This is another inspiring story to prove that anybody can succeed in achieving their dreams if they put their mind to it. No obstacle, no matter how insurmountable, can stop you from being successful.

Meet Laura Sloate, aged 65. When Laura was aged 6, she became blind as a result of an illness that caused her retinas to become detached. When Laura was aged 10, she found her passion…stocks! Her dad who was an investor who would call her in on New Year’s Eve to calculate the value of his portfolio. She says she’d do the calculations in her head faster than he could with a pad and pencil.

She dreamt of becoming a stock analyst and a to make millions from the stock market. Her dream drove her to study hard and despite her blindness, graduated with a Masters Degree in History. While interviewing for her first job as a securities analyst, a research chief at a brokerage firm basically told her to forget about a career on Wall Street. “He said, ‘You have three things against you: You’re a woman; you can’t see; and you’re inexperienced,’ ”

Laura refused to believe it. She says, ‘”Blindness isn’t an obstacle. It just forces you to do things differently.” She proved him wrong. After landing her first job as a stock analyst after many many stinging rejections, she went on to become one of the top stock analysts and investors on Wall Street, achieving a 20%+ annual compounded return from the stock market that turned her into a millionaire.

Today, she manages a $405 million stock portfolio even though she can’t read a stock chart, scan a spreadsheet or look at an annual report. In 1974, she started her own investment firm, Sloate Weisman Murray & Co., She also manages the Strong Value fund, which gained 13% in 2008 despite the stock market’s crash during the financial crisis.

Paying the Price
So, how did Laura succeed despite all the odds stacked against her? How is she able to beat 95% of other stock analysts and money managers who only make 10%+ return a year and lost millions in the financial crisis?

It is because she is willing to pay the price for success and to work 10 times harder than a normal person who can see.

Laura sleeps less than four hours a night. Her day starts at 3:45 a.m. The minute she gets up she “flips on” the paper. Picking up the phone, she dials a number and keys in a six-digit access code. When the call connects, she gets a line-by-line account of stories published by top national newspapers

To keep up her level of energy at fitness (she is aged 65), she starts her exercise at 5:30 a.m. she’s climbing up and down 75 flights of stairs in her Manhattan apartment building. A personal trainer arrives at 6 a.m. to spot her during her workout with weights. The fit 5-foot-6, 110-pound Sloate bench-presses 60 pounds 60 times — in three consecutive supersets. She arrives at her Park Avenue office by 8:30 a.m.

Once at her office, she spends the whole day analyzing the stock market, news and other financial data. Because she’s blind, she uses technology to feed her the information.

She listens to breaking business news that spills out of her PC’s speakers at 320 words per minute. To Check stock quotes, she hits the F3 key on her PC and punches in the symbol ‘C’. A robotic voice responds with a quote for Citigroup, her top holding: “C… Bid … 50 … Point … 5265 … End … Ask … 50 … Point … 750 … End.”

To reading e-mail, she double clicks on a message from a Wall Street analyst dissecting Citigroup’s earnings report released before the bell. The computer reads the e-mail’s content to her . He work ends only midnight, every day! That is how you become the best in the world at what you do, you must be willing to pay the price.

Multi-bagger stocks do not come from investing in established companies, but they exist in the realm of ‘small companies’. When you buy an established company, with a wide economic moat, you can make consistent profits of 15%-25% like Warren Buffett and myself (er…hmm). However, to make multiple returns on your money, you have to know how to pick the right ‘Small Capitalization Stocks’ before they become medium, big and eventually, mega capitalization companies.

One person specializes in finding the stocks of small cap companies before they become famous brands, before they develop an economic moat and before stock analysts and investors even know they exist. His name is Jason Wee (BSc, CFA). While most people make their millions in business (myself included) and real estate and subsequently grow their net worth from stocks, Jason has become a multi-millionaire solely from investing in the stock market!

A Top Equity Research Head and The Trainer of Analysts

At age 40, after making millions for himself and his clients, Jason retired from his position as Head of Asian small caps Research at CLSA (Asia’s leading investment brokerage and investment group). During his final years there, he created three model portfolios for clients which doubled their value within two years! In acknowledgement for his broad experience and ability to sift through thousands of stocks to unearth these rare gems, he was voted the best analyst providing research for Asia’s smaller companies by investors across all three continents (Asia, Europe, US) in the prestigious Greenwich poll in 2005.

