve got to act your way into better thinking. Rather than think your way into better action.” -Mike Matoney     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com   Topics Covered:  02:00 – Andrew shares his 35-years friendship with Mike and how they met in the rehab facility, Mike being his counselor 02:51 – Mike shares his level of relational investment experience 03:32 – The circumstances that lead to Mike’s worst relational investment experience: Being in an on-off relationship with a girl for two years, with 8 breakups at the age of 16. 06:25 – Mike’s valuable learning from his experience and the impact it brought to his life  07:00 – Andrew summarizes the critical learning point from Mike’s experience  09:26 – Mike’s actionable steps for people to protect their investment of time in relationships 09:16 – Importance of investment risk management Main Takeaways Lesson 1: Listen. When things aren’t right sometimes we do not open doors to it. We do not listen to the feedback of the people outside our relationship. It is important that we listen and be aware of how your relationship is molding us as a person. We need to acknowledge our position before we get lost in our emotion and eventually making us lose our self-worth. Lesson 2: Self-esteem is important. The sense of self-worth and self-respect to keep any relationship. These attitudes stem from your adherence to judgments and values. People with a great sense of self-respect see themselves as worthy and deserving of happiness. It is important that you know your worth before you start investing your time and emotion to any relationship. Lesson 3: Overcome your fear. Acknowledge the fear or the insecurity and invite someone in whom you trust and cares about your well-being. They can really become their sage and kind of help you through. It is a matter of staying open, acknowledging your insecurities, your fears and staying open not staying closed.  You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market <a href=...

Lasse-Peter Pestel is an Investment Strategist at Deka Investment in Frankfurt Am Main. He self-describes as having grown up between two cultures - Germany and Finland. He later added to this cultural mix by through extensive investing experience in Asia, in particular, Thailand and Taiwan. Starting his career as an intern at Georg Reisse GmbH CoKgin 2004, Lasse-Peter worked for over a dozen different companies including DE-Consult in Taipei City and Fidelity Investments in Frankfurt, Germany. Lasse-Peter also earned an MBA degree focusing on statistical studies such as econometrics and its usefulness in banking, risk management, and portfolio management. His work has always been with companies active in capital markets. These companies have been focused on fund management, portfolio construction, and asset simulations regarding return and risks, and various tax issues in relation to stock returns.   In this episode, Lasse-Peter Pestel shares his investment experience venturing into government bond investments that are based on political rationality without knowing and studying the risk that comes with it, only focusing on the projected returns.   “Make your research then sit back. And let your common sense run a little bit. Just rethink if there are really irrationality on it or not.” -Lasse-Peter Pestel     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here!   Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Topics Covered:  00:53 – Lasse-Peter Pestel’s professional and investment background 02:41 – The circumstances that lead to Lasse’s worst investment experience: venturing into government bonds under Eurozone bailout plans 03:08 – Troika’s patchy record on bailouts of distressed Eurozone countries 04:30 – Converting government bonds to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) Bond that has a longer maturity period of 25-30 years 06:51 – Lasse’s Learnings from the experience 07:53 – Andrew summarizes the critical learning point from Lasse’s experience 08:51 – Hedge Fund Trade in the Credit Default Swap (CDS) Market 09:16 – Importance of investment risk management Main Takeaways Lesson 1: If you think history repeats itself, don't follow the herd.Just because you see a pattern in the past, and it repeated itself three times or five times. It doesn’t mean that that pattern will repeat itself again. You could be the unlucky one at the unlucky time. If things worked two times as it did before, they do not necessarily work the third time. Lesson 2: Do not rely on politicians to provide your return. Because when things go bad, they’ll throw you into the open market. Political rationality is not the same as economic rationality. Once these two collide, economic rationality tends to win. Lesson 3: Be careful in following the market and the sentiment...

