Dear Investor.

Zee here. It is May 2026. The S&P 500 has clawed back most of its losses from the US-Iran war sell-off earlier this year.

Markets are rising again, sentiment is improving, and the financial headlines are turning cautiously optimistic.

Which makes right now exactly the right moment to ask an uncomfortable question: Are we paying too much?

What “too high” actually means

When investors say a market is “overvalued,” they usually mean one thing: you are paying more for a dollar of corporate earnings than history suggests is reasonable.

The standard yardstick for this is the Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio, simply the price of the market divided by the earnings of its companies. If the S&P 500 trades at a P/E of 20, you are paying $20 for every $1 of annual profit. The higher the number, the more expensive stocks are relative to what businesses are actually earning.

Think of it like buying a rental property. If you pay $1,000,000 for a flat that earns $50,000 in rent per year, your “price-to-earnings” is 20x. If you pay $2,000,000 for the same flat, it’s 40x. The building hasn’t changed, only the price you’re willing to pay for it.

Here are the numbers

The S&P 500’s current trailing P/E sits at roughly 32x earnings, depending on which measure you use. The long-run historical average is closer to 16–18x.

But the more revealing figure is the Shiller CAPE ratio, a smoothed version of P/E that averages inflation-adjusted earnings over ten years, ironing out short-term noise.

Robert Shiller, the Yale economist who called both the dot-com bubble and the 2008 housing crisis, developed it precisely because single-year earnings can be distorted.

As of 8th May 2026, the Shiller CAPE stands at approximately 42x. The long-run average is 17x.

So is a crash coming?

Not necessarily, and this is where nuance matters.

High valuations do not cause crashes. They simply mean that future returns are likely to be lower than they would be if you bought at cheaper prices. The market can stay expensive for years. It did through most of the late 1990s, right up until it didn’t.

There are also legitimate reasons why today’s market might deserve a premium over its historical average. The S&P 500 is now dominated by large technology and software businesses, companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia that are structurally more profitable and faster-growing than the manufacturers and industrials that dominated the index decades ago.

Higher-quality businesses arguably deserve higher prices. Net profit margins climb as companies increases their prices.

Then there is the AI Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) story and it is genuinely staggering. In 2026, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are collectively on track to spend $725 billion on capital expenditure, up 77% from last year’s already-record $410 billion. Almost all of it is going into AI infrastructure: data centres, chips, and networking. Amazon’s CEO has said AI capacity is getting monetised “as fast as we install it.” Google Cloud just posted 63% year-on-year revenue growth.

This matters for valuation in two ways.

#1 This compresses near-term margins all that spending makes the market look more expensive on current earnings than it might actually be.

#2 If the bet pays off and AI drives a step-change in corporate productivity over the next five to ten years, earnings could grow fast enough to justify today’s prices in hindsight.

The CAPE ratio, which smooths earnings over a full decade, would be slow to reflect that kind of structural shift, potentially making the market look more overvalued than it truly is.

The takeaway

The US stock market is currently expensive by almost every historical measure. That is a fact, not a prediction.

Whether that expensiveness leads to a painful correction or gets resolved gradually through years of steady earnings growth, nobody knows.

The sensible path: time in market beats timing the market

Disclaimer:

All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. Most people still think of Axon as the company that makes Tasers. That's understandable, they invented the modern stun gun and put a body camera on virtually every police officer in America.

But in 2026, Axon is building something far bigger: a full AI-powered operating system for public safety.

From the moment someone dials 911, to the moment a verdict is read in a courtroom, Axon wants to own every step of that journey with software, data, and artificial intelligence doing the heavy lifting.

What Does Axon Actually Do?

Think of Axon as the technology backbone of modern law enforcement. Most people know them as the company behind the TASER, the non-lethal device used by police worldwide. But today, that’s just one small piece of a much bigger story.

Axon builds an end-to-end ecosystem for public safety. This includes body cameras worn by officers, cloud software to store and manage all that video evidence, digital tools for police departments to run their operations, and, increasingly, artificial intelligence layered across all of it.

Their flagship software platform, Axon Evidence, is like a secure “Google Drive for law enforcement,” storing millions of hours of body cam footage and connecting it to investigations and court cases.

In short: Axon wants to be involved in every moment of a public safety event, from the first 911 call, all the way to the courtroom verdict.

1. The Numbers Are Getting Better

Axon just wrapped up 2025 on a very strong note. In Q4 2025 alone, the company brought in $797 million in revenue, a 39% jump compared to the same quarter a year earlier. For the full year, revenue hit $2.78 billion.

But here’s what really stands out for investors: bookings (essentially, contracts signed for future revenue) topped $7 billion for the full year, a 40%+ increase. Q4 bookings alone surged over 50%. Think of bookings as a window into future revenue; when they grow this fast, it tells you customers are committing to Axon for years ahead.

Their software and services division, the highest-margin part of the business, grew 40% year-over-year, which is a key signal that Axon is successfully transitioning from a hardware company into a recurring-revenue software powerhouse.

2. Axon Is Going All-In on AI

At their annual Axon Week conference in April 2026, the company unveiled three new AI-powered tools aimed at transforming how emergency agencies work:

• Axon Vision: An AI layer that processes live video feeds and sends real-time alerts to officers and dispatchers.

• Axon Assistant (expanded): A voice and data assistant, now available across more devices, that helps officers access information hands-free in the field. It’s built to comply with strict law enforcement data privacy standards (called CJIS compliance).

• Axon 911: A completely reimagined emergency dispatch platform powered by AI, connecting the moment a 911 call comes in all the way through to when an officer closes the case.

The big idea: today’s police departments are drowning in data, hours of video, thousands of 911 calls, mountains of reports.

Axon’s AI tools aim to turn that data overload into real-time intelligence that helps first responders act faster and smarter.

3. Axon Is Reinventing 911 Through Acquisitions

One of the boldest moves Axon has made recently is its push to own the 911 call center experience. In late 2025 and early 2026, they made two major acquisitions:

• Prepared: An AI startup bringing livestreaming, real-time translation, and smarter dispatch tools to emergency call centers (reportedly ~$800 million deal).

• Carbyne: A cloud-native platform that handles how 911 calls are received and routed, serving agencies that protect over 250 million people worldwide (valued at $625 million).

Together, these became the foundation of Axon 911, their new integrated emergency communications product.

This is a massive expansion of Axon’s addressable market, the 911 infrastructure space is large, largely outdated, and ripe for modernization.

4. Analysts Are Bullish on the fundamentals

Despite the good fundamentals, Axon’s stock has faced some pressure in 2026. The share price has declined roughly 22% year-to-date (as of Q1 2026 reporting), partly due to broader market volatility and concerns about margin pressure from heavy investment spending.

Analysts are projecting a 125% swing in earnings per share compared to a loss in the same quarter last year.

If Axon can beat expectations again, it could be a catalyst to close the gap between where the stock trades and where analysts think it should be.

5. A $1.3 Billion New HQ

Axon is building a massive $1.3 billion new headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona. This signals long-term confidence from leadership in the company’s growth trajectory. But the project has run into legal challenges, with lawsuits contesting parts of the development plan.

This isn’t an existential risk to the company, but it does introduce some uncertainty around costs and timelines.

Investors should keep an eye on how quickly Axon resolves these hurdles, unexpected construction delays or cost overruns could put modest pressure on cash flow in the near term.

The Bottom Line for Investors

Axon is no longer just a TASER company. It is building a comprehensive, AI-powered operating system for public safety, one that ties together devices, software, communications, and data under one ecosystem.

Their revenue growth is strong, their bookings pipeline is exceptional, and their AI product push is ambitious.

The risks to watch: margin pressure from heavy R&D and acquisition spending, legal challenges around the new HQ, and a stock that has re-rated lower amid broader market turbulence.

Disclaimer:
All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. The most underrated skill in investing isn't finding an investing opportunity, it's knowing when to leave one on the table. Especially important as the markets grow sky high.

Earlier this quarter, Netflix reached into Warner Bros.’ cookie jar and pulled out a $2.8 billion termination fee after David Ellison Jr. (Oracle’s founder son) decided he wanted the deal more. Netflix had been in the running to acquire Paramount, and when the price crept beyond what made sense for the business and its shareholders, they walked.

It’s easy to gloss over this. In the day-to-day noise of earnings calls and market moves, a deal that didn’t happen barely registers.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos put it plainly on the earnings call:

Read that again. They framed a deal they didn’t do as a benefit. Not a loss. Not a near-miss. A test of discipline and they passed it.

Why this is harder than it looks

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) processes have a gravitational pull. The longer you’re inside one, the due diligence, the lawyers, the internal champions, the press speculation, the harder it becomes to exit cleanly. Sunk costs start to feel like commitments.

Walking away can feel like failure, even when it’s the right call.

This isn’t unique to corporate boards. Every investor knows the feeling: you’ve spent weeks researching a stock, you’ve told your friends about it, you’ve watched it rally slightly, and now the valuation doesn’t quite work the way it did when you started.

Do you buy anyway? Most people do. The research itself becomes a reason to commit.

Netflix didn’t.

That matters.

Three lessons for investors

Lesson 1: Know your number before the process begins

Netflix clearly had a ceiling, a price at which the deal stopped making sense. They likely had it before Ellison entered the picture. The ability to walk away starts with having a predetermined exit point. As a portfolio investor, that means setting a target valuation before you buy, and revisiting it when the story changes, not after you’re emotionally committed to being right.

Lesson 2: Emotion is a cost, not just a feeling

Sarandos explicitly named ego as something that had to be set aside. That’s rare. Most executives and most investors don’t acknowledge that ego is a factor at all. But the desire to be seen as decisive, to “win” a deal or a trade, to not look like you hesitated these are real forces that distort judgment and cost money. Naming the emotion is the first step to not paying for it.

Lesson 3: Discipline compounds just like capital does

Netflix didn’t just avoid a bad deal. They built evidence, for themselves, for their board, for their shareholders, that their decision-making process works. In investing, a track record of disciplined passes is as valuable as a track record of good picks. Every time you avoid an overpriced entry or a panic-driven exit, you’re strengthening a muscle that pays dividends for decades.

What to watch for in management teams

When I evaluate companies, I pay close attention to how management talks about deals they didn’t do. A team that can articulate why they passed and frame that pass as a success, is a team that’s thinking clearly about capital allocation. That’s rare.

Most investor calls are about what was won. This one was about what was wisely left on the table.

I’ll take that signal seriously.

Only time will tell whether Netflix’s ultimate M&A strategy plays out, but the discipline on display here gives me real confidence in the people running the company. And in this environment, confidence in management is one of the most undervalued assets you can hold.

As always: the best investment you don’t make is still a good investment.

Disclaimer:

All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. Every time someone taps a card, clicks “pay now,” or sends money across borders, there’s a good chance Visa had something to do with it. With over $4.5 trillion processed in a single quarter, Visa isn’t just a payments company, it’s the invisible infrastructure beneath the global economy.

But Visa isn’t standing still.

Beneath the steady earnings beats and reliable dividend, something bigger is happening: the company is quietly repositioning itself for a world where AI agents do your shopping, digital dollars move across borders instantly, and the very definition of a “payment” is changing.

Join us on Wednesday 6 May 2026 (7:30-915pm SG Time), for our live Free webinar, where we cover:

* Our resilient investing strategy that we use in our public portfolio

* Stock Analysis: Will Visa be disrupted by AI?

Attendees will also get preview our new AI Powered Stock Market Simulator game where you’ll learn about your investing strengths and weakness.

