Author Archives: Palmer Thambu

On rare occasions, I do speculate on the market. But as a rule, not with more than 20% of my portfolio. My speculation will be based on some expected market irrationality or a developing trend out of which I expect an unusual gain in the short-term (within a year), then I walk out of the position. Why I keep this at no more than 20%…

  I will tell this Kenya Airways (KQ) shares story in two parts. In the first part, I will explain what happened to our dear KQ shares during the recent restructuring that culminated in the resumption of trading on 29th November 2017. In the second part, I will illustrate the impact and in the spirit of sharing personal experiences – both follies and ‘wisdoms’ –…

The NSE has some 66 odd listed companies. Unless analyzing companies is your day job or someone else is paying for it, it is impractical to obtain and analyze usable information on every single one.  My strategy as shared in an earlier post is to keep my radar up and when something comes up at a high-level, it registers on my radar screen for further…

There is a reason I do 100% of my stocks investment in Kenya, except for the deliberate adventure trip I took to Zambia some years back. It is because I believe in the philosophy of Investment By Walking Around (IBWA, not as cool as MBWA but hey!). Before I get to the technical analysis of a stock, something that appeals to common sense must first…

While statements like “Usalama wako u mikononi mwako” (your security is in your hands) often told to us by politicians are debatable, there is no controversy about this version: your financial security is in your hands.  Should your investments (or lack of) fail to help you meet the goals for which they are intended, you live with the consequences, no matter whose investment advice you…

In our previous post, we addressed the “why” for getting involved in the stock market. That gives us a firm foundation on which to build the “how’. To meaningfully participate in the stock market, three things are fundamentally necessary – a personal financial plan, a stockbroking agent and some research. Owing to its importance, we will talk about the personal financial plan here, and then…

When I was younger, I remember reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad and really liking that he took time to explain that the “why” for something is more important than the “how”. His argument is that once we have a compelling “why”, it will be much easier to commit to the “how”, even when the “how” is not as easy or as attractive as…

It must have been in 1996. Just about to turn 30, I was the Chief Accountant for a parastatal that was doing well enough to have some excess funds for investment. Part of my ritual then included talking to Mr. James Murigu, a senior manager at the then Suntra Stocks Ltd to deal for us in the company’s bids for Treasury Bills from the Central…