Frequently Asked Questions

Company visits can be an essential part on getting in person, on location qualitative insights vs. quantitative analysis -from afar.  Company visits in person allow for the personal connection and evaluation on how conservative or not, the firm is.  This along with other nuances, impressions impossible to asses by phone or through research.  With my US/EU/ASIA long multicultural background I can also attempt to assess the likelihood of legitimacy, integrity and more around the company and its management.  But it would be a mistake to conclude that "the more visits the better". Further this has been contained of late due to the Covit-19 pandemic.  Realize one only needs a few good ideas a year to make a big investor performance difference...too many visits can dilute or even confuse all this.  Also, sometimes a company which is not so good but getting better can be a good choice discovered through a visit,  vs. a great company (at high valuation) which may be loosing part of its allure can be a less attractive investor choice.  Further a company visit can also mislead one due to polished answers.

I.e. sometimes a visit can result in the wrong impression or outright being mislead...or getting too close to mgt.  A risk I have found over the years to be a delicate balance requiring long experience.  I always mention at the outset to any visit in person or by phone to conducted all in English that I operate on an international standard and will point out at my website any outright misleading statement...as I have in the past.  (January 2 2022).

We have now updated and vastly improved the auto-mail functions -and its working great. 

All contributing members, at once, receive an auto-email on every new posting made here. Members here can opt-out of these emails if they so chose anytime.  (January 2 2022).

Yes, many past articles are free to all registered free users -but the best & timeliest along with the model portfolios' and the member-forum is available only to contributing-members so to help pay running this service.  Feel free to contact me directly with your short introduction at  paularen@gmail.com.  (January 2 2023)

It's 0.25% of the Baht amount of stock bought or sold, or a total of 0.5% for the round trip on a buy/sell transaction.  (Plus the 7% VAT tax on that commission).  Sometimes there is a minimum commission on smallest orders.  If you trade on-line with a Thai broker (which I advocate) the transaction commission can be as low as 0.15%.  Beware that Thai stocks bought/sold outside of Thailand often have much higher broker transactions costs. (Commissions). There is currently some talk about a small transaction tax on Thai stocks, but it would be minimum and not much if at all affect smaller investors. Stay tuned.  (January 2 2022).

No, unless you want a bank to act as your stock custodian for holding your shares. But we do not believe this is required or necessary for individual investors. Realize here all your shares are held by the Thai Deposit Center, not the broker (TSD). If you chose an online-trading account the commission is only around 0.20% per transaction.  There is some talk on introducing a very small transaction tax in 2022, but this is not yet reality.  (January 2 2022).

No.  Brokers here are called "Marketing Officers". You should be assigned an OK to good English speaking person, and many have a University Business Degree. Thai Broker Research Reports, Monthly Broker Statements, and Annual Reports, are published in fairly clear English but this varies much from broker to broker and some are only in Thai language.  Any instructions to buy/sell shares can be order on-line, phone, or in some cases e-mail or even e services like What'sApp.  All brokers have an on-line trading platform, which I advocate.  But best test their system to see if you like & understand it. "Streaming" is the SET standard default system.  As everywhere, its always most important to enter every buy/sell order very carefully & clearly so to avoid any mistakes. (July 2 2023).  Beware of broker equity research -as it can be less than hoped for. 

Because these are often in the often over-rated in the service sector like Telecom, Banks & Energy or electronics like DELTA; not exports, tourism or domestic consumption and manufacturing which Thailand is often competitive at.  Most larger capitalized stocks are relatively expensively valued (high p/e) and so often pay lower dividends yields. One reason for this is that many are speculated on/around.  Overall, I prefer select smaller cap shares as they are often undervalued, have faster growing earnings and pay higher dividends.  Why should smaller capitalize Thai growth companies sell at the discount to the market p/e? Even while many pay higher then SET averaged dividends and have stronger long-term  growth rates.  During Covit-19 and just post however, smaller and mid cap stocks outperformed the SET overall this is in large part due to Thai retail investors bigger participation.   But alas this changed back since to a far more speculative driven SET market -which is just one reason why year 2023 was one of the worst on record.