👉🏼 Click here to reserve a spot. (LINK)

First, What Does Visa Actually Do?

Think of Visa as the world’s most important toll road, but for money.

When you tap your card at a coffee cafe, Visa doesn’t give you the money or lend it to you. What it does is act as the trusted “middleman” that connects your bank to the merchant’s bank in a fraction of a second, making sure the transaction is secure, fast, and reliable. For every transaction that passes through its network, Visa earns a small fee.

Multiply that by trillions of dollars in purchases every year across more than 200 countries, and you start to see why Visa is one of the most profitable businesses on earth.

Visa doesn’t take on credit risk (that’s the bank’s job). It just owns the rails that money travels on, and those rails are used billions of times a day.

1. The Growing Business

Visa’s most recent quarterly results (Q1 of its fiscal year 2026, covering October–December 2025) were outstanding.

Revenue hit $10.9 billion, up 15% from the same period a year ago and that beat what Wall Street analysts had expected. Earnings per share came in at $3.17, also ahead of forecasts.

Payment volumes, the total dollar value of all transactions on Visa’s network, grew 8% to roughly $4.5 trillion in just one quarter.

What’s driving this? Strong consumer spending, a busy holiday shopping season, and surging cross-border transactions (people travelling and spending abroad), which grew 11%.

The CEO described Visa as a “payments hyperscaler”, a company whose infrastructure scales effortlessly as more spending flows through it. Management expects “low-double-digit” growth to continue for the rest of the year.

For investors, this is a business that consistently grows, beats expectations, and generates enormous amounts of cash.

2. Visa Is Betting Big on AI-Powered Shopping

Here’s the most exciting development for the future: Visa is positioning itself at the centre of “agentic commerce”, a world where AI assistants don’t just recommend products, but actually buy things on your behalf.

Imagine telling your AI assistant, “Book me a flight and hotel for my Tokyo trip,” and it just handles everything, finding, comparing, and paying, without you lifting a finger. For that to work safely, there needs to be a trusted payment layer. That’s where Visa comes in.

Visa has launched its Intelligent Commerce platform and a Trusted Agent Protocol, essentially a set of rules and tools that allow AI agents to make payments securely on behalf of consumers at over 150 million Visa-accepting merchants worldwide.

This week, Visa unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect, a new solution helping businesses plug into AI-powered commerce.

Visa research shows that 47% of US shoppers already use AI tools for at least one shopping task. The company believes that by the 2026 holiday season, millions of consumers will use AI agents to complete purchases.

By building the infrastructure now, Visa is ensuring it remains the trusted payment layer, even as how we shop is fundamentally transformed.

3. Stablecoins: Visa Is Already Ahead of the Curve

You may have heard of “stablecoins”, these are digital currencies pegged to real-world currencies like the US dollar. Unlike Bitcoin, they don’t fluctuate wildly in value. Think of them as digital dollars that can move instantly across the internet.

Visa has been quietly building a major position here. It already supports over 130 stablecoin-linked card programmes in more than 50 countries, and its stablecoin settlement volume has reached a run rate of $4.6 billion globally. In simple terms: real money is already flowing through Visa’s stablecoin infrastructure.

Why does this matter for investors?

Stablecoins could eventually allow faster, cheaper international payments and Visa wants to be the trusted bridge between the old financial world and this new one, rather than be disrupted by it. As stablecoin regulations become clearer (especially in markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan), Visa’s early investments could translate into significant new revenue streams.

4. A Long Legal Saga Is Finally Clearing Up

For over 20 years, Visa has been tangled in lawsuits from merchants over interchange fees, the small percentage businesses pay every time a customer swipes a card. Merchants argued these fees were unfairly high and anti-competitive.

The good news: this legal overhang is substantially resolving. Visa have recently settled the final interchange fee claims from about 65 major retailers in a New York case, including big names like Nike, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Crate & Barrel, and Amtrak.

In total, Visa has paid out $4.2 billion from its litigation escrow between 2023 and early 2026.

A broader class-action settlement covering millions of merchants is still working through court approval, and a separate injunctive case continues in Brooklyn. There’s also a litigation provision of $707 million that hit Visa’s earnings this quarter. But the direction of travel is clear, the biggest legal clouds are lifting, reducing one of the key risks that has hung over the stock for years.

5. Earnings Update: Visa reported its fiscal Q2 2026 results on April 28, 2026

Visa posted $11.2 billion in quarterly revenue, up 17% from a year ago. The growth was broad-based, driven by more people spending on cards, more international trips, and more online purchases. When a company of Visa's size grows this quickly, it signals genuine demand momentum rather than accounting tricks.

CEO Ryan McInerney devoted significant time on the earnings call to what the company calls "agentic commerce", which are AI assistants that shop and pay on your behalf, without you lifting a finger. Visa has already completed hundreds of secure AI-initiated transactions with partners and launched a "Trusted Agent Protocol" to help merchants verify whether it's a legitimate AI agent or a malicious bot making a purchase.

Visa’s management sees this as a structural growth driver: more AI agents buying things means more transactions, more microtransactions, and more fees flowing through Visa's network.

Disclaimer:
All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. The man who steered America’s economy through a pandemic, a rate crisis, and a war is handed over the keys yesterday, April 29th 2026.

Most people have never heard Jerome Powell speak. But every time they pay for groceries, take out a loan, or check their mortgage rate, his decisions are behind it.

Yesterday, after more than eight years steering America's economy through its wildest chapter in decades, Powell chairs his final meeting as Federal Reserve Chairman. This is the story of what he did, what it meant, and who takes over from here."

Join us on Wednesday 6 May 2026 (7:30-915pm SG Time), for our live Free webinar, where we cover:

* Our resilient investing strategy that we use in our public portfolio

* Stock Analysis: Will Visa be disrupted by AI?

Attendees will also get preview our new AI Powered Stock Market Simulator game where you’ll learn about your investing strengths and weakness.

👉🏼 Click here to reserve a spot. (LINK)

Who is Jerome Powell?

Jerome Powell is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, which is America’s central bank. Think of him as the person in charge of the country’s economic thermostat. His main job?

Set interest rates to keep inflation low and people employed. When he raises rates, borrowing gets more expensive (slows the economy). When he cuts them, borrowing gets cheaper (stimulates growth). Since 2018, Powell has been the most powerful economic voice in the world.

Jerome Powell Timeline

2018 — Takes charge

Powell is confirmed as Fed Chair by Trump, replacing Janet Yellen. He was seen as a steady, pragmatic choice.

2020 — COVID crisis

The economy collapses almost overnight. Powell slashes rates to near zero and floods the system with emergency cash to prevent a depression.

2022 to 2023 — The great rate hike

Inflation hits a 40-year high. Powell triggers the fastest rate hike cycle in modern history, 11 hikes in a row, bringing rates to 5.25–5.5%. Critics called it too slow; others called it too fast. He held the line.

2024 to 2025 — Cutting begins

With inflation cooling, Powell pivots to cuts. But geopolitical turbulence, including the war in Iran — forces a cautious approach. Rates settle at 3.5–3.75%.

April 29, 2026 — Final press conference

Yesterday, Powell wraps up his final FOMC meeting as Chair and holds his last press conference as head of the world’s most important central bank.

What’s happening right now?

Yesterday night was a historic one. Powell is chairing his final Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the regular gathering where the Fed decides what to do with interest rates.

As expected, rates are being held steady at 3.5% to 3.75%. No cut, no hike.

The Fed is essentially pressing pause while it watches how the Iran conflict plays out, higher oil prices are pushing up inflation, which makes cutting rates risky right now.

Enter Kevin Warsh

Powell’s successor is Kevin Warsh, nominated by President Trump. Warsh is a well-known figure in financial circles, he served on the Federal Reserve Board during the 2008 global financial crisis as Ben Bernanke’s right-hand man, which earned him deep credibility on Wall Street.

The last hurdle to his confirmation, a Justice Department probe into Powell over a headquarters renovation, was cleared over the weekend.

With holdout Senator Thom Tillis now on board, Warsh is expected to be confirmed by the Senate Banking Committee today and officially takes over from Powell in May.

What to watch for next

1. Powell’s final words: Will he confirm whether he’ll stay on the Fed’s Board of Governors (his governor term runs until 2028)? Staying on could create tension with Warsh’s agenda.

2. Warsh’s direction: He’s expected to shake things up, possibly eliminating the Fed’s ‘dot plot’ forecasts and reducing press conferences.

3. Rate cuts in 2026? Markets only price in an estimated 20% chance of any cut by year-end. The Iran war makes the path forward murky.

Disclaimer:

All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. DBS Group Holdings (SGX: D05) is Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets, with operations spanning 19 countries and a market capitalization of over USD 124 billion.

From helping multinational corporations move money across borders, to managing the wealth of Asia’s growing affluent class, to backing small businesses with loans, DBS does it all, and at a scale few banks in the region can match.

2025 was a year that tested banks worldwide. Interest rates fell, global markets were volatile, and a new global minimum tax added pressure on profits.

Yet DBS came through with record total income, a landmark dividend increase, and a seamless change in leadership.

In short: the bank didn’t just survive a tough year — it thrived.

Join us on Wednesday 6 May 2026 (7:30-915pm SG Time), for our live Free webinar, where we cover:

* Our resilient investing strategy that we use in our public portfolio

* Stock Analysis: Will Visa be disrupted by AI?

Attendees will also get preview our new AI Powered Stock Market Simulator game where you’ll learn about your investing strengths and weakness.

👉🏼 Click here to reserve a spot. (LINK)

First, What Exactly Is DBS?

Think of DBS (Development Bank of Singapore) as the region’s financial powerhouse. It’s the largest bank in Southeast Asia, headquartered in Singapore, and listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX: D05).

DBS offers everything you’d expect from a major bank, loans, savings accounts, credit cards, wealth management, and investment services but at a scale that spans 19 countries across Asia.

Its key growth markets sit along three major Asian axes: Greater China (Hong Kong, China, Taiwan), Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, India), and South Asia.

With SGD 897 billion in total assets as of end-2025, DBS is not just Singapore’s most valuable brand for the 14th year in a row, it’s also ranked among the top 25 banks in the world by market capitalization.

Global finance publications like Euromoney and The Banker have consistently named it the “World’s Best Bank.” In short: this is a blue-chip institution that serious investors in Asia pay close attention to.

1. Record Revenue, Even in a Tough Year

Despite one of the most challenging interest rate environments in recent years, DBS managed to grow its top line. Total income rose 3% to a new all-time high of SGD 22.1 billion, and profit before tax climbed 1% to a record SGD 13.1 billion.

Net profit did dip 3% to SGD 10.9 billion, but here’s the important part: management was upfront that this had nothing to do with the business itself. It was entirely due to a new 15% global minimum tax applied in Singapore starting 2025. Strip that out, and the underlying business story remains one of consistent strength.

DBS is generating more revenue than ever before. The profit dip is a one-off tax adjustment, not a signal of business weakness.

2. Dividends Are Up

For investors who love getting paid just to hold a stock, DBS has become one of the most attractive dividend plays in Singapore.

DBS paid a dividend per share of SGD 3.06 in 2025, up significantly from SGD 2.22 in 2024- that’s a jump of nearly 38% in a single year. Zooming out further, DBS has delivered a five-year dividend growth rate of around 25% per year, which is exceptional for a large, established bank.

The bank pays dividends quarterly, meaning shareholders receive income four times a year rather than waiting for an annual payout. The current dividend yield sits at around 5%, making it competitive with many fixed deposits and bonds, but with the added upside potential of share price appreciation.

