Investing Like an Institution

Run the analyst workflow on your own Singapore account. You measure returns and risk, value a listed company, size positions and benchmark your results honestly.

Many self-directed investors in Singapore build a sensible ETF portfolio, then start picking stocks on the strength of a story, which is often where they lose money. This course teaches the workflow a junior buy-side analyst learns in their first year, applied to a retail account here. You measure returns and risk properly, turn macro news into views on assets, read an annual report and a 10-K, build a three-statement model and a DCF, and size positions to written rules. You also add up what running your own money costs in fees, tax, FX and hours, and compare your results with a managed fund on the same yardstick.

What you'll be able to do

• Measure your own returns and risk the way a fund reports them: geometric, net of fees and in SGD
• Link macro and geopolitical events to specific assets in your portfolio
• Open an SGX annual report or a US 10-K and find the sections an analyst reads first
• Build a three-statement model and DCF for an SGX-listed company you own or are thinking of buying
• Check a valuation against multiples and a peer group, and use charts only as context
• Size positions, hold through drawdowns and rebalance to a written rule
• Add up what managing your own money costs you in fees, taxes, FX and hours
• Compare your own portfolio with a managed fund using the same yardstick

Syllabus

Module 1: Measure returns the way a fund has to report them

Learn to put any return figure on a footing you can compare: real or nominal, geometric, total, in Singapore dollars, and time-weighted or money-weighted for your own account.

• 1.1 Nominal vs real returns and the geometric mean trap
• 1.2 Total return counts dividends and what you did with them
• 1.3 Returns in Singapore dollars when the asset is priced in US dollars
• 1.4 Time-weighted vs money-weighted returns on your own account
• 1.5 Annualise, compare periods and spot cherry-picked start dates
• 1.6 Choose a benchmark that matches what you actually hold
• 1.7 Read a fund's performance table without being misled
• 1.8 Build the returns tab of your investment workbook

Module 2: Measure risk with more than one number

Measure portfolio risk the way a risk desk does: volatility, drawdown, risk-adjusted ratios, beta and correlation, duration and Value at Risk. For each one, you will also learn what it misses.

• 2.1 Volatility: what standard deviation captures and what it misses
• 2.2 Drawdown and time under water are the risks you feel
• 2.3 Sharpe and Sortino ratios, and when each misleads
• 2.4 Beta, correlation and why diversification shrinks in a crisis
• 2.5 Duration is the risk number for bonds
• 2.6 Value at Risk, expected shortfall and fat tails
• 2.7 Risk premia: what you are paid to hold equity, term, credit and illiquidity
• 2.8 Build a risk dashboard for your portfolio and two benchmarks

Module 3: Turn macro data into views on assets

You will read growth, inflation, the yield curve, real rates, the dollar and central bank signals, then turn them into scenarios for the assets you hold so headlines do not drive your decisions.

• 3.1 Growth and inflation: four regimes and what tends to do well in each
• 3.2 The yield curve and what an inversion has and has not predicted
• 3.3 Real rates and breakeven inflation from inflation-linked bonds
• 3.4 Central bank reaction functions: the Fed and MAS
• 3.5 The dollar cycle and what a strong dollar does to Asian assets
• 3.6 Credit spreads and liquidity as early stress signals
• 3.7 Read the Fed's projections without treating them as promises
• 3.8 Write a macro dashboard and three scenarios

Module 4: Trace geopolitical shocks through to prices

Follow a geopolitical event from the headline to the assets it moves, through energy, supply chains, trade, sanctions and capital flows. Then test your own portfolio against one such event.

• 4.1 How geopolitical shocks reach prices
• 4.2 Energy markets and OPEC+ decisions as a market input
• 4.3 Semiconductor supply chains and export controls
• 4.4 Tariffs and trade disputes: first and second-order effects
• 4.5 Reserve currencies, sanctions and central bank gold buying
• 4.6 Singapore's exposure as a trade and financial hub
• 4.7 Which headlines fade from prices and which do not
• 4.8 Run a geopolitical scenario through your holdings

Module 5: Know who is on the other side of your trade

Learn how your orders get filled, what the spread and market impact cost you, how index changes and corporate actions move prices, and what short sellers and options prices tell you about a stock.

• 5.1 Exchanges, market makers and how your order gets filled
• 5.2 Order types beyond limit and market, and when each helps
• 5.3 Spreads, depth and market impact on small and large stocks
• 5.4 Index construction and what inclusion does to a stock
• 5.5 Corporate actions: rights issues, placements, buybacks and splits
• 5.6 Short selling, borrow cost and what short interest tells you
• 5.7 Options basics: payoffs and the Greeks, so you can read prices
• 5.8 Measure the true cost of five paper trades

Module 6: Read an annual report and a 10-K like an analyst

Learn where an analyst looks first in an SGX annual report and a US 10-K: the business, the risks, the audit report, the notes, management pay and the figures management adjusts.

• 6.1 Where an annual report and a 10-K put the facts that matter
• 6.2 Business review and risk factors: what management must disclose
• 6.3 The auditor's report, key audit matters and going-concern wording
• 6.4 Notes to the accounts: revenue, segments, leases and debt
• 6.5 Management incentives, ownership and related-party deals
• 6.6 Adjusted earnings and how to reconcile them to reported figures
• 6.7 Results announcements, earnings calls and the 10-Q
• 6.8 Build an annual report reading log for one company

Module 7: Build a three-statement model of a listed company

You will build a working model that links the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement for one listed company. You will then check the quality of its earnings and forecast from drivers.