True, most good things come with some effort and skill and sometimes inconvenience.  Depending on your investing appetite, you may have to bid-up some stocks to a higher market price, just so to get a larger size.  Or alternatively be patient by just nibbling away to accumulate a good position, or sell out an existing one.  Yet for most individual investors here liquidity is not really a big issue.  Again, you don't have to buy/sell all at once.

Time and time again we see how once a a stock is discovered trading volume (liquidity) often soars!   If you are patient and can be happy to collect a dividend while you wait, selling later at some point is rarely a problem.  When buying a few smaller value shares consider this as one position. That way you have diversified the so called unsystematic risk.  Members quickly see from my reports & company visits how truly many interesting companies there are here.  And how well overall over time they have performed so well.  Only about 70-90 companies out of over 500 listed companies here are followed by the brokerage research community.  Some 320 or moe are totally neglected and some are true "diamonds in the rough".  If you are obsessed with reasonable valuations and future above average earnings growth, as we here are, you will want to look well beyond the "top 50 SET" stocks!

For many years smaller cap Thai stocks performed rather well. They were under-priced, under-followed and mostly ignored by the institutions and brokers alike.  The individual investor with some know how and experience could beat the SET index, as I here did for many years.  But from 2017 on this started to change...individual retails investors started abandoning Thai stocks as a savings vehicle, while punters and speculators, index funds and so called trigger funds increasingly took over.  Not least, the controversial derivative warrants  (DW) market.  As here amply pointed out back then: individual investors at present make up barely 40% of total SET volume vs. some 60-70% in years past, but this has increased of late with individuals coming back. 

The result is, smaller cap stocks have been in the doldrums for some time, many dropping 50% or more and the MAI index graph looks like its " going to hell in a hand basked".  To be fair many reported disappointing earnings and so their p/e ratio's became overstretched, this is one reason not to turn over positive on the sector, just yet.   Further, its becoming increasingly difficult to get any added value research information by any means, as most as these companies have been put on alert by the SET/SEC to be ultra careful in disclosure.  Hence company responsible visits with management have become less interesting, not least due to Covit-19.  In early April 2020, I went max. bullish for the first time in many years, stated so at my front page back then, and smaller and mid cap stocks have largely outperformed again since.  (January 2 2022).

Because institutions have strict mandates (rules) which prohibit them to invest in any stock, unless they its shares trade US$ 1-3 million per day. This often means if a Thai stock does not trade 1-3 million US$ per day, it's not even considered. This is an enormous restriction in an emerging market like Thailand and so virtually creates a "hand-cuff" enviroment on the best values. Hence most institutions do not own the true values in SE Asia stock markets. I have often called this "behavioral mispricings".

Sometimes yes. Its a more lazy way to invest.  But in SE Asia, restrictive factors have created a distorted local stock market and progressively so for over the decades. The hard-working mutual fund investor/clients, mistakenly believe they are getting an ownership in hard-working and industrious SE Asia.  Instead, due to severe fund investment restrictions on liquidity, fund clients/investors are buying indirectly only large capitalized firms too often ignored faster smaller companies. Hence to many it pays to be more investor pro-active and through Thaistocks.com, you can find and learn about many value stocks in leading industries which pay dividends all along.  But you got to go beyond the brokers, the funds and most biz news!  Realize some 70% of the entire Thai economy (GDP) is generated by smaller/mid sized firms.   (January 2 2022).

Yes, but very selectively so. I have included in my recent model portfolios' select larger cap choices. (January 2 2022).

Since early April 2020, post I turned maximum bullish at the Covit SET mkt. bottom, and stated so at my front page, members have enjoyed substantial investor returns through key core choices, as evidenced in my model portfolios since.  AUCT/TOG/and more.... along with some set backs.  Since early this year 2023 I've turned far more SET mkt. cautious not least due to unsettled/juvenlie Thai politics.  But as always its a market of stocks for us informed investors, rather then a stock market. (July 2022).  In mid-late 2023, I turned maximum bullish on 3 key/core selections here well published & reviewed on why.