Looking ahead, analysts expect DBS to pay approximately SGD 3.36 per share over the next 12 months, suggesting the dividend could continue growing even from here.

DBS isn’t just a growth story, it’s an income story too. A ~5% yield paid out quarterly, backed by a bank with record revenues and a strong balance sheet, makes DBS a compelling option for investors who want steady, growing cash flow from their portfolio.

Just keep in mind that dividends are never guaranteed and can change with business conditions.

3. Wealth Management Is a Growing Engine

One of DBS’s most exciting growth stories is wealth management, helping wealthy clients grow and protect their money. The bank recorded record net new money inflows in 2025, and its Assets Under Management (AUM) has doubled since 2019.

Even with some global market turbulence in early 2026 (due to Middle East tensions making investors cautious), analysts believe DBS’s wealth management momentum remains solid.

In fact, the recent Middle-East uncertainty may be driving more wealthy individuals to park their money in stable Singapore, which could mean even more inflows ahead.

Wealth management generates fees regardless of interest rates, making it a more stable, growing revenue stream that reduces the bank’s reliance on any single income source.

4. AI Investment Is Already Paying Off

New CEO Tan Su Shan, who took over from the long-serving Piyush Gupta in 2025, has made AI a central pillar of DBS’s strategy. The bank has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence, and it’s not just talk.

DBS has been using AI to improve customer service, streamline operations, reduce costs, and detect fraud faster. Management confirmed at the 2026 AGM that AI adoption is delivering measurable results for the bank’s bottom line.

The CEO emphasized how AI is now deeply embedded in the bank’s operations and strategic direction, evolving from a trendy concept into a proven driver of value, contributing around SGD 1 billion in economic impact in 2025.

DBS currently operates more than 2,000 AI models across 430 use cases, with roughly two-thirds of its workforce relying on DBS-GPT for everyday tasks such as research and writing.

Productivity gains are evident: the bank’s data scientists using CodeBuddy have reduced coding time by 20%, while the technology team has shortened deployment cycles by 25%.

Meanwhile, DBS Joy, its generative AI-powered chatbot for corporate banking, has already onboarded over 20,000 users and lifted customer satisfaction levels by 23%.

5. Brand Value Is Growing and So Is Global Recognition

DBS’s brand value rose 8% to USD 18.6 billion in 2026, according to global consultancy Brand Finance, making it Singapore’s most valuable brand for the 14th consecutive year in a row. It also ranks as the 7th most valuable bank brand in Asia Pacific.

A strong and growing brand helps DBS attract more customers and talent, supports premium pricing for its services, and signals long-term competitive durability.

The Bottom Line

DBS is navigating a world of rising taxes, geopolitical uncertainty, and shifting interest rates and it’s doing so from a position of strength.

Record revenues, a big dividend increase, booming wealth management, AI investment paying off, and a globally recognized brand make this a company that continues to earn its place in many Asian investors’ portfolios.

DBS’s diversified business model and proactive management give it a resilient foundation.

Disclaimer:

All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor,

Zee here. What a recovery! In red markets, it is very important to stick to facts- like how the Current S&P 500 profit margin is at an all-time record of 15%.

The S&P500 is now trading at an All Time High (ATH), which also means that if you are in poor fundamental stocks, and they are still dropping the market is pricing them fairly as poor fundamental stocks. Time to review those.

And here it is... Time of the month again, to share our monthly update on our portfolio. You can read last month’s portfolio update here.

Public Portfolio Update: April 2026

YTD performance: 10.67%

MTD performance: 21.11% (Dark blue line S&P500 at 8.0%)

Cash left uninvested: 35% Cash

Note: No new additions to the portfolio.

Our Portfolio Review:

(1) During the down markets, we kept investing in our watchlist ready of high quality conviction stocks and good ETFs, till we ran out of cash in February.

(2) Lesson learnt: To keep at least 10% cash for super good deals. (For example, prices below the 200 days Moving Average.)

(3) We took partial profits by selling 35% of our positions, as the market flew to All Time High (ATH).

Disclaimer:

All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investors.

Zee here. While the world debates which AI company will win, a quieter story is playing out in the industrial parks of Chonburi, Thailand.

Fabrinet, a name most retail investors have never come across, manufactures the precision optical components that sit inside every major AI data centre on earth.

No flashy consumer products. No viral demos. Just extraordinarily precise manufacturing, at massive scale, for the companies building the backbone of the AI era.

Its stock has risen 250% in a year, it just posted a record quarter, and it's building one of the largest factories in Southeast Asia.

Here's what you need to know.

What does Fabrinet actually do?

Imagine you’ve invented a revolutionary new component that sits inside the world’s fastest fibre-optic cables and data centres, a tiny device that can send data at the speed of light.

You have the design and the customers, but building a factory to make thousands of these things a day, to incredibly precise tolerances, would cost you hundreds of millions of dollars and take years.

So instead, you call Fabrinet.

Fabrinet (NYSE: FN) is a specialist contract manufacturer based in Thailand. It builds complex optical, electro-mechanical and electronic components on behalf of the world’s leading technology companies, names like Cisco, Coherent, II-VI and others. These aren’t ordinary parts. They’re precision-engineered products used in fibre-optic communications, AI data centres, medical devices, industrial lasers, and automotive sensors. The kind of products where even a microscopic imperfection can cause failure.

Founded in 1999 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2010, Fabrinet has quietly grown from a small Thai manufacturer into one of the most strategically important companies in the global tech supply chain. It employs over 16,000 people, generates more than $4 billion in annual revenue, and has become an indispensable link between the companies that design next-generation tech and the data centres and networks that power the modern world.

As AI infrastructure spending has exploded, Fabrinet has found itself in an almost uniquely privileged position, right in the middle of the supply chain for the components the AI boom simply cannot function without.

Revenue just hit a record and crushed expectations

Fabrinet’s most recent quarterly results, covering the three months to December 2025, were nothing short of extraordinary. Revenue hit $1.13 billion, a record high, up 36% from the same quarter a year earlier, and up 16% compared with just the previous quarter. To put that in context, a year ago Fabrinet was doing around $830 million a quarter. The pace of growth has been dramatic.

Earnings were equally impressive. Non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share came in at $3.36, beating the company’s own guidance of $3.25 by about 3%.

CEO Seamus Grady called it an “exceptional quarter,” crediting multiple large strategic programmes across the business all contributing simultaneously, a sign that the growth isn’t coming from just one lucky contract but is broad-based.

AI data centres are supercharging demand and it’s only getting started

If you want to understand why Fabrinet is growing so fast, you need to understand what’s happening inside today’s AI data centres. When companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta build the giant server farms that power AI models, they don’t just need more computers — they need an enormous amount of incredibly fast optical networking equipment to connect all those computers together. Data needs to move between thousands of servers at near-light speed, with minimal delay. The components that make that possible: transceivers, optical modules, photonic switches, are exactly what Fabrinet manufactures.

The numbers tell the story. Fabrinet’s high-performance computing (HPC) segment essentially its AI-focused business, exploded from $15 million in revenue in Q1 FY2026 to $86 million in Q2. Management expects this to reach over $150 million per quarter when fully ramped.

That’s a tenfold increase in just a few quarters, driven largely by a new relationship with Amazon Web Services. Meanwhile, data centre interconnect modules, another AI-critical product, grew 42% year-on-year, and even the traditional telecom segment surged 66%.

Fabrinet also showcased its role in the AI ecosystem at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2026 in Los Angeles in March, where it hosted two investor Q&A sessions. Demonstrations and customer engagements at the event reinforced the company’s central position in co-packaged optics, optical circuit switching and next-generation interconnects, technologies that will define AI networking for the next decade.

The broad takeaway from the conference: AI data centre spending is accelerating, not slowing, and Fabrinet is positioned squarely in the path of that spend.

A new silicon photonics deal puts Fabrinet at the cutting edge of AI networking

In mid-March 2026, Fabrinet announced an expanded manufacturing partnership with iPronics, a specialist in silicon photonics technology. This is worth understanding in some detail, because it points to where AI networking is heading next.

Traditional data centre networks use electronic switches to route data, essentially, data gets converted from light to electricity, directed to the right place, then converted back to light again. This process creates latency (tiny delays) and consumes significant power. Silicon photonics-based optical circuit switching bypasses the electrical conversion entirely, keeping data as light throughout the journey. The result is faster, lower-latency, more energy-efficient networks, exactly what AI workloads demand, since large AI models require thousands of servers communicating with each other constantly at extreme speeds.

Under the expanded deal, Fabrinet is adding a dedicated production line for iPronics’ silicon photonics optical circuit switching systems, specifically targeting AI-focused data centre customers. Full operations are targeted for June 2026. This isn’t just a small add-on contract, it positions Fabrinet as a manufacturer of choice in a technology segment that many analysts believe will become a standard feature of AI data centres within the next few years. First-mover advantage in high-margin, technically complex manufacturing is exactly the kind of moat Fabrinet has historically built its business on.

A giant new factory is being built, capacity could nearly double

Record demand requires record capacity, and Fabrinet is making a major bet on the future. The company is currently constructing Building 10 at its Chonburi campus in Thailand, a massive 2-million-square-foot facility that will be one of the largest precision manufacturing plants in Southeast Asia. When fully ramped, management estimates it could add approximately $3 billion in annual revenue capacity on top of existing operations.

To put the scale in perspective: Fabrinet’s current manufacturing capacity is estimated at around $5.5 billion annually. Adding Building 10 and completing further conversions at its Pinehurst campus could push total capacity to $8.5 billion or more, nearly double current levels. Initial phases of Building 10 are expected to come online through the course of 2026, giving investors something concrete to watch for in upcoming quarterly updates.

The expansion is not without cost. Capital expenditures surged 136% year-on-year in Q2, briefly pushing free cash flow negative (to -$5.35 million). Total liabilities rose 55% year-on-year as the company funds the build-out. This is a deliberate, strategic investment and most analysts view it positively as a signal of genuine confidence in sustained demand but it does mean the company is in a spending cycle right now. Investors should expect capital expenditure to remain elevated through 2026 as construction continues.

In February 2026, Fabrinet also published its 2025 Corporate Responsibility Report, detailing 233 green projects that reduced electricity consumption and emissions intensity at its Thai factories. As ESG factors increasingly influence where major tech companies place their manufacturing contracts, this kind of track record matters — it's not just good optics, it's a competitive differentiator when customers are choosing between suppliers.

The stock has had a massive run, here’s what could go wrong

Fabrinet’s stock has risen almost 250% in the past year alone, climbing from around $174 to a record high of $679 in April 2026. That kind of run reflects genuine business momentum, but it also means the bar for disappointment is now very high.

(I) Valuation

Fabrinet trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 53x, meaning investors are paying $53 for every $1 of current earnings. The forward P/E (based on expected future earnings) is a more reasonable 13x, reflecting how fast earnings are growing. The PEG ratio (which adjusts for growth) sits at around 1.19, not cheap, but not bubble territory either.

Analyst consensus price targets cluster between $530 and $582, with some optimistic forecasts reaching $715. The fact that current prices are above most analyst targets is worth noting.

(II) Customer concentration

Fabrinet’s revenues are heavily dependent on a handful of large technology customers. If one or two of those customers slows orders, because their own AI buildout pauses, because they bring manufacturing in-house, or because demand softens, Fabrinet’s revenue could drop sharply. This is a structural risk in the contract manufacturing business model.