• 7.1 How the three statements tie together
• 7.2 Income statement: revenue quality, margin stack and one-offs
• 7.3 Balance sheet: working capital, goodwill, leases and debt
• 7.4 Cash flow statement and free cash flow
• 7.5 Earnings quality: accruals, cash conversion and red-flag scores
• 7.6 Forecast from drivers, with mean reversion and reinvestment
• 7.7 Enter five years of history into your model
• 7.8 Build the forecast and balance the model

Module 8: Value a business with a discounted cash flow

Turn your model's free cash flow into a value per share, using a discount rate and terminal value you can defend. Then work out what the market is pricing in, and value banks and REITs with methods that suit them.

• 8.1 What a DCF says: value as cash flows discounted for time and risk
• 8.2 Cost of capital: equity, debt and a WACC you can defend
• 8.3 The terminal value problem and why it dominates the answer
• 8.4 Return on invested capital vs cost of capital
• 8.5 Reverse DCF: what the market is already pricing in
• 8.6 Sensitivity tables and scenarios instead of one target price
• 8.7 Valuing banks and REITs, where a standard DCF breaks
• 8.8 Value your modelled company with a DCF

Module 9: Cross-check value with multiples and business quality

You check your DCF against multiples and a real peer group, judge how good the business is and how well management spends its cash, and write it all up as an investment memo.

• 9.1 P/E, EV/EBITDA, P/B, P/S and FCF yield: what each measures
• 9.2 When each multiple misleads: cycles, leverage and accounting
• 9.3 Choose a peer group that is really comparable
• 9.4 Competitive position: Five Forces and moats, tested against the numbers
• 9.5 Capital allocation: dividends, buybacks, acquisitions and reinvestment
• 9.6 Industry frameworks: banks, insurers, commodity producers and software
• 9.7 Classify a stock before you judge its multiple
• 9.8 Build a comps table and write an investment memo

Module 10: Use technical analysis as context, knowing its limits

Read charts, indicators, breadth and sentiment as a record of what other traders are doing, check what the evidence supports, and test any rule with real costs before you trust it.

• 10.1 What technical analysis claims and what the evidence supports
• 10.2 Trend, support and resistance as a description of past trading
• 10.3 Moving averages, RSI and MACD, and how they fail
• 10.4 Volume, breadth and sentiment measures
• 10.5 Momentum and relative strength: the part with academic backing
• 10.6 Data mining, overfitting and transaction costs
• 10.7 Use a chart to time entry within a decision made on fundamentals
• 10.8 Test one trading rule with costs on real price history

Module 11: Size positions and manage risk to written rules

Decide how much money goes into each position, set limits on concentration, review each holding against its thesis instead of its price, and stress test the whole portfolio before a real crisis does it for you.

• 11.1 Position sizing: equal, conviction and volatility weights
• 11.2 The Kelly criterion and why professionals use a fraction of it
• 11.3 Position and sector limits, and concentration risk
• 11.4 Thesis review instead of price stops
• 11.5 Correlation clusters: hidden bets across your holdings
• 11.6 Stress test against past crises and made-up shocks
• 11.7 Currency risk and when hedging earns its cost
• 11.8 Write your risk rulebook and stress test your portfolio

Module 12: Build the portfolio, count every cost and benchmark honestly

You put index funds and stock picks under one rebalancing rule and add up what running your own money really costs in fees, tax, FX and hours. Then you compare your results with a managed fund on the same yardstick.

• 12.1 Core and satellite: where stock picks sit next to index funds
• 12.2 Rebalance a mix of ETFs and single stocks to a written rule
• 12.3 The full cost stack: commissions, spreads, FX, custody and withholding tax
• 12.4 Tax on gains and dividends: check how IRAS treats you
• 12.5 Price your hours: what your research time costs
• 12.6 Benchmark your results against a managed fund, like for like
• 12.7 Survivorship bias, SPIVA and where your edge is and is not
• 12.8 Assemble your investment file and decide your next step

Frequently asked questions

Is this for beginners?

No. The course assumes you have placed trades, hold ETFs and know what an allocation is. If you are new, take Investing 101: from zero to your first ETF and Build and run an ETF portfolio first. Bonds, REITs, funds, overseas brokers and investor biases each have their own course, and this one points you to them instead of repeating them.

Will I beat the market after this?

Probably not, and the course does not promise that you will. Once fees, taxes and hours are counted, most investors who pick stocks trail a broad index. The course shows you how to measure this honestly, so that by the end you can decide whether running your own money is worth it for you.

Does this replace a financial adviser?

No. The course is education and does not replace financial advice. It teaches you to think like an analyst, but it does not know your income, your CPF balance, your risk tolerance or your family's plans, and it never tells you what to buy. For advice on those, speak to a licensed adviser. What you learn here will help you ask them better questions.

How long does it take, and how long do I have access?

Plan on several months at a few hours a week. The model, the valuation and the final project take time. The academy is free and has no membership, so the course stays open to you. Lessons are updated when rules or examples change, and figures that change are always checked at their official source.

How is this different from Build and run an ETF portfolio?

That course builds and runs an index portfolio with a written policy. This one adds the analyst work on top of it: valuing single companies, sizing stock positions, stress testing and comparing your results with a managed fund. Many people take the ETF course first and keep that portfolio as their core.

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