Her name is usually there with veteran financial analysts when the media seek quotes from experts about the economy.
Photos/ Joel Boh
Ms Mah Ching Cheng is only 27 but she already leads a team of four analysts, thanks to the opportunities given by a dotcom start-up.
An example is when Fundsupermart.com fielded her as a representative for The Sunday Times' year-long investment challenge which invited four professional investors to show how they can make money starting with a hypothetical $100,000.
In February this year, Ms Mah beat the competition - a head of research at a stock brokerage, a financial planner and a retired accounting professor - to emerge winner with a 12.2 per cent gain.
The winning portfolio she put together has since made a hypothetical gain of another 4 per cent, she tells you with a smile, but credits the results to the Fundsupermart methodology of diversification, long-term perspective and fund selection.
She joined Fundsupermart.com after graduating with an honours degree in banking and finance from Nanyang Technological University in 2003. It was a fledgling company then and has since grown to become Singapore's No 1 online unit trust distributor with staff of 100.
"I took a chance with an SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) instead of an MNC (multi-national corporation) because I saw more opportunity for learning and growth. Fundsupermart has a flat hierarchy, gives ample opportunity to fresh grads and has a culture of promoting from within. In a big company, I probably won't be sitting in this position. Most analysts are male and older," the research manager tells AsiaOne.
Her interest in financial analysis stems from a desire to grow her own wealth wisely after buying some bad stocks when she was 21. The desire drove the polytechnic grad then to work part-time to pay for her university education. Her father is a taxi driver while her mother is a housewife.
Ms Mah, who is married, now simplifies her analysis reports in easy-to-understand layman language, so retail investors and young people can understand them. She counts her investment in China and India funds in 2003 as her best buys because these have returned 90 per cent in absolute terms.
As these funds are trading at a premium, judging by PE (price-earnings) ratios, she is channelling her new savings into Southeast Asian markets. PE ratio shows how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of earnings.
"Last year, we downgraded India but that market continued to grow. Despite that, I am maintaining the overvalued call because the PE ratio is 23 times compared to historical 19 times. Analysts should have a basis for what they say and have conviction in what they recommend."
When she is not analysing markets, she is grooming her four subordinates. "I want to continue the culture of discovering potential and delegating projects for them to shine. We all need to be given a chance sometimes."