Here are some of the leading brands that he identified and bought way before any other analysts recommended it and way before anyone else got in… And more importantly, he knew went to get out before they started getting overvalued and moving down from their peaks.

Golden Agri- Resources
Jason recommended this stock to his clients and bought in at $0.18 in May 2006. The stock climbed to a high of $0.90+ (a 500% return/ 5-bagger)!

Datacraft Asia
Jason recommended Datacraft in 1998 to his clients and bought in at $1.80. The stock climbed to a $8 before he sold for a 400% return/ 4-bagger!

China Overseas Land
Jason recommended this stock to his clients and bought in at less than $ 1.50 in 2004. The stock climbed to a high of $17 (a 1000% return/ 10-bagger)!

Other hugely profitable picks by Jason include Ezra, Olam and Raffles Education ( a 10 bagger.. )

An Opportunity to Learn How to Pick Stocks Like the Pros…

Would you like to learn how Jason identifies, researches and selects these multi-baggers? Would you want to know the ones that he has identified today? Up till now, he only trains other analysts and investment professionals at the CFA program (Chartered Financial Analyst) and gives short talks at the Singapore Stock Exchange, where he has written many of their investment guides.

I am really excited because I have managed to convince him to run a full fledged training program for non-professionals investors FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME in Singapore. Trust me, it was tough to get him to do this as money was not his motivator. I had to promise him something else….

Adam Khoo Learning technologies Group is really proud to bring the ‘Asian Stock Investor’ programme to you. It will be run from 23-26 September in Singapore. I will be making a guest appearance to cover the basics of investor psychology as well.

What You Will Learn…

These are just some of the things you will learn in the ‘Asian Stock Investor’. You can get more details from our Brochure as well.

1) Advanced stock valuation techniques. Learn how to value all kinds of companies from banks to manufacturing and services companies using in-depth valuation models.
2) How to identify companies before they develop their economic moats and become market leaders
3) How to analyze the most profitable sectors and markets that will growth your portfolio in the next 10 years
4) How to beat professional stock analysts and professional investors at their own game and much more…..

Grab the Opportunity and Take Action

If you want to enhance your investing skills and become a great stock investor, then grab the opportunity and take action by registering (call 65-62740105) for the next preview on 17 August (tues), 7pm at AKLTG training centre, Singapore. If you are afraid all the seats will be snapped up by then, you can also sign up right away by calling my office or emailing daniel@akltg.com

It was great seeing so many of you at the Wealth Academy Expo! We had a sell out event with 1,300 people in attendance. The 2 full days were packed with amazing speakers that were made up of top professional traders/ investors, CEOs, economists, real estate strategists, investment analysts. The crowd got immense value and all the financial knowledge to help them to achieve their financial goals.

We had Fengshui and Bazhi expert Joey Yap talk about how to understand our wealth profile and maximizing our luck; Patrick Liew talking about how to make your fortune from real estate; Keong Hee talking about profiting from the Euro and other forex strategies’ Merry Riana on how she made her first million at the age of 26 despite starting with nothing; Jason Wee talking about how to discover undervalued China stocks etc… For those of you who missed this great event, we are going to be selling the video on DVD really soon. So look out for it.

The Expo also saw the launch of my latest book, ‘Profit from the Asian Recovery’ that I authored with Veteran Equity Analyst and investor, Jason Wee. Over 800+ copies were grabbed in just a few hours. This latest book should be hitting Singapore’s bookshelves in the next few days and will be reaching malaysia, Indonesia really soon. Those of you who are from far away can soon download the ebook version once we get it up.

On Jan 24, I launched my book ‘Profit from the Panic- How to profit from the Worst Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression’. At the time, the US market (Dow Jones) had plunged from 14,000 points to 8,000 points (a 43% decline) and the Singapore market crashed from 3,800 points to 1700 points (a 56% decline). Great companies like Singapore Exchange (SGX), Capitaland, General Electric, American Express etc… were selling 50%-90% below their intrinsic values.

Sentiment in the market was that of FEAR. Very few people dared to buy stocks after losing so much money in the last 15 months since the crisis started. I on the other hand, was feeling really GREEDY for huge profits.