Paul Gambles is the co-founder of the MBMG Group and the Chief Investment Officer of MBMG's Asset Management Division—which now oversees clients’ assets in excess of US $400 million.    Paul is a member of the Advisory Board of IDEA Economics and a well-known expert commentator who appears regularly on national and international television. Paul has written a great number of academic research papers, articles, and opinion columns, while also finding the time to write over 2,000 editions of the blog, “MBMG Update” and “Paul’s Update.” Paul Gambles holds a degree in English and European Literature and Studies from the University of Warwick. Furthermore, he is licensed by the Thai SEC as a Securities Fundamental Investment Analyst and a financial planner.   In this episode, Paul Gambles shares his experience working as an advisor for a range of investment fund in Mauritius. Learn how the organizational, institutional and regulatory changes affected the investment that eventually prompted the suspension of the fund by the Mauritius regulators.    “We found ourselves in the situation that we were acting as an advisor to a range of funds. We entered into that with a certain range of assumptions. Those have changed as time went on. The investment mistake was we did not fully realize just how much that will going to impact the investment.”  -Paul Gambles  What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast?  Tell us here!  Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book    myworstinvestmentever.com     Topics Covered:   01:22 – Paul Gambles’ professional background   03:09 – Paul describes his investment background and his investment personality  06:23 – Paul shares his worst investment story: Setting up an investment business in Mauritius  08:52 – Where things go wrong: Situation change in terms of the overall structure of the entity, the parties behind the entity, and the people who were involved in the entity  09:43 – The difference between having an investment idea versus putting the investment idea into action  10:37 – How he reacted when he realized that there are many risks going on  11:44 – Suspension of the fund by the Mauritius regulators  13:53 – Growing problems of the Mauritius Financial Services regulators  15:48 – What Paul learned from the experience and how it affected how he does business now  19:23 – Andrew summarizes the critical learning point from Paul’s experience   Main Takeaways    Lesson 1: Do not miss the idea that the financial infrastructure and framework is just as important to any investment thesis. And must remain absolute as it should be at all time.  Lesson 2: When investing in start-ups you got to have trust. You’ve got to have a great idea and that person has to have good execution. If the trust falls apart or the structure falls apart you are not going to get the gain even if the gain is in the vehicle.  Lesson 3: We need to be consistently checking our investment. Monitor how the things change over time. Is the person that you entered into business with a year ago, still acting the same way and in the same trustworthy way as the year previously? Or if they have been bought out by somebody else, be very careful and fully understand all the...

David Ying is a Senior Consultant at the Systex Corporation in Taipei since 2012. David Ying holds a bachelor degree in Economics from National Taiwan University, along with an MBA degree, and an Executive MBA degree in Business Administration.   In 1982, David started his career as a banking officer at Continental Illinois National Bank (CINB) located in Taipei City, where he was promoted to loan officer. He has more than 35 years of experience working for a dozen companies, including 5 years at International Investment Trust Company Ltd in Taiwan, 4 years at Dow Jones Telerate and the last 20 years at Systex Corporation.  In this episode, David Ying shares his big dreams during the DotCom era leading to a painful start-up venture that brought his years' worth of salary into the bubble.    “Investment pretty much at that time [dotcom era] is driven by your behavior and driven by the environment. Lots of people around you say, ‘Yeah, I make a lot of money because I invest in the internet’. ” -David Ying     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Topics Covered:  00:56 – David Ying’s professional background  02:09 – David as a risk-averse investor 03:01 – The circumstances that lead to David’s Dot.Com investment 05:01 – What persuade him to venture into internet business during the Dotcom era 06:09 – The type of start-up cosmetics business that he ventured in dreaming it to be as big as Amazon and Yahoo 08:33 – How big of an investment was it relative to the money he had 09:11 – Andrew summarizes the critical learning point from David’s experience  10:37 – Jack Ma’s experience when he visited Taiwan for venture funding  Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: People easily fall for the fear-of-missing-out. When you hear your friends and everybody talking about their winners and you are thinking that you are missing out, and you try to belong to the fad and invest your way to what they are doing. Lesson 2: The Dot-Com start-up period was the time of BIG DREAMS, BIG FADS. As you get older you recognize big dreams, big fads period is much better when you are younger. Lesson 3: Not all people will become a superstar like Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai. You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever <a href=...