(III) Leadership transition

In October 2025, Tom Mitchell, the founder who built Fabrinet from a startup in 2000 into the company it is today, retired after 25 years. He had already handed over the CEO role to Seamus Grady in 2017, but his departure as Chairman nonetheless removes one of the company’s most knowledgeable long-term stewards at a pivotal moment of growth. Grady has performed well, but it’s a transition worth monitoring.

(IV) Insider selling

CEO Grady sold 22,451 shares in a single day in November 2025, and director Thomas Kelly sold additional shares in February 2026. Insider selling doesn’t always signal a problem, executives often sell shares for personal financial planning — but large single-day sales by senior figures are always worth being aware of as an investor.

(V) Margin pressure

Heavy capital investment in new facilities, combined with the complexity of ramping up new production lines, creates execution risk. If Building 10 takes longer than expected to ramp, or if new programmes like iPronics silicon photonics prove harder to scale than anticipated, margins could come under pressure in the near term.

What to watch next:

Fabrinet's next earnings call is scheduled for 4 May 2026.

Key things to listen for: the pace of Building 10 construction and when it begins contributing revenue, progress on the iPronics silicon photonics ramp, any commentary on co-packaged optics adoption timelines, and whether the HPC segment is tracking toward management's $150M+ quarterly target.

Guidance for Q4 FY2026 will also give investors a clearer picture of whether the current growth trajectory is sustainable through the rest of the year.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns, and that’s exactly the point.

Dear Investors.

Zee here. During a public Live Free webinar on 18th March 2026, I shared the market is heavily discounted, despite the negative headlines of Oil shortages, Rising Oil prices, Blocked straits of hormuz and US-Iran War.

Common responses I received were: Too Risky Now

Back then when the Stocks were at high: I’ll wait for the crash.

Last Thursday, I wrote about fundamentally strong the companies in S&P500 were, given their rising Nett Profit Margins. Proud that several of our students saw the Great Sale and took action.

Since the public Live Free webinar on 18th March 2026, the market rallied about 6%.

I will share my thoughts of the markets moving forward on next Free live Webinar on Monday 20th April 2026 (Details below).

Few investing quotes have stood the test of time like this one from Warren Buffett: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

It sounds simple. It’s anything but.

What does it actually mean?

Buffett’s point is that markets are driven by human emotion just as much as by logic.

When everyone around you is excited and piling into stocks, prices tend to be inflated that’s the time to be cautious. But when panic sets in and investors are selling everything in sight, prices often drop below what businesses are truly worth and that’s when real opportunities emerge.

In short: don’t follow the crowd. The crowd is usually wrong at the extremes.

How do you know if the market is fearful or greedy now?

Enter the CNN Fear & Greed Index

CNN’s Fear & Greed Index is a tool designed to measure what emotion is currently driving the stock market. It’s one of the most practical ways to put Buffett’s philosophy into action.

The index is built from seven different market indicators: market momentum, stock price strength, stock price breadth, put and call options, junk bond demand, market volatility, and safe haven demand.

Each one captures a different slice of how investors are behaving right now.

The theory behind the index is straightforward: excessive fear tends to push share prices down, while too much greed tends to push them up beyond fair value.

Neither extreme lasts forever.

The index gives each indicator equal weighting and produces a score from 0 to 100 — with 100 representing maximum greed and 0 signaling maximum fear.

Here’s a quick plain-English breakdown of what each indicator measures:

• Market Momentum — When the S&P 500 is trading above its 125-day average, it signals positive momentum and greed; below it suggests investors are getting nervous.

• Stock Price Strength — This tracks how many stocks are hitting 52-week highs versus lows on the NYSE. Many more highs than lows is a bullish, greedy sign.

• Market Volatility — The VIX measures expected price swings in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days. It tends to be lower in bull markets and spikes when fear takes over.

• Safe Haven Demand — When investors are scared, they flee to bonds. This indicator measures the gap between bond and stock returns over the past 20 trading days.

• Junk Bond Demand — When investors are willing to take on riskier bonds, the yield spread between junk bonds and safer government bonds narrows, a sign of greed.

Application: The hardest part

Here’s the catch, and why Buffett’s quote is so much easier to admire than to act on. Buying when others are panicking feels terrible. It goes against every instinct.

When markets are falling and headlines are grim, the natural urge is to do what everyone else is doing: sell and run.

That’s exactly what Buffett says you shouldn’t do.

The Fear & Greed Index won’t tell you what to buy or when to buy it. Used alongside fundamental analysis and other tools, it can serve as a helpful gut-check on market sentiment- a way to ask yourself: am I making this decision based on real value, or am I just following the herd?

Link to CNN Fear and Greed Index

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns, and that’s exactly the point.

Dear Investors.

Zee here. Here's something that will make any value investor do a double-take. Trip.com, which is Asia's largest online travel platform, growing revenue at 17% a year with US$15 billion in the bank is currently trading at a P/E ratio of just 7.

Single digits. For a company this size, that almost never happens.

To put that in context: the average stock in the travel industry trades at P/E ratio of 20x, while Booking Holdings, Trip.com's closest global competitor, trades at over P/E ratio of 20x.

So why is the market pricing it like a distressed asset?

That's exactly what we're going to unpack today.

#1 The Latest Numbers: Stronger Than Expected

Trip.com’s Q4 2025 earnings beat analyst expectations on both revenue and profit. The company reported Q4 revenue of RMB 15.4 billion (US$2.2 billion), up 21% year-on-year, with full-year 2025 revenue hitting RMB 62.4 billion — a 17% jump from 2024.

Earnings per ADS came in at RMB 4.97 on a non-GAAP basis, beating the forecast of RMB 4.77.

Even more reassuring: Trip.com is sitting on RMB 105.8 billion (US$15 billion) in cash and cash equivalents as of end-2025.

Hotel bookings grew 21%.

Flight and transport ticketing grew 11%.

Corporate travel revenue rose 13%.

In simple terms: the core travel business is healthy. People across Asia are travelling more, and Trip.com is capturing that demand.

#2 International Growth Is the Real Engine

Here’s what’s quietly impressive: Trip.com is no longer just a China travel story.

Its international OTA (online travel agency) platform, the part of the business serving travelers outside China, grew bookings by approximately 60% year-on-year in 2025. That’s three times faster than the overall business. International revenue now contributes 40% of total bookings and revenue.

Inbound tourism, foreigners travelling into China, nearly doubled year-on-year, with 20 million inbound travelers served in 2025. To back this push, Trip.com invested over RMB 1 billion in inbound travel initiatives and launched a US$100 million Tourism Innovation Fund.

The Asia-Pacific region is leading the charge, with SEA markets like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand emerging as key feeder markets for travel into China.

#3 A Government Antitrust Probe Wiped Out US$8 Billion in a Day

Now for the headline event that changed everything.

On January 14, 2026, Trip.com disclosed that China’s market regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), had launched a formal anti-monopoly investigation into the company.

The market didn’t wait. Trip.com’s stock fell 17% in a single session, erasing over US$8 billion in market value overnight.

The investigation centers on Trip.com’s AI-powered hotel pricing tool. This tool automatically lowered hotel rates on the platform when it detected higher prices listed elsewhere.

That sounds helpful for travelers but regulators allege it was used to force hotel merchants into promotions, penalize non-compliant partners with reduced visibility, and effectively strip merchants of their pricing autonomy.

Trip.com had publicly positioned this tool as “a cornerstone of our long-term strategy.” Shareholders now allege the company understated the regulatory risk it was sitting on.

On March 10, 2026, Trip.com shut down the tool entirely.

#4 Co-Founders Resigned From the Board, With No Explanation

On February 26, 2026, the same day as the Q4 earnings announcement, Trip.com revealed that its co-founders had abruptly resigned from the company’s board of directors, effective the day before.

No explanation was given.

This is the kind of news that makes long-term investors nervous. When co-founders exit without explanation during an active regulatory investigation, questions naturally follow: Was it pressure from SAMR? A board-level disagreement over how to handle the crisis?

We don’t know.

Multiple US securities class action lawsuits have now been filed, alleging that Trip.com misled investors about regulatory risks surrounding its AI pricing tool between April 2024 and January 2026. The lead plaintiff deadline for investors to join these suits is May 11, 2026.

#5 The Stock Looks Cheap. But Cheap Has a Reason

After a 25% decline from its 2025 highs, Trip.com now trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of around 9 times earnings (depending on whether you use GAAP or adjusted figures). For a company growing revenue at 17% to 21% per year, that looks inexpensive by global standards.

US$15 billion in cash provides a massive buffer. International growth is accelerating. Travel demand across Asia remains structurally strong. And the company consistently beats earnings estimates.

But the market is applying a “regulatory discount” — pricing in the possibility that the SAMR investigation results in a significant fine, a forced change to the business model, or lasting damage to its merchant relationships.

China’s regulatory outcomes are unpredictable and can take years to resolve. Removing the AI pricing tool takes away one of Trip.com’s core competitive edges. And the co-founder exits leave a governance question unanswered.

The Bottom Line

Trip.com is a genuinely strong business navigating a serious regulatory storm. The fundamentals, revenue growth, a fortress balance sheet, accelerating international expansion, are all pointing in the right direction.

But the combination of a government antitrust investigation, unexplained co-founder exits, and active shareholder lawsuits creates a layer of uncertainty that the numbers alone can’t resolve.

For investors with a long time horizon and the stomach for China regulatory risk, the current valuation may represent a real opportunity. For those who prefer clarity before committing, watching how the SAMR investigation develops over the next two to three quarters is the more prudent path.

The business can perform. Whether management can navigate the fog — that’s the real question.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns, and that’s exactly the point.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. We published slightly later this week as we changed to a more timely article—one that is particularly relevant in today’s fearful market conditions.

When the stock market dips, it’s natural to feel uneasy. The headlines get louder, the numbers turn red, and it can feel like something has gone fundamentally wrong with the economy. But sometimes, and this is one of those times, the deeper story is actually a very positive one.

Underneath all the short-term noise, the companies that make up the S&P 500 are doing something remarkable: they are earning more profit on every single dollar of sales than at any point in recorded history.

That is not a small detail.

It is one of the most important signals you can look at when trying to understand the health of your investments.

What is a profit margin, and why does it matter?

Let’s start with the basics. A profit margin is simply the percentage of revenue that a company gets to keep after paying all of its costs — wages, rent, raw materials, taxes, and everything else.

If a company earns $15 in profit from every $100 of sales, its profit margin is 15%.

It’s a powerful number. Two companies can have the same total sales figures, but the one with a higher profit margin is the stronger business. It means the company is running efficiently, has pricing power over its competitors, and has room to weather difficult periods without cutting staff or slashing investment.

For investors, rising profit margins across the entire S&P 500 (500 of America’s largest companies) is about as positive a signal as you can find. It means the broad economy of public companies is becoming more productive, not less.

Here are the numbers

Current S&P 500 profit margin: 15% (An all-time record)
Pre-pandemic in December 2019: 12%

The pandemic test and how companies passed it

To appreciate how impressive today’s numbers are, it helps to remember what happened just a few years ago. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, corporate profit margins cratered. Supply chains seized up, costs spiraled, and demand evaporated almost overnight. Margins dropped sharply, a totally understandable response to one of the most disruptive global events in a century.

But rather than simply recovering back to their old levels, companies came back stronger. The crisis forced boardrooms across America to rethink how they operate: automating repetitive tasks, renegotiating supplier contracts, restructuring workforces, and investing heavily in technology. The result was not just a recovery, it was a transformation.