My main purpose of writing the book then was that I knew that the stock market was very much undervalued and that the market downturn was coming near to the bottom (although I did not know exactly when it would be). I also shared the fact that from studying the history of past recessions, what goes down MUST always come up. In the long term, the stock market will ALWAYS recover higher than ever before.

The book was to share with people how I was selecting the best stocks to buy at the time. In the book, I gave lots of ideas such as buying oil futures ETF (USO), S&P 500 ETF (SPY), Dow Jones ETF (DIA) and China ETF (FXI), all 50%-70% down from its pre-crisis levels. I also shared about how I selected super undervalued companies like American Express (intrinsic value of $60) selling at only $16 & General Electric (intrinsic value $30), selling at only $11.

I also talked about buying singapore stocks like Bestworld International (intrinsic value $0.78) selling at $0.19, SGX (intrinsic value $7.60) selling at $5 and Capitaland (intrinsic value $3.60) selling at just $1.90. I said that anybody who wanted to make lots of money had to grab this once in a lifetime opportunity where it was the great Singapore and Wall Street Sale for Stocks.

At that time people thought I was crazy for suggesting to buy stocks while the economy was in a recession. Sure enough, the market kept going lower for the next one month, and I accumulated more and more stocks. What gave me the confidence then? Well, I knew that history always repeated itself and the wise words of Warren Buffett gave me confidence: ‘Be greedy when others and fearful and be fearful when others are greedy’. Buy stocks when nobody else wants to buy and start selling when everyone realizes that it is time to buy.

Then in March 2009, the stock market made a turn and stocks exploded upwards. For the last 4 months (Mar-July) The US Market has risen 41% to 9,200 points and the Singapore market has risen 73% to 2,600 points.

Most of my stock picks have near doubled and some even tripled from when I bought them. Here are some of the gains I have made since then. American Express made +69.23%, Bestworld made +83.33%,, GE made +32% +14%, FXI made +50% etc…a six figure profit in just 4 months. To celebrate, took my family on a long holiday and brought my kids to Disneyland.

The best part is that I am happy that the many people who attended Wealth Academy, bought my books then, had faith in my teachings and took action have benefited tremendously as well. Also, all the royalty proceeds from the more than 10,000 copies sold have been donated to charity.

Many people who have missed out on this great stock market rally over the last 4 months have asked me if it is too late. My answer is yes and no. For some stocks, they are currently a bit overvalued and in the short term, there should be a downward correction.

However, there are still alot of stocks that are hugely undervalued and there is still alot more upside to go. In my upcoming Wealth Academy intensive courses, I am going to teach people how to select the right stocks to buy and which are the ones to start selling. If you want to find out more about these programmes, call my Singapore office at 65-62740105 or my Indonesia office at 62-215747511

I am pleased to announce that my latest book ‘Profit from the Panic’ was officially launched on 20 Jan 2009. Even before the launch, we have had sold hundreds of copies at our pre-launch phase.

‘Profit from the Panic’ was featured on prime time news on Channel News Asia. Check it out here…

We were also very pleased to present the initial royalty cheques to the STRAITS TIMES POCKET MONEY FUND and AIDHA.

As you all already know, 100% of the authors royalties will be donated to these two deserving charities. The ST Pocket Money Fund helps distributes funds to children of low income homes which cannot afford to eat 3 meals a day. AIDHA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of low income migrant women through financial education.

Thank you for all those of you who have shown your support by buying this book.

30 Days ago, I posted a personal challenge to write a new book from scratch in 30 days. Well, I just completed it with my two authors Conrad Alvin Lim and Ryan Huang (one of my Wealth Academy students and a journalist with CNA). The book should hit bookstores in 2-3 weeks after printing and production. We have all decided to donate 100% of our royalties to help out the needy in this time of crisis.

Here are some updates about the market and excerpts from the book:

Those of you following the market and news will know that volatility is still extremely high and the market is still on a downtrend, following more bad news every week

* Japan, Europe, Germany and Singapore are officially in a recession. The US is unofficially in a recession

* Unemployment rates have hit new highs

* There are news of layoffs everyday, with Citigroup cutting 55,000 + 20,000 jobs worldwide.