Katsunari Yamaguchi, Ph.D., CFA, CMA, Chairman, Ibbotson Associates Japan, Inc. He joined The Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan (LTCB) in 1979. He worked as portfolio manager for LTCB’s asset management subsidiaries, LTCB-MAS in U.S. and LTCB Investment Management, from 1986 to 1999. He founded Ibbotson Associates Japan, Inc. in 2000, and served over 15 years as president since then. He has been its chairman since 2016. He also served as visiting professor in finance at Graduate School in Economics of Senshu University from 2003 to 2008, and as visiting lecturer for finance course at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy. He is also a visiting lecturer at leading universities in Asset Management Courses co-sponsored by Japan Securities Investment Advisors Association and Investment Trust Association, Japan. Currently, he serves as director for Nippon Finance Association and advisor for Association of Behavioral Economics and Finance. He holds CFA and CMA.  He graduated from Hitotsubashi University in 1979 with BA in social studies and from Yale School of Management in 1986 with MPPM. He earned Ph.D., in Economics at Senshu University in 2008.  He authored a book, Risk Premium on the Japanese Economy (2007), and translated two books, Capital Ideas (2006) and Capital Ideas Evolving (2009), both authored by Peter L. Bernstein). In addition, he published many academic and professional articles, of which he was awarded Security Analysts Journal Prize twice in 1991 and 2005.   In this episode, Katsunari shares his close to painful experience with a government venture project, how he intuitively projected the outcome and realized the risk early on.     “When it comes to the whole picture of any investment, we have to consider not only cost side and tax side. We have to consider the potential risk and return together with the tax reduction benefits.” -Katsunari Yamaguchi     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Topics Covered:  01:11 – Katsunari Yamaguchi’s professional and investment background  04:16 – Venturing to government’s Accelerated Depreciation program to reduce his business’ tax 06:10 – European Government venture similar to Japan’s Mega Solar Power Project   06:42  – Katsunari’s intuitive projection: bankruptcy and project did not fully materialize  07:25 – Katsunari’s Key Takeaways from the experience 08:36 – Andrew explains what Accelerated Depreciation model is all about 09:40 – Andrew summarizes the critical learning point from Katsunari’s experience  11:52 – Katsunari’s actionable advice to help listeners protect their investment: Try to be modest about taking the risk and do it gradually not one time beating the market inch by inch and in small winning. Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: It is okay to hear some expert’s advice but when it comes to the whole picture of any investment, we have to consider not only the cost side, tax side. We have to consider the potential...

Emil Voehlert is the commercial manager at aCommerce – a company based in Bangkok that provides e-commerce Solutions throughout Southeast Asia. Emil started his career as Web Technician and later Client coordinator for customers from Thailand at Mobillos.dk in Denmark. Later he moved to Thailand and developed his career there, working as a business development manager position at Tropical Focus and commercial effectiveness manager at Novo Nordisk.   Emil has a growth mindset and strives for constant improvement through education. He entered Stamford International University in 2011 and graduated with a Bachelor degree of Business Administration. In 2018 graduated with a Master of Science (M.Sc) from Thammasat University.   In this episode, Emil shares his painful stock equities investment story because of his overconfidence and improper portfolio approach.     "Keep investing and keep doing it over time. You got time on your side. It is all about compounding over the years." -Emil Voehlert     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book   myworstinvestmentever.com    Topics Covered:  00:50 – Emil Voehlert’s professional and investment background  02:42 – Emil describes his level of investing experience  03:28 – Emil describes the circumstances that led him to invest in German stock market  04:25 – Emil sharing his investment theme with his family and friends  05:47 – He and his friends experiencing a 10% gain on Deutsche Bank  06:34 – His stock’s performance compared to their entry point  07:20 – His supposedly cut loss at -40%   07:51 – Emil’s Takeaways from his investment experience   08:43 – Andrew summarizes the critical learning point from Emil’s experience  12:44 – Emil’s actionable advice to help listeners protect their investment: Do not just take it and use any words from friends at face value.  Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: Do not fall into the Fear of missing out. When it comes to investing, FOMO is significantly impacted by recency bias. Our fear of missing out becomes more and more intense after the market has just experienced an uptick. If we take a couple of steps back, it is clear why we maintain a diversified portfolio – it provides the most appealing tradeoff between maximizing returns and minimizing risk.  Lesson 2: Focus on your level of research. It is not enough to just develop an investment theme and build confidence in your idea.  Lesson 3: Have a zero-based thinking concept. Ask yourself and say, " If I did not own it today will I add it?" It is one way to add clarity. Zero-Based Thinking goes against the traditional dogma of sticking with something even if it does more personal damage to you than good, which is often one of the biggest problems in investing namely attempting to make something work that you wouldn’t even have gotten into in the first place had you known...