By late 2021, margins had already clawed back to pre-pandemic levels. And since then, they have kept climbing, steadily, year after year, until arriving at today’s record of 15%.

What’s driving the margin expansion?

Three forces are working together to push margins higher.

First, technology investment is paying off. The wave of spending on cloud computing, automation, and artificial intelligence that dominated corporate budgets for the past five years is now showing up as real efficiency gains. Companies are doing more with fewer people and doing it faster.

Second, pricing power has proved remarkably durable. During the inflation spike of 2022 and 2023, many analysts predicted that consumers would push back hard on higher prices and force companies to absorb their rising input costs. Instead, the opposite largely happened, companies passed costs on to customers and held their ground. That pricing confidence has not fully unwound.

Third, the composition of the S&P 500 itself has shifted. The index is now dominated by large technology and services businesses, which naturally carry higher margins than traditional manufacturers or retailers. As these companies have grown, they have pulled the overall index average upward with them.

Doesn’t a market pullback mean something is wrong?

Not necessarily and this is perhaps the most important point for everyday investors to understand. Stock prices fluctuate based on a cocktail of factors: interest rate expectations, geopolitical headlines, investor sentiment, and short-term economic data. None of these things have to move in lockstep with underlying corporate profitability.

What the margin data tells us is that the current period of weakness is about how much investors are willing to pay for earnings, not about the earnings themselves disappearing. The market has gone from pricing stocks at a premium to pricing them at something closer to fair value. That is healthy. It creates a better entry point for long-term investors and reduces the risk of a more serious correction later.

Think of it like a high-street store that has been running a record-breaking year of sales, but whose share price has slipped because one analyst wrote a cautious note about the economy. The underlying business has not changed only the emotions of the room.

The bigger picture for your portfolio

The recent market pullback has been driven almost entirely by valuation drop — investors are simply paying less per dollar of future earnings. It has not been caused by a collapse in those earnings themselves. Forward earnings estimates for the S&P 500 keep rising even as stock prices have wobbled.

A market that falls because profits are collapsing is a very different animal from one that falls because sentiment has cooled on already-healthy businesses.

But here is the takeaway that matters for long-term investors: the engine underneath the American economy’s largest companies is running better than it ever has. Businesses are leaner, more profitable per dollar of revenue, and still growing their forward earnings estimates despite external headwinds.

History has consistently rewarded investors who looked past short-term noise and stayed anchored to what businesses are actually doing.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns, and that’s exactly the point.

Dear Investors,

Zee here. Lululemon just reported its fourth quarter fiscal 2025 results, and it’s a tale of two very different stories.

While the yoga pants giant is navigating some serious headwinds in its home market, international growth is exploding. Here’s what you need to know.

1. The Latest Numbers: A Mixed Bag

Lululemon’s Q4 results showed earnings per share of $5.01 versus expectations of $4.78, and revenue of $3.64 billion versus $3.58 billion expected. On the surface, that looks like a beat. But dig deeper and you’ll see the pain: net income dropped to $586.9 million, or $5.01 per share, compared with $748.4 million, or $6.14 per share, a year earlier.

The culprit? Profit margins got hammered. Gross profit fell to $2.00 billion, down 8.4% from a year earlier, while cost of goods sold rose to $1.64 billion, up 14.9% year over year.

In simple terms: it’s costing Lululemon a lot more to make the same products, and they’re eating most of those costs rather than passing them to customers.

2. Tariffs Are Crushing the Bottom Line

This is the big story. Tariffs have become Lululemon’s biggest problem. The company expects an impact of about $240 million on its 2025 gross profit from higher tariffs and the removal of the de minimis exemption, with a hit of around $320 million on its operating margin in 2026.

Why is Lululemon so exposed? Because they source 40% of their manufacturing from Vietnam and 28% of their fabrics from mainland China —both countries hit with elevated tariff rates. The removal of the de minimis exemption is particularly painful since about two-thirds of Lululemon’s U.S. e-commerce orders are fulfilled through Canada, and those small shipments used to enter duty-free.

The company has raised prices modestly on select items and is negotiating with suppliers, but they’re limited in how much they can push prices up—they were already premium-priced before tariffs hit.

3. The U.S. Business Has Stalled

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Lululemon is struggling at home. For fiscal 2025, Americas net revenue increased just 1%, which is essentially flat when you account for inflation. The company’s guidance for 2025 reflects this reality—they now expect net revenue between $10.850 billion to $11.000 billion, representing growth of 2% to 4%, way down from earlier expectations.

CEO Calvin McDonald acknowledged they’re facing headwinds from a decline in visits to U.S. stores, the impact of tariffs, and rising competition from other brands such as Vuori and Alo. The athleisure market that Lululemon dominated for years has gotten a lot more crowded.

4. China Is Absolutely on Fire

Now for the good news: Lululemon’s international business, especially China, is exploding. Net revenue from China surged 46% year-on-year, making it Lululemon’s strongest growth engine by a wide margin. Even more impressive, comparable sales in mainland China increased 24%.

This isn’t a small part of the business anymore, it’s becoming central to Lululemon’s growth story. Under its Power of Three x2 strategy, Lululemon aims to reach 200 stores in China, with nearly 154 outlets as of the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The company is also planning to add 25 to 30 stores in international markets, with the majority expected to be in China.

Beyond just opening stores, Lululemon is localizing its approach—during the Chinese New Year holiday, Lululemon launched a spring-themed campaign alongside a limited-edition collection. For fiscal 2026, the company expects revenue in the Chinese market to grow about 20 percent.

5. Going Global to Reduce U.S. Dependence

Lululemon is aggressively diversifying beyond North America. The company announced plans to enter six new international markets in 2026: Greece, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and India, an annual record. They’re using franchise partnerships to expand quickly without huge capital investment.

The international segment overall is performing strongly—international net revenue increased 22%, or 20% on a constant dollar basis in Q2. Beyond China, the Rest of World segment grew 19% (15% in constant-currency), fueled by new market entries in Italy, Turkey, and Belgium.

This geographic diversification is smart strategy. It reduces dependence on the tariff-impacted U.S. market and taps into growing international demand for premium athleisure.

The Bottom Line

Lululemon is at an inflection point. The U.S. business that built this company is stagnating under pressure from tariffs, competition, and cautious consumers. But international markets, particularly China, are delivering explosive growth that’s keeping the company afloat.

The stock has been punished severely, with tariffs expected to cost the company $380 million in 2026, up from $275 million in 2025, the near-term margin pressure is real.

This is a “show me” story now. Can China and international growth accelerate enough to offset a flatlining Americas business? That’s the question that will determine whether Lululemon is a turnaround opportunity or a value trap.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. You’ve probably heard this advice a hundred times: “Just ignore the market noise.” Good advice. Nearly impossible to follow.

When your portfolio turns red, your stomach churns. Your body’s fight-or-flight instinct doesn’t know the difference between a bear market and a bear. So you panic sell. Most new investors do. And in doing so, they lock in losses that the market would have eventually recovered from. Sometimes within months.

The problem today is that market noise is louder than ever. A decade ago, you might have caught the evening news and gone to bed. Now, push notifications buzz on your phone at midnight. Financial anxiety is no longer something you switch off at the end of the day, it follows you into the bedroom, the dinner table, and everywhere in between.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: market noise is never going away.

Accepting this is actually the first step to becoming a better investor.

The Real Perspective

Consider Warren Buffett, arguably the greatest investor alive. Even he couldn’t escape losses. Berkshire Hathaway, his investment fund, experienced losses multiple times over the decades:

For a 50% crash, that means if you had $100,000 invested in Berkshire during the 2007–2009 financial crisis, it would have looked like just $50,000 on paper. Gut-wrenching by any measure.

Yet Berkshire survived every single crash, the 1970s inflation shock, Black Monday, the dot-com bubble, the global financial crisis and came out stronger each time. Buffett didn’t panic sell. He stayed the course.

The lesson isn’t that losses don’t hurt. It’s that time in the market consistently beats timing the market.

Today, with headlines swinging between geopolitical conflicts and recession fears, stocks are rattling around in correction territory. It sounds scary.

But in 20 years, today’s crisis will very likely be just another row in a historical table, much like the ones above.

The Frameworks To Staying Calm

1. Markets are driven just as much by emotion as fundamentals.

A company does not become 15% less valuable because of a headline. Earnings don’t evaporate overnight because of a geopolitical flare-up. Yet prices swing wildly anyway because markets are not just driven by balance sheets and revenue figures.

They are driven just as much by fear, hope, and uncertainty.

2. Volatility is not the problem. Emotional reactions to it are.

Volatility is simply the market repricing assets as new information and new emotions flood in. The real problem is the emotional reaction it triggers. The urge to act, to do something, to stop the bleeding. That urge, more than any market crash, is what destroys long-term returns.

The investor who stays calm and does nothing during a 20% drawdown almost always comes out ahead of the one who sold at the bottom and waited for certainty before buying back in. Certainty, of course, never comes.

3. When in doubt, zoom out and revisit your thesis.

The best thing any investor can do in a turbulent week is deceptively simple: zoom out, revisit your investment thesis, and ask yourself one honest question — has anything fundamentally changed in the businesses I own?

Not the share price. Not the headlines. The actual business. Its earnings power, its competitive position, its balance sheet. If the answer is no, then the noise is just noise.

The thesis still holds. The job is to hold with it.

4. Over time, markets have consistently rewarded patience.

Markets have endured world wars, financial collapses, pandemics, and political upheaval and over every sufficiently long period, they have rewarded those who stayed invested.

Not the most sophisticated. Not the most active. The most patient.

In a world designed to make you react, choosing not to is a genuine act of investing discipline and over time, it is one of the most profitable decisions you can make.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns, and that's exactly the point.

Dear Investor,

Zee here. What a month of so much drama and news!

I was in Korea for a month-long work engagement, but unfortunately came down with a severe case of food poisoning during the trip, which set me back more than expected, hence the delay in posting.

And here it is.. Time of the month again, to share our monthly update on our portfolio. You can read last month’s portfolio update here.

Public Portfolio Update: March 2026

YTD performance: -6.90%
MTD performance: -8.53% (Dark blue line S&P500 at -5.0%)

Cash left uninvested: Fully invested

Note: No new additions to the portfolio.

Our Portfolio Review:

(I) A negative month for us, but we are not concerned as we are invested in high quality ETFs and stocks.

(II) Unfortunately, we do not have uninvested cash left to buy more of these high quality ETFs and stocks, which are now in a greater discount.

(III) The market will eventually recover and bounce back higher than before, as seen in April 2025 and May 2025, where the account recovered from -23.06% (YTD) to +1.11% (YTD), effectively a jump of +24.17% (YTD).

Disclaimer:
All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. In the ever-evolving landscape of global technology, few companies command the scale, influence, and diversification of Tencent Holdings. While American tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Google typically dominate headlines in Western markets, there’s a Chinese powerhouse that has quietly built one of the most formidable digital empires on the planet and right now, it’s at a particularly interesting inflection point.

This isn’t just another tech company riding the AI wave or chasing the latest trend. This is a business that touches the daily lives of over a billion people, dominates multiple industries simultaneously, and continues to generate cash flows that would make most Fortune 500 companies envious.

As the world’s largest video game company by revenue and one of the most valuable tech enterprises globally, Tencent has been making significant waves lately and for good reason.

From regulatory tailwinds in China to impressive earnings beats, from strategic investments that continue to pay dividends to its evolution beyond gaming into AI, fintech, and cloud services, there’s a compelling story unfolding here.