* The Big 3 Automakers FORD, GENERAL MOTORS and CHRYSLER are on the verge of bankrupcty

* More and more banks are failing, the latest victim being CITIGROUP. CITIGROUP’s share price plunged to a low of $3.80 and is now fighting for its survival (after the demise of Lehman brothers and the near collapse of AIG, Merrill Lynch etc…)

* Fear has thrown fundamental analysis and even technical analysis out the window, with US and Singapore stocks trading at such low levels no one could have imagined 12 months ago

* This has truly become the worst financial crisis since the great depression. Things like this happen ONLY ONCE in a 100 years. No one saw how bad this would get, including me!

Currently, The S&P 500 Index is at 828 points down 47% from its highs set in October 2007. Singapore is down 58% (at 1,600 points) and China is down 70%.

(STI chart screen captured from www.shareinvestor.com)

I think many people are asking questions like:

1. Will the market ever recover with everything looking so bad?
2. Which stocks will recover and which will not?
3. How long will the recovery take?
4. The FED is printing money like there is no tomorrow (investing $700 billion into the financial system. How will this effect the US economy?
5. How do I best take advantage of this to build my long term wealth

Let me answer these questions to the best of my ability:

1) No doubt, markets will always recover in time. Although this may seem really bad, it has happened many times before (quoted recently Buffett). IN fact, the US market dived close to 50% in 1974 and 2001 and even crashed 80% back during the great depression. The Singapore market dived close to 70% during the Asian financial crisis. At that time, people thought that things would NEVER recover, but they eventually did and the market went even higher than it ever did before. Economics tells us this will be no different. However VERY FEW people have that kind of foresight to dare to start buying LOW and making their fortune when the market sorts itself out.

So, where will the market go from here? Truthfully, NOBODY REALLY KNOWS in the short term (3-12 months). Some experts say that will be in for a major rally at the beginning of 2009 and the market will move sideways for 2-4 years before staging a new sustained uptrend. Some experts believe that for the market to truly hit a bottom (another 10-20% below where we are now), the market has to go through CAPITULATION.

Many past market bottoms have been created from CAPITULATION (it means ‘surrender’ or ‘give up’). Capitulation is a situation where there is INTENSE MARKET PANIC and the masses sell AT ANY PRICE (frighteningly, this has NOT happened yet). This usually results in a HUGE GAP DOWN or a HUGE DOWN DAY. What this does is that is flushes out all the sellers ONCE AND FOR ALL. Only when this happens will a bottom be reached and a new uptrend can start.

Again, nobody can know when the bottom will be. The good news is that you DON’T HAVE TO buy at the bottom to make money from this crisis. You just have to buy somewhere NEAR the bottom (where I believe we are at now) to position yourself for profits. What I am personally doing is to buy regularly (dollar cost averaging) every few weeks so that I get a low average price.

2) Many people I know are tempted to buy CITIGROUP that has hit a low price of $3.80 (now at $6) or even AIG at $1-$2, believing that eventually, this big brad names will survive and recover. While I was bullish on financials 12 months ago, I have come to realize that the DISCOUNTED CASH FLOW model of valuing companies CANNOT BE APPLIED to financial stocks because of what has happened in this crisis.

The Banks and financial companies WILL NEVER earn the kind of profits they did in the last 10 years. The profitable double digit growth investment banking model has been destroyed by this crisis and so, past earnings/cash flow mean nothing now. Goldman Sachs will never go back to $250 (it is now at $66), AIG will never go back to $70-$80 (now at $1.66) and CITI will never go back to $50 (now at $6). In fact, the truth is that these banks can never realistically pay back the BILLIONS Of dollars loaned to them by the government. They will take 1,000 years to pay it back with interest ( I am not exaggerating here).

So, in my opinion, there is no way to value any financial stocks intelligently right now and that any investment in them is a gamble. For example, a $6 investment in CITI may look great. Although I believe that the Govt will not allow CITI to go bankrupt, they may take over the whole company (in the case of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) and wipe out all the shareholders! This means stock price = $0!!!!

The only bank stocks I believe could possibly survive and benefit from this crisis are BANK OF AMERICA and JP Morgan. As for financials, VISA and American EXPRESS are also relatively good investments as they do not suffer from any writedowns.

I think that the best thing to do is to just buy the INDEXES: DIAMONDS (DIA), STI ETF and FXI (China ETF). They are the safest and already offer a huge enough upside. As for individual stocks, look for non-financial stocks that meet the 9 step value investing criteria. You will learn how to do all this from PROFIT FROM THE PANIC

3) How long will the recovery take? Nobody really knows but I believe Singapore and China will recover a lot faster than the US in this case. I am overweight on the first two markets more than the US right now. Check out the chart below and you can see that historically , markets took 3 years to get from the bottom back to their peak!
This DOES not mean you must wait 3 years to make money. If you were to keep buying and averaging down the price at low price levels, you will be profitable in a year or less.

4) The FED printing BILLIONS of dollars into the markets will only mean ONE THING => SUPER DUPER INFLATION and the FALL OF THE US DOLLAR in the years to come. A falling dollar will mean that commodity prices (priced in US dollars ) will go even higher. I believe that although oil prices have come down from their peak of $120+ a low of now $50 (because of recessionary fears), they will eventually go up and up maybe even to $300 a barrel in the next 5 years. You can take advantage of this by buying the OIL ETF, oil related companies or inflationary driven stocks

5) They key to make huge profits from this crisis is to buy the right INDEX ETFs and fundamentally strong stocks whose share prices have been bashed back to the stone age. Learn exactly how to do the right research from PROFIT FROM THE PANIC.

To answer all these questions, I have decided to set myself a CRAZY CHALLENGE of writing a NEW BOOK in 30 DAYS. Usually it takes me 4-5 Months to write a book so this will be super stretch, given the fact that I am speaking every single day and traveling to two countries in a week. But, I believe that anything is possible when you are committed enough.

The book will be entitled ‘PROFIT FROM THE PANIC- ‘How to Protect Your Money and Profit from the Worst Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression!’

Remember that Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch and John Templeton all became billionaires in investing because they bought stocks at super low prices when NOBODY ELSE DARED TO BUY during the 1930s (great depression), 1973-74 (the oil shock crash), 1987 (Black Monday) and 2001-2003 (Dot Com Crash). Well, here is another opportunity of a lifetime… IF YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO

Understand that when the market recovers, NOT ALL stocks will recover. Some will DIE and never come back up. Those that do survive will go on to become more valuable than ever (since they have less competitors around). So how do I choose the right stocks? How do I invest and take advantage of the China Market that is DOWN 70%, the US Market DOWN 45% and the Singapore market DOWN 61%? I will reveal all this in PROFIT FROM THE PANIC

However, unlike all my other books, I am going to be printing VERY FEW COPIES of this book. Why? because the market won’t stay this low and attractive for very long. It is only valuable as long as the market does not recover fully yet. So, I am only going to release this book only when the OPPORTUNITY still exists to buy when the whole world is panicking. After taking 30 days to write, it will still take at least another 30 days for production and delivery to bookstores. let’s see what happens!

BY THE WAY!!!! My latest book, ‘Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Business Has Just Hit All Singapore Bookstores!

What you are seeing now in the market is a PANIC!!!! People who have seen their stock value drop by 50% or more cannot take it and are just selling at whatever price they can.

Hedge funds, institutions and people who have borrowed heavily to buy stocks in the last few months, are not able to meet margin calls and are forced to sell. As individuals run to the banks and withdraw whatever money they have left, mutual funds are forced to sell their stock and raise cash to meet this withdrawls. So everyone is SELLING SELLING SELLING at whatever price they can get.

On the other hand, many people with cash are sitting on the sidelines not daring to buy anything for fear that it can go lower.So what happens when you have got millions of sellers and no buyers? Stock prices plunge like a stone! The Dow (8579 pts) is down almost 40% from its highs and the S&P 500 is down 42% to 909 points. This has happened in the last 12 months since the crisis erupted.

When fear and panic happens and people sell irrationally, fundamentals and intrinsic value are thrown out the window. This is exactly what we talked about during Wealth Academy. This is when good companies get dumped together with the bad. (metaphor: This is when people sell 20,000 square foot bungalows on Holland road for $1m). This happened in the 1920s, 1973, 1987, 2002 and now, it is happening again.