Let’s dive into what makes Tencent such a fascinating investment case in today’s market.

The Tencent Story: From Messaging App to Tech Empire

The Humble Beginnings (1998-2004)

Tencent was founded in November 1998 in Shenzhen by Pony Ma (Ma Huateng) and four colleagues during China’s early internet boom. Their first product, originally called OICQ (later renamed QQ after a trademark dispute with AOL), was a simple instant messaging service modeled after the international ICQ platform.

Here’s the thing: Tencent wasn’t profitable for its first three years. The company struggled to monetize its free messaging service even as users flooded in—hitting 1 million users in the first year and 50 million by the second year. The breakthrough came when they introduced QQ Coin, a virtual currency that let users buy avatar customizations and special features. Suddenly, Chinese internet users were paying to make their digital identities stand out. This “freemium” model became Tencent’s foundation.

In 2004, Tencent went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising about $200 million.

The Gaming Revolution (2004-2011)

In 2004, Tencent entered online gaming—a move that would transform the company. They started by licensing games from Korean developers like “CrossFire” and “Dungeon Fighter Online,” which became massive hits in China. Over time, Tencent began making its own games and acquiring game studios globally. Today, Tencent owns or has major stakes in Riot Games (League of Legends), Supercell (Clash of Clans), Epic Games (Fortnite), and many others. It’s now the world’s largest video game company by revenue.

The WeChat Era (2011-Present)

In 2011, Tencent launched Weixin (branded internationally as WeChat), and this changed everything. What started as a mobile messaging app evolved into what’s known as a “super app”—combining messaging, social media, mobile payments, mini-programs, and more. Think of it as if Facebook, WhatsApp, Venmo, and App Store all lived in one application.

WeChat now has over 1.3 billion monthly active users, primarily in China. It’s embedded in daily life—people use it to chat, pay bills, order food, book taxis, invest money, and even access government services. WeChat Pay has become one of China’s dominant mobile payment platforms, competing directly with Alibaba’s Alipay.

The Investment Powerhouse (2010s-Present)

Tencent didn’t just build its own products—it invested strategically in promising companies worldwide. The company holds stakes in Spotify, Tesla, Reddit, Discord, Snap, and hundreds of other firms. In 2001, South African media company Naspers bought a 46.5% stake in Tencent for $32 million—an investment that grew to be worth over $100 billion at its peak, making it one of the best venture investments in history.

Today’s Tencent

Tencent is now a diversified technology conglomerate with six main business segments: value-added services (gaming and social), online advertising, FinTech and business services, cloud computing, and various technology initiatives including AI and quantum computing. With a market cap of approximately $750 billion, it’s one of the most valuable companies in the world.

The 5 Latest Developments

1. AI Chip Access Opens New Doors

In a significant development last month, Chinese regulators approved Tencent to prepare purchase orders for Nvidia’s advanced H200 AI chips. This is a big deal. For months, uncertainty around access to cutting-edge semiconductors had been hanging over Chinese tech companies.

Now Tencent can move forward with its AI infrastructure plans, which should help the company compete in artificial intelligence and cloud services. The company has been ramping up AI spending significantly, capital expenditures jumped 67% year-over-year in recent quarters to fund GPUs and servers.

2. Middle East Expansion in Full Swing

Tencent is actively expanding its cloud computing footprint in the Middle East, with data centers already operational in Saudi Arabia and more planned across the region. The company sees major opportunity here, as IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa is projected to reach $155 billion in 2025.

Tencent is leveraging its existing Chinese customer base (like food delivery app Keeta and gaming companies) to establish a presence, putting it in direct competition with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

3. Strong Financial Performance Continues

The numbers tell a compelling story. In Q3 2025, Tencent reported total revenue of RMB 193 billion, up 15% year-on-year, with net profit attributable to shareholders rising 19%.

The company is firing on multiple cylinders, domestic gaming revenue grew 16%, international gaming surged 43%, and marketing services (advertising) continued robust growth thanks to AI-driven improvements.

The stock is currently trading around $78, though it’s worth noting it hit a 52-week high of $87.67 back in October 2025.

4. Gaming Still Dominates, But Diversity Grows

While gaming remains the core business, Tencent is successfully diversifying. Games like “Honor of Kings” and new hit “Delta Force” are performing exceptionally well, but the company is also seeing accelerating growth in business services, particularly AI-related offerings like GPU rental and API usage for enterprise customers.

This diversification helps reduce dependence on any single revenue stream.

5. Going Global with Payments

Tencent is pushing hard to make its payment systems work internationally. They launched TenPay Global Checkout, allowing some Weixin merchants to accept funding from outside mainland China . They’ve also partnered with more than 40 wallets in over 10 countries and regions, opening access to tens of millions of merchants in China for international travelers.

This matters because it positions Tencent as more than just a domestic Chinese company.

They’re building the infrastructure to be a global payments player.

Bottomline

Tencent offers exposure to multiple high-growth areas: gaming, social media, cloud computing, AI, and digital payments. The company benefits from China’s massive domestic market while expanding internationally through investments and acquisitions.

However, investors should be aware of the risks. Chinese regulatory oversight remains a factor, authorities have been more assertive about controlling tech companies in recent years. Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China could impact international expansion.

And while the recent approval for AI chips is positive, access to cutting-edge technology isn’t guaranteed long-term.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investors,

Zee here. After two decades of watching markets move, I've learned that the most expensive mistakes investors make aren't from buying bad stocks or timing entries poorly. They're from believing in market "truths" that simply aren't true.

Charlie Bilello released his annual collection of chart-busting reality checks, and they're more important than ever. These aren't just interesting data points—they're wealth-preserving insights that could save you from making million-dollar mistakes.

Let me walk you through the most dangerous myths plaguing investors right now, and why understanding these patterns could be the difference between building generational wealth and watching it evaporate.

The Myth That's Costing Investors Fortunes Right Now

"All-Time Highs Are a Sell Signal"

This might be the most expensive misconception in investing today. While your gut screams "sell" every time the S&P 500 hits a new record, the data tells a completely different story.

Since 1989, buying the S&P 500 at all-time highs has delivered average forward returns of 8.2% over the next year. Compare that to the average return of 7.8% when buying at any random time, and you'll see that all-time highs are actually slightly better entry points than picking stocks blindfolded.

Strong markets tend to stay strong. Momentum is a powerful force that most investors underestimate. When markets are hitting new highs, it often signals underlying economic strength, not impending doom.

Why Your "Diversification" Strategy Might Be Backfiring

"International Stocks Will Always Underperform"

For over a decade, U.S. investors got comfortable assuming American stocks would always outpace international markets. But 2025 has been delivering some uncomfortable truths.

Look at the quarterly returns data: International stocks have been quietly outperforming in several periods, with some emerging markets and developed international funds posting gains while U.S. markets stumbled.

This isn't a fluke, it's a reminder that leadership rotates. The same way growth outperformed value for years before value had its moment, international markets can and do have their seasons of outperformance.

The Technical Analysis Trap That's Costing You Money

"It's Oversold/Overbought and Can't Possibly Go Any Lower/Higher"

Technical indicators like RSI, MACD, and Bollinger Bands have bankrupted more traders than any market crash ever could. Why? Because "oversold" can become "more oversold," and "overbought" can stay overbought far longer than you can stay solvent.

Take Moderna's recent slide or Palantir's meteoric rise. Both hit extreme technical readings that should have signaled reversals according to traditional analysis. Instead, they kept moving in the same direction, wiping out traders who bet against the momentum.

The reality? Markets don't care about your technical levels. They care about fundamentals, sentiment, and flows. Use technicals as context, never as gospel.

The Fed Fallacy That's Confusing Everyone

"Stocks Can't Go Up When the Fed Is Shrinking Its Balance Sheet"

This one has confused even sophisticated investors. The conventional wisdom says that when the Federal Reserve reduces its balance sheet (quantitative tightening), liquidity dries up and stocks must fall.

The data shows something fascinating: The S&P 500 has continued climbing even as the Fed has been shrinking its balance sheet. Why? Because balance sheet policy and interest rate policy are different tools with different market impacts.

What matters more for stock prices is the direction of interest rates, corporate earnings growth, and economic momentum, not the size of the Fed's balance sheet.

The Valuation Trap That Destroys Portfolios

"High Valuations Are a Sufficient Reason to Short a Stock"

Palantir (PLTR) is trading at over 40x price-to-sales. Tesla spent years trading at "impossible" valuations. Amazon looked expensive for most of its incredible run.

Here's the brutal truth: Valuation alone is never a sufficient reason to short a stock, especially in growth sectors. High-growth companies can grow into their valuations faster than their stock prices can fall.

The most dangerous investment phrase? "It can't go any higher." Markets specialize in proving that statement wrong.

The Housing Reality Check Nobody Wants to Face

"The Housing Market Can't Get Any More Unaffordable"

Current housing affordability metrics show we're at levels not seen since the early 1980s. Housing payments as a percentage of median income have reached extreme levels. Office vacancy rates are hitting all-time highs in major markets.

But here's what history teaches us: "Can't get worse" often becomes "hold my beer" in real estate. Markets can stay irrational longer than individual participants can stay financially healthy.

For investors: This creates opportunities in REITs, housing-related stocks, and alternative real estate investments as markets eventually find new equilibrium levels.

The Portfolio-Killing Myths You Need to Abandon Now

"Bear Markets Always Mean Recession" Not true. We've had bear markets without recessions, just as we've had recessions that didn't produce traditional bear markets.

"Bonds Are Risk-Free" Long-term bonds have experienced drawdowns exceeding 40% during interest rate cycles. "Risk-free" only applies to default risk, not price risk.

"You Should Mix Politics With Your Portfolio" Stock market returns show no consistent pattern based on which political party controls the White House. Markets care about policies, not parties.

"Bad Starts Mean Bad Finishes" Some of the worst January performances in market history led to positive full-year returns. Seasonality matters, but it doesn't dictate outcomes.

The Inflation Truth They Don't Want You to Know

"You Can Trust All Government Data on Inflation"

The CPI shows health insurance costs declining over five years. Real family health insurance premiums have nearly doubled in the same period. This disconnect isn't an accident, it's a feature of how inflation statistics are calculated.

What this means for you: Your personal inflation rate likely differs significantly from official measures. Plan accordingly, and don't let government statistics dictate your investment inflation hedges.

The Money Supply Reality Check

"They Won't Print More Money" "They Won't Kick the Can Down the Road"

The M2 money supply and national debt charts tell the story. Despite promises of fiscal responsibility and monetary restraint, both metrics continue reaching new highs under every administration.

This isn't partisan politics, it's mathematical reality. Understanding this trend helps explain asset price inflation and why holding cash long-term remains a losing strategy.

The Bottom Line: What This All Means for Your Portfolio in 2026

The markets have spent 2025 proving that conventional wisdom isn't wisdom at all. Here's how to position yourself better in 2026:

1. Embrace Momentum Over Mean Reversion Strong trends tend to continue longer than expected. Don't fight obvious momentum based on "it can't go higher" thinking.

2. Diversify Across Time, Not Just Assets Dollar-cost averaging into quality index funds like SPY and QQQ works because it prevents you from making emotion-driven timing mistakes.

3. Question Everything, Verify Nothing Every "market truth" you think you know has been wrong before and will be wrong again. Stay flexible and data-driven.

4. Prepare for Extremes Markets don't follow normal distributions. The biggest gains and losses happen faster and more violently than statistics predict.