Even stocks that are NOT directly related to the financial crisis are being sold at ridiculous prices. Look at Health Care: UNH (intrinsic value (IV) $53) selling @$17.80 , WLP (IV: $95) selling @$36.50 Technology: AAPL (IV: $189) selling@$88.74 Agriculture: MOS (IV:$81)@$36.52 , POT (IV:$184) selling @$92.85, Consumer Staples: KFT (IV:$40) selling@$27.70.

We all know from history and common sense that the market will eventually recover and go to even higher highs. So, why do people still sell when the market is down? Well, because EMOTIONS always overcomes LOGIC in life, even in the markets.

People always fear that THIS IS THE END!!! It will NEVER COME BACK. Also, sometimes it is because people are forced to sell because they have borrowed money to invest or because they need to raise the cash to pay their expenses. This is why you should NEVER borrow to invest or invest with funds that you need for your daily expenses.

So, if you want to emerge a winner, then stay calm, keep your logic and hold and pick up SOUND COMPANIES which are NOT DIRECTLY AFFECTED BY THE CRISIS, have strong balance sheets (low debt, high cash), consistent earnings and a wide economic moat with a high future growth prospects ahead. Here is where you put all your learning s from Wealth Academy to the ultimate test.

If you can do this, you will be one of the very few (like me) who will PROFIT FROM THE PANIC. However, do BEAR in mind (no pun intended), that I personally don’t think this is the lowest point. There is still lots of possibility that the market will still GO LOWER. After breaking the 9000 support, the next support on the Dow is 7500. Meaning it can still go down another 17% from here. Plus, more banks are probably going to fail in the US and in the UK. The UK crisis has just begun and I see that taking a further toll on the market.

This is however, not going to stop me from accumulating strong stocks at discounted prices and accumulating more as it reaches the bottom in a few months. The most important thing is to focus on fundamentally strong stocks that got hit by the collateral damage and avoid the ones that really got hit i.e. Financials. The market will probably not rebound very fast immediately, it will take months or even years for it to climb back up so no rush.

For those of you who have attending my Wealth Academy Program, I will soon email a list of stocks that I am accumulating right now

The intuitive reaction is to get out of the stock market and get into cash. There is intense fear everywhere that this is financial Armageddon and that the stocks will never recover. Yesterday, CNBC’s Jim Cramer (the guy who predicted that Bear Sterns was FINE) threw in the towel and urged all his viewers to SELL SELL SELL, saying that the Dow Jones dropping another 20% to 7,700 is a possibility.

This fear of buying any stocks and the ‘sell before I lose everything’ mentality is what is causing the huge drops in stock prices. The Dow Jones plunged to 9955 (as low as 9,600 intraday) and the S&P 500 down to 1,056.The indexes are down roughly 30% from their highs in Oct 2007. The markets have been on a downtrend for 12 months since the Financial crisis erupted.

Before you start panicking like the rest of the crowd and sell your stock positions, always remember that history always repeats itself. This same panic and fear that caused investors to sell at huge losses (and never daring to go back into the market again) is what happened during the last three crashes.

The Crash of 1973- 1974: Stocks crashed 45% over 24 months. It later rallied 300% over an 11 year bull run.

Black Monday (1987). Stocks crashed 38%. Within 2 months, it rallied 561% over a 12 year bull run.

The dot com bubble burst (2001-2003). Stocks crashed 36% over 24 months. It later rallied 86% over a 4 year bull run.

History shows that the harder they fall, the stronger the bull run that follows. Fibonacci expansion in technical analysis shows that the next XOP (extended objective point on the Dow over the next decade would be 18,000 points, The Dow is now at 9,900. That is a 100% return from where we are.

Invest Only With Money You Do Not Need

So, am I saying that you should take all your money and dump it in the stock market right now? NO! There is a high chance that the market could still go a lot lower before it gets better. Remember that we have been in a bear market for only 12 months. The last bear markets of 200-2003 and 1973-1974 lasted 24 months. We are down 30% from the highs. We could well go another 10-20%. Again, nobody can predict the market and I am not pretending to. Anything can happen and it is almost impossible to buy right at the bottom. For all I know, the market could recover and rally next month.

So, what does a smart investor (opposed to trader) do? The most important thing is to invest with money you do not need to use for the next 2-5 years!!!! The reason why people lose out the the stock market is because they are forced to sell at ridiculously low prices (like now) because they HAVE TO raise cash to pay for their house payments, car payments, children’s education. Never Ever Use Money Which You Will Need. And NEVER EVER EVER borrow money to INVEST.

Invest In Great Companies With Solid Fundamentals

Remember that crashes are where FORTUNES ARE MADE. It is YOU, the well educated investor from Wealth Academy that must now put all your learnings to the practical test. Now is the time to research on those great companies (wide economic moat, way undervalued, history of consistent earnings, Low or zero debt, high ROE) and buy them at huge discounts when NOBODY WANTS TO TOUCH STOCKS. When the market turns around (anywhere from 1 month-12 months), you will be those very few who can say that the crisis was where you made your fortune and laugh all the way to the bank.

This is exactly what our dear Warren Buffett is doing right now, spending billions buying up companies for just pennies to the dollar. He just bought up GE, Added to UNH and also GS. The safest thing you can do is to look at non-financial stocks (the financial stocks have assets that are just too complicated to value) or even just simply buying the Index ETFs! That is a no brainer!

As I have always used a consistent dollar cost averaging model, I will not be looking to time the market so much. Rather, I will just happily and consistently add more and more very good stocks to my portfolio REGULARLY at these really great bargain prices.

Goodie…A Recession May Be Coming Soon!

9 Months ago, I mentioned to all of you (in my earlier postings) that the US will not be entering a recession as the boost from US exports (from a falling US dollar) and steady consumer spending will keep moderate growth DESPITE INCREASING OIL PRICES and the financial crisis. Sure enough, the last two quarters of GDP growth WERE POSITIVE and kept the US out of recession.

However. I now think that there is a big possibility that a RECESSION WILL BE COMING. Here are the reasons (extracted from moneycentral.com- Jim Jubak)

1. On Sept. 24, the Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes had dropped by a seasonally adjusted 11.5% in August from July’s already low levels. Sales of 460,000 for the month were down from the 520,000 new homes sold in July and the 500,000 sold in June. Sales for August 2008 were down 34.5% from sales in August 2007 and reached their lowest monthly total since 1991.

2. The Labor Department reported that new unemployment claims had risen to a seasonally adjusted 493,000 in the week ending Sept. 20. That was up from 461,000 the week before. The total number of new and continuing claims climbed to 3.5 million, about 1 million more than at the same time in 2007. Recessions typically see new weekly claims rise to 500,000. The economy isn’t quite there yet, but it’s getting very close.

3. New orders of durable goods — cars, furniture and other items that are expected to last three years or more — fell 4.5% in August, the Commerce Department reported, after posting slight gains in July, June and May. Even after the exclusion of orders for aircraft, which fluctuate wildly from month to month, and automobile sales, which everyone knows are in the tank, new orders were down 3% in August.

4. Consumer spending is starting to be cut and the rally in the US dollar (because of the plunge in Europe) will hurt US exports as well.

So, Why the Hell is this Good?

Recession = Stock Market Recovery

As crazy as it may sound, the START OF RECESSIONS often signals the ENDING OF A BEAR MARKET.

Take a look at the timing of the bear market of 1973-74 and the recession of 1974-75. This 21-month bear market resulted in the S&P 500 500 Index falling 50% from January 1973 through October 1974. The economy didn’t actually go into a recession until the third quarter of 1974. Economic growth fell 4.4% in the third quarter of 1974, 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 1974 and 5.1% in the first quarter of 1975.

If you compare the timing of the recession and the end of the bear market, you’ll notice that the stock market bottomed in October 1974. That’s at the beginning of the fourth quarter. At that point, the recession had just begun and had another quarter and two thirds to run. From the end of October 1974 through the end of March 1975, while the recession was running in full roar, the S&P 500 ACTUALLY CLIMBED 13%.

Because STOCKS DO NOT REFLECT THE ECONOMY but ANTICIPATE IT, the stock market rallies before a recession actually ends. And it was the visible onset of a recession that, in the case of the 1974-75 recession, helped the stock market find a bottom.