5. Focus on What You Can Control You can't control market direction, Fed policy, or geopolitical events. You can control your costs, diversification, and emotional responses.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns, and that's exactly the point.

Dear Investors.

Zee here. Kweichou Moutai is like owning a piece of Chinese history and culture. It’s one of the world’s most valuable spirits companies, with incredible profit margins and a product that can’t be replicated.

However, it’s also facing real challenges from China’s economic slowdown, changing consumer habits, and the need to expand internationally. The recent price drops and the company’s efforts to innovate suggest this is a period of transition.

Either way, it’s a fascinating company to watch, because when a 2,000-year-old tradition meets modern market forces, the story is never boring.

What Is Kweichou Moutai, Anyway?

Before we dive into the latest news, let’s talk about what this company actually does. Imagine the most expensive, prestigious liquor brand in China, that’s Kweichou Moutai. They make “baijiu” (pronounced “bye-joe”), a powerful Chinese spirit that’s been around for centuries.

Think of it as China’s equivalent to French champagne or Scottish whisky, but with way more alcohol (up to 60%).

This isn’t just any liquor company. At its peak, Kweichou Moutai was worth more than $450 billion, making it more valuable than most Fortune 500 companies. As of early 2026, it’s still worth around $249 billion, which is roughly the size of companies like Nike or PepsiCo.

Ancient Roots, Modern Giant

The story starts in a small town called Maotai in Guizhou Province, where people have been making spirits since the 1600s. For hundreds of years, three small family distilleries: Chengyi, Ronghe, and Hengxing, perfected the art of making this unique liquor.

Fast forward to 1951: when the Communist Party came to power, they merged these distilleries into one state-owned company. In 1999, the company went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (that’s when regular people could buy shares), though the Chinese government still owns the majority.

Why Is It So Special?

Here’s the cool part: Moutai can only be made in one specific place. The unique climate, the local water from the Chishui River, and even the soil microbes in that valley create a flavor you literally cannot replicate anywhere else. It’s like how real champagne can only come from the Champagne region in France.

The production process takes five years from the time they start fermenting the sorghum (a grain) until the bottle is ready.

This isn’t mass-produced vodka.

Each bottle represents serious craftsmanship.

The 5 Latest Updates on Kweichou Moutai

1. Prices Are Falling

The flagship Feitian Moutai product has dropped to around 2,100 yuan (about $292), its lowest price in four years. To understand why this matters, you need to know that Moutai has long been more than just a drink, it’s been the go-to gift for business deals and government banquets.

What’s happening? China’s economy is slowing down, and people are cutting back on expensive business dinners and lavish gift-giving. When Moutai’s price drops, it’s seen as a sign that the overall business climate is cooling off. Think of it as a “luxury indicator” for China’s economy.

Even with falling prices, Moutai bottles still sell well above their official retail price of 1,499 yuan. The company is still incredibly profitable, but this trend shows it’s not immune to economic pressures.

2. The Company Is Still Making Money Hand Over Fist

Despite the price pressure, Kweichou Moutai reported revenue of 170.9 billion yuan ($23.76 billion) in 2024, up 15.71% from the previous year, with net profit of 86.2 billion yuan ($11.99 billion), up 15.37%.

That’s more than 10 times the total export value of all wines from France’s famous Bordeaux region. The company employs over 40,000 people and maintains profit margins that most businesses can only dream of around 45-48%.

The company offers a dividend yield of approximately 3.65%, providing income alongside growth potential.

These metrics demonstrate exceptional profitability and efficient capital deployment, far outpacing most consumer goods companies globally. Even in tough times, Moutai is growing revenue and profits by double digits. That’s impressive resilience.

3. Going Global: Kweichou Moutai Partners with UK Retailer

In November 2025, Joybuy (part of China’s JD.com) became Moutai’s official online retailer in the UK, with plans to open a “Kweichow Moutai Cultural Experience Center” to introduce British consumers to baijiu.

For years, Moutai has been trying to expand beyond China. Unlike whisky or wine, baijiu is virtually unknown in Western markets. This partnership represents a serious push to build brand awareness internationally.

The global spirits market is huge, and if Moutai can capture even a tiny slice of international sales, it could unlock significant new revenue streams. They’re also sponsoring golf tournaments across Asia (including the Singapore Open) to build their brand globally.

4. Digital Sales Revolution in Progress

The company’s iMaotai app gained over 2.7 million new users in just nine days, according to Chairman Chen Hua. This is a major shift in how the company does business. New chairman Chen Hua announced the company would no longer use traditional distribution methods in 2026, moving more sales to direct-to-consumer channels.

This strategy could improve profit margins by cutting out middlemen and give the company better control over pricing. However, it may pressure traditional distributors and change the dynamics of the resale market.

Moutai’s 2026 Horse Zodiac Edition sold out in under a minute on the iMaotai app, then appeared on resale sites at premium prices. The company launched three limited Year-of-the-Horse editions priced between 1,899 and 3,789 yuan per bottle.

5. Trying to Win Over Younger Drinkers

Traditional baijiu consumption has been declining as younger Chinese people drink less and prioritize health. So Moutai is getting creative. They’ve partnered with Luckin Coffee to create a Moutai-flavored latte, and they’ve launched lower-alcohol, fruit-flavored baijiu products in smaller, more affordable bottles.

Baijiu production is expected to fall for the eighth straight year in 2025. The company needs to adapt to changing consumer preferences or risk becoming irrelevant to the next generation.

The Bottom Line

The Bull Case (Why to Invest):

• Brand moat: You literally cannot make real Moutai anywhere else. That’s a massive competitive advantage.

• Profitability: Few companies maintain 45%+ profit margins year after year.

• Cultural significance: Moutai is woven into Chinese culture and national identity. It was served when Nixon visited China in 1972!

• Still growing: Despite challenges, revenue and profits grew 15%+ in 2024.

The Bear Case (Why to Be Cautious):

• Economic headwinds: China’s slowing economy directly impacts luxury spending.

• Changing culture: Anti-corruption campaigns and younger consumers preferring healthier lifestyles hurt demand.

• Government control: The state owns the majority of shares, which can create unpredictability.

• Limited international presence: For now, it’s overwhelmingly dependent on the Chinese market (97.5% of sales).

All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investor.

Zee here. Picture this: You’re scanning through stocks and spot a company paying a 12% dividend yield. Your friend’s “safe” index fund only returns 8% annually. This looks like easy money, right?

Not so fast.

That high yield might be a warning siren, not a gold mine.

What Is the Dividend Trap?

The dividend trap happens when investors chase high dividend yields without looking at the company’s financial health. Here’s the painful reality: you might earn a 10% dividend, but if the stock price drops 30% because the company is struggling, you’ve actually lost 20% of your money.

That’s not investing, that’s walking into a trap.

Why High Yields Can Signal Danger

A sky-high dividend yield often means one of two things:

1. The stock price has crashed because investors are selling off their shares (yield = dividend ÷ stock price, so if the price drops, the yield shoots up)

2. The company is paying out more than it can afford to maintain investor confidence before an inevitable dividend cut

Either way, you’re likely looking at a sinking ship, not a treasure chest.

Your 4-Point Dividend Safety Checklist

Before buying any dividend stock, run it through these essential filters. If it fails even one, walk away, there are thousands of other opportunities.

1. Check the EPS Growth Trend (The Fuel Tank)

Earnings Per Share (EPS) tells you if the company is actually making more money over time.

🚩 Red Flag: EPS has decreased in 2 out of the last 3 years
✅ Green Flag: Steady 5-10% annual EPS growth over 5 years

Why it matters: Dividends come from profits. If profits are shrinking, the dividend won’t last.

2. Examine the Payout Ratio (The Safety Valve)

This shows what percentage of earnings the company pays out as dividends.

🚩 Red Flag: Payout ratio over 70% (or over 100% for any company)
✅ Green Flag: Payout ratio between 30-60%

Why it matters: If a company pays out 100% of its earnings, it has zero cushion for emergencies or reinvestment. When trouble hits, the dividend gets cut.

3. Compare to Industry Peers (The Reality Check)

Never look at yield in isolation—compare it to similar companies in the same industry.

🚩 Red Flag: Yield is 2-3x higher than reliable competitors
✅ Green Flag: Yield slightly above average with strong financials to back it up

Why it matters: If the industry average is 4% and you found a 12% yielder, the market is screaming “danger.” You haven’t outsmarted everyone else—you’ve found a company heading for a dividend cut.

4. Assess the Debt Load (The Anchor)

Debt is the enemy of dividend investors because companies must pay lenders before shareholders.

🚩 Red Flag: High debt-to-equity ratio with rising interest costs
✅ Green Flag: Low, manageable debt with healthy cash reserves

Why it matters: When revenue drops or interest rates rise, heavily indebted companies slash dividends first to free up cash for debt payments.

The Bottom Line

The best dividend stocks are often the boring ones—companies with modest but growing yields, strong fundamentals, and sustainable payout ratios. They won’t make you rich overnight, but they’ll steadily build your wealth without the constant anxiety of dividend cuts and falling stock prices.

Remember: Your goal isn’t to find the highest yield. It’s to build a reliable income stream that grows over time.

Stop chasing yields.
Start building wealth.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Dear Investors.

Zee here. Picture this: You’re in Jakarta, Singapore, or Manila. You need a ride to the airport. You’re hungry and want dinner delivered. You need to send a package across town. You want to book a table at a restaurant. You even need a place to park some spare cash for better returns than your savings account.

There’s one app for all of that: Grab.

If you’ve spent any time in Southeast Asia, you’ve probably used Grab without thinking twice about it. It’s become as embedded in daily life as Google or Amazon is in the West. But here’s what most people don’t realize: this familiar green app just achieved something remarkable that could reshape how investors think about Southeast Asian tech companies.

In February 2025, Grab (NASDAQ:GRAB) announced its first-ever full-year profit. After more than a decade of aggressive expansion, eye-watering cash burn, and skepticism from Wall Street, the company finally proved it could make money while serving hundreds of millions of people across eight countries.

Yet when this milestone was announced, something strange happened: the stock dropped 2%.

So what exactly is this company, and why should investors care? Understanding Grab means understanding where one of the world’s fastest-growing regions is headed.

Let’s break down Grab’s recent milestone, explore its journey from scrappy startup to regional champion, and examine what makes it special.

A Quick History: From Taxi App to Super App

Grab started in 2012 as MyTeksi, a simple taxi-hailing app in Malaysia founded by Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling. Think of it as Southeast Asia’s answer to Uber. In fact, Grab grew so strong that Uber actually gave up and sold its Southeast Asian operations to Grab in 2018.

But Grab didn’t stop at rides. Over the years, it expanded into food delivery (GrabFood), grocery delivery (GrabMart), package delivery (GrabExpress), and even financial services (digital payments and lending). Today, it operates across eight countries in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

In 2021, Grab went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange through a SPAC merger, raising billions of dollars.

It was a big moment for Southeast Asian tech.

Here are five key things from Grab’s latest earnings report that investors should understand:

1. Grab Just Made Its First Full-Year Profit Ever

After years of losing money while building its business, Grab finally turned profitable for an entire year in 2025. This is a huge deal because it shows the company isn’t just growing, it’s growing sustainably.

The company achieved 20% revenue growth in Q4 2025, which means it’s bringing in a lot more money than before. Yet surprisingly, the stock price dropped 2% after this announcement.

Why? More on that later.