So let’s hope that the actual economic recession will come and start signaling the start of the new bull market and the creation on our next fortune.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index is down MORE than 30%. UOB, once at $24, is now at $15. Capitaland, from $8 is now $3+. Property prices are down 10%-20% from a year ago. The last quarter of Exports have contracted, and Singapore could be facing another technical recession in the coming months (Straits Times Report 17 Sept).

While many people are panicking and fear can be smelt in the air, Far-sighted Entrepreneurs and Investors like myself are LOVING IT! (not that we ate any McDonalds’s burgers)

So Why Do I Love These Downturns?

I may sound crazy, but most people do not realize that economic slowdowns and financial crisis are where fortunes are really made.

It was the last two crashes of 1998 and 2002 that gave me the opportunity to make my first $1.5 million; by buying into great stocks at huge discounts and turning an $8,000 investment into a $30m a year business. It was the recession that allowed me to hire so may great people at such low salaries, take up a 12,000 square foot office in the heart of CBD at just $4 per square foot. It was during the crashes, when NOBODY wanted to own stocks that I bought great blue chip stocks at 50%-80% discounts below their true value. It was during the last downturn that I bought my Semi-D at $1.6m, which is now worth $3m!

Now…it is ALL HAPPENING AGAIN!!!! In fact, this crisis is turning out to be even more severe that the previous two. For those of you who know how to take advantage of this will become the next group of new millionaires once the market turns around.

How Do You Take Advantage of This?

Remember that history ALWAYS repeats itself. After every bull run (rally), there will be a pullback/correction/crash (which is what is happening now). After every crash, it will be followed by the next rally/bullrun. In other words, the market will ALWAYS RECOVER and GO EVEN HIGHER!

However, NOT ALL stocks will recover. The weak and fundamentally damaged stocks (i.e. Like AIG) may never recover. The secret is to learn and start buying up the fundamentally strongest stocks when they are cheap & NOBODY wants them (during the downturn). When the market turns around, they are the ones will recover even stronger and make you your fortune.

Let me give you a free tip here. Before the crisis, there were Five Big Investment Banks in the US: Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bear Sterns and JP Morgan. Now that Lehman (bankrupt), Merrill (bought over By Bank of America) and Bear Sterns (bought by JP Morgan) are gone, guess who is going to benefit and become even stronger after the crisis…the survivors! i.e Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

In Wealth Academy (My Live Event, next one is Nov 13-16), I teach people how to identify the strong companies from the lousy ones and to buy them up cheap, when the whole market is fearful. When the market turns eventually, they will reap handsome profits from putting their money on the strong horses.

I have also invited Five of the Top Investing and Trading Experts from Wall Street down to Singapore for Asia’s First Investors Superconference from 25-26 October. Check it out at www.akltg.com/superconference. So, if you want to be one of the smart ones who will protect your wealth and benefit from this crisis (instead of being fearful of it), some come and join us for our live events.

“ Be Fearful When Others are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful” – Warren Buffett, World’s Richest Man

The Best Time to Start a Business is in a Recession

Another reason why I love recessions is because it is the BEST TIME to start a new business is in a downturn. Why?Let me give you a few reasons:
1) In times of recessions, the company you work for may decide to lay you off (to cut their costs), the best way to protect yourself is to already start thinking of building additional income streams…like a part time business. I teach people ways to start businesses with little or no capital…just hardwork and ideas put into use.
2) Recessions are when you can get really cheap rentals and hire great talented staff cheap. Think of the so many people who just got retrenched because their company went bust. There could be more to come..
3) IN recessions, many customers look for cheaper alternatives, which gives you the best chance grab market shares from the market leaders (the bigger, more expensive companies)
4) In recessions, the bigger players become more defensive, scaling back on their advertising and staff, which gives you the best opportunity to again, grab their market share
5) In recessions, interest rates are really low which means you can borrow money cheaper to finance your investments! When I bought my properties during the last downturn, my interest was only 1.5%!

This is precisely why I just launched my MILLIONAIRE BUSINESS ACADEMY training that is coming up 27-30 November. To coach business people to build their business during a downturn and to help newbies get started. Call 62740105 or check it out at www.millionairebizacademy.com to find out when I will be conducting a free introductory seminar.

I wish you the best in making your fortune in this downturn