2. Three Business Segments Working Together

Think of Grab as having three main money-makers:

Mobility (Ride-hailing): This is the bread and butter. When you book a ride, Grab makes money. This segment has excellent profit margins of about 44% and contributes roughly 74% of the company’s overall profits. People started using Grab for rides, and they stay for everything else.

Delivery (Food and Groceries): This segment has the highest customer conversion rate at 24%, meaning when people use the app, they’re very likely to order something. However, profit margins are lower at around 10%. To boost profits, Grab is adding advertising (GrabAds) where restaurants and stores pay to be featured prominently in the app.

Fintech (Digital Payments and Lending): This is the sleeping giant. Grab used to just connect people with loans from banks and take a small fee. Now, it’s lending its own money, which means it can keep more of the interest earned. While this segment isn’t profitable yet, Grab expects it to turn profitable by the second half of 2026. The loan portfolio is expected to nearly double in 2026.

3. The Secret Weapon: GrabMaps

Here’s something most people don’t know: Grab has its own mapping technology called GrabMaps. While competitors like Uber and Foodpanda use Google Maps, Grab built its own system that knows every small street and alleyway in Southeast Asia.

Why does this matter? Because better maps mean drivers take faster, cheaper routes. This gives Grab higher profit margins than competitors on every delivery. It’s updated in real-time by thousands of drivers, making it incredibly accurate. This is why Uber left Southeast Asia and why competitors struggle to compete, they simply can’t match Grab’s efficiency.

4. Growth Through Smart Acquisitions

Grab doesn’t just grow by attracting new users—it also buys other companies to expand its services. Recent examples include:

• Jaya Grocer in Malaysia (a premium grocery chain)

• Chope (a restaurant reservation platform)

• Trans-cab (a taxi company)

• Stash (a US-based investment platform)

These acquisitions help Grab offer more services, which keeps users inside the Grab app for more of their daily needs.

The more services you use, the less likely you are to switch to a competitor.

5. Room to Grow: Only Scratching the Surface

Here’s the exciting part for long-term investors: Grab currently operates mainly in Tier 1 cities (big urban areas). The vast majority of Southeast Asia’s population is still untapped. The company believes it can achieve 20% annual growth through 2028 just by expanding to more people in urban areas.

Grab also projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% from 2025 to 2028, which means revenues could nearly double in just three years.

The Bottom Line for Investors

Grab has several advantages its competitors don’t:

• A strong balance sheet with lots of cash and minimal debt

• GrabMaps giving it a cost advantage

• No real competitor in Southeast Asia with the same resources

• Growing profitability across all segments

Grab is transitioning from a money-losing growth company to a profitable infrastructure player in Southeast Asia. It’s embedded in daily life for millions of people for transportation, food, shopping, and increasingly for financial services.

The company achieved its first full-year profit in 2025, is growing at 20% annually, and has significant room to expand beyond major cities. While the market seems skeptical about cash burning, Grab’s unique advantages (especially GrabMaps) and strong financial position suggest it can defend its dominance.

For investors, Grab represents a bet on Southeast Asia’s digital economy. If you believe that region will continue growing and that more people will use apps for daily services, Grab is positioned to benefit.

The key question is whether the market is underestimating Grab’s transformation from an unprofitable startup to a profitable regional infrastructure company. Only time will tell.

Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.

Zee here. As investors, we all love an extra passive income source.

Other than the thrill of seeing a stock you own rise higher and higher in the stock market, receiving passive dividend income from your investments every year is something we all look forward to.

But dividends offer much more than just a feel-good factor; they are a powerful tool for building long-term wealth and achieving your financial goals.

By incorporating dividend-paying stocks into your investment strategy, you can create a more resilient and income-generating portfolio.

The question is: How? Let me unpack..

Why Dividend Investing?

Dividend investing offers several compelling advantages:

Compounding Returns: When you reinvest your dividends through a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP), you purchase more shares, which in turn generate more dividends. This creates a powerful compounding effect that can significantly boost your returns over time. It's like a snowball rolling downhill, gathering more and more snow as it goes.

Reduced Volatility: Dividend stocks tend to be less volatile than growth stocks, as most of these stocks are mature companies. During market downturns, dividend income can provide a cushion and help you stay the course.

Passive Income Stream: Dividends provide a regular stream of income that you can use to supplement your salary, cover expenses, or reinvest to accelerate your wealth-building journey. This is particularly attractive for those seeking financial independence or planning for retirement. Imagine just relying purely on your dividend income to cover your living expenses during your golden years.

Inflation Hedge: Inflation erodes the purchasing power of your money over time. Dividend stocks, especially those from companies with a history of increasing their dividends (known as Dividend Aristocrats and Dividend Kings), can help you keep pace with inflation. As companies grow and generate higher profits, they often raise their dividend payouts, helping you maintain your real income.

How do you find these dividend paying gems?

It's not as simple as just chasing the highest yield.

Here are 7 crucial steps to help you identify the best dividend stocks in the US market:

1. Large Cap Stocks

The best dividend stocks are usually large, mature companies with stable revenue, profits, and cash flow. These companies have little growth left in them. Because these companies are no longer expanding aggressively, the majority of their earnings can be returned to shareholders as dividends.

Think of companies like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Coca-Cola (KO), or Procter & Gamble (PG). These giants have already experienced significant growth and now focus on maintaining their market position and returning profits to shareholders through consistent dividend payments.

On the other hand, a smaller, high-growth company like Tesla or many biotech firms need more cash and resources to grow and expand their business, leaving less money to pay shareholders dividends (if any).

2. Dividend Payout Ratio is more than 50%

If a company is large, stable and isn't seeking to grow aggressively anymore, then the majority of the profits it makes should be returned to shareholders. So look for a company with a dividend payout ratio of at least 50% or more.

For example, Realty Income Corporation (O), known as "The Monthly Dividend Company," returns over 80% of its funds from operations to shareholders as dividends. Similarly, AT&T (T) has historically maintained payout ratios above 60%.

If a company has a low payout ratio, ask yourself why the company is holding on to the cash. Unless they have a good reason to do so or have a way to generate exceptional returns for shareholders, the majority of profits should be paid out as dividends.

3. Track Record of Consistent Dividends

Consistency is key in dividend investing. Look for companies with a long history of paying and ideally increasing dividends over time. This demonstrates a commitment to shareholder returns and suggests a sustainable business model.

The S&P 500 has two prestigious categories for dividend consistency:

• Dividend Aristocrats: Companies that have increased dividends for 25+ consecutive years

• Dividend Kings: Companies that have increased dividends for 50+ consecutive years

Examples include:

• Coca-Cola (KO): 61 years of consecutive dividend increases

• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): 61 years of consecutive dividend increases

• Procter & Gamble (PG): 67 years of consecutive dividend increases

• 3M Company (MMM): Over 60 years of consecutive dividend increases

This consistent growth can significantly boost your returns through the power of compounding, especially when combined with a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP), which automatically uses your dividends to purchase more shares.

4. Company's Fundamentals Are Sustainable

Many dividend investors tend to ignore the overall aspects of a company's fundamentals. They choose to focus primarily on the amount of dividends they can receive. This is wrong. While dividend yield is obviously important for someone seeking dividends, it is also important to consider the overall health of the company.

A company with deteriorating fundamentals (e.g., falling revenue, profits, cash flow, fading economic moat, etc.) cannot sustain its dividend payout in the long term. The less revenue and profit it makes, the less dividends it can pay.

For example, General Electric (GE) was once a reliable dividend payer but had to cut its dividend dramatically in 2017 due to declining fundamentals and excessive debt. Conversely, Microsoft (MSFT) has grown its dividend consistently as its cloud computing business has driven strong fundamental growth.

Over time, a company with falling revenues and profits will see its stock price fall when investors realize that the company is no longer performing. This fall in value will eat into any dividend gains you might have had at the start – leaving you back at square one.

So always make sure the dividend company you want to invest in will remain fundamentally strong and robust for many years to come.

5. Company Has Low CAPEX

Capital expenditure (CAPEX) refers to the money a company invests in maintaining or expanding its assets. High CAPEX can eat into profits and reduce the amount available for dividends. As a dividend investor, you prefer to invest in a company with low capital expenditure.

For example, airlines like American Airlines (AAL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) have very high CAPEX as they need to continually maintain their aircraft and upgrade them to newer models after a certain number of years. This limits their ability to maintain consistent dividend payments during economic downturns. Also, Warren Buffett said to avoid airline companies.

In contrast, companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Visa (V), and Mastercard (MA) have relatively low CAPEX requirements as their business models are more asset-light. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) also tend to have predictable CAPEX for property maintenance.

Look for a company that's able to maintain/grow its business with minimal CAPEX.

6. Stable Free Cash Flow

Ultimately, a company must have real cash (not just profits) to be able to pay dividends to its shareholders. Free cash flow is the cash generated by a business after accounting for operating expenses and capital expenditures. It's the lifeblood of dividends.

Even if a company is profitable but has negative or inconsistent free cash flow, it will have trouble paying stable dividends. A smaller company that is seeking to grow might have negative free cash flow as it expands its business. But a large, stable company that dominates its industry should be producing high amounts of free cash flow year after year.

Examples of companies with strong, consistent free cash flow include:

• Apple (AAPL): Generates over $100 billion in annual free cash flow

• Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B): Consistently strong free cash flow from diverse operations

• Verizon (VZ): Stable free cash flow from telecommunications operations

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7. Yield Must Beat Risk-Free Rate

The dividend yield you receive should beat the risk-free rate of the United States. The risk-free rate is the lowest return you can theoretically get "risk-free" over a period of time.

In the US, if you plan to invest your money for ten years, then the risk-free rate is usually based on the return of the 10-year US Treasury note, which currently trades around 4.0-4.5%. For shorter-term investments, you might compare against the 2-year Treasury note or high-yield savings accounts.

If your dividend yield can't beat your risk-free rate, you might as well put your money in Treasury bonds or high-yield savings accounts since you face less risk growing your money there compared to investing in stocks.

However, remember that quality dividend stocks offer the potential for both dividend growth and capital appreciation over time, which can significantly exceed the risk-free rate in the long run.

Examples of Quality US Dividend Stocks

Here are some examples that meet many of these criteria:

Consumer Staples:

• Coca-Cola (KO): ~3.0% yield, 61 years of increases

• Procter & Gamble (PG): ~2.4% yield, 67 years of increases

• PepsiCo (PEP): ~2.8% yield, 51 years of increases

Healthcare:

• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): ~3.0% yield, 61 years of increases

• AbbVie (ABBV): ~3.8% yield, strong pharmaceutical portfolio

Technology:

• Microsoft (MSFT): ~0.7% yield but strong growth and low payout ratio

• Apple (AAPL): ~0.5% yield but massive free cash flow generation

Utilities:

• NextEra Energy (NEE): ~2.8% yield, strong renewable energy focus

• Dominion Energy (D): ~5.4% yield, regulated utility operations

REITs:

• Realty Income (O): ~5.4% yield, monthly dividends, 600+ consecutive months

• Digital Realty Trust (DLR): ~3.4% yield, data center REIT

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The Bottom Line

Remember to check these seven criteria whenever you're looking to invest for dividends:

1. Mid to large cap stocks with stable operations

2. Payout ratio of 50% or more

3. Consistent track record of dividend payments and increases

4. Strong, sustainable business fundamentals

5. Low capital expenditure requirements

6. Stable and growing free cash flow

7. Dividend yield that exceeds the risk-free rate

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Disclaimer: All information here is for educational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please do your own research and speak with a licensed advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. How we invest may not suit your investment goals and risk management profile.