Hi eface58,
Welcome to the investing world, I am not qualified to give advice as I am not a FA, but I will share my thoughts. (Warning: Long and boring entry)
1st and foremost, if I don't know what to buy, don't buy. Buying on analyst report and hot tips from forummers, uncles and aunties without due homework is a recipe for financial ruins.
Hmm, what should I buy, before that I must answer why I am buying, and the are few scenarios:
1) I just want to beat inflation.
This is rather simple, you can get some retail bonds like CMA3.8 and allocate some money to preferences shares of banks like OCBC 5.1, and you should get a yield of about 4%, which should be able to beat inflation. When interest rises, there should be other offerings in bonds of higher interest, so keep spare cash for such, or you can get a combination of bonds that are maturing soon, and those that are maturing after a longer period of time to spread your risk.
2) I want a decent return of above 6% annually over a long period of time.
This is tough place to navigate. Most importantly, you need to know valuation techniques and buy only when price offer you a margin of safety. Read the "the intelligent investor" again and again, and you will know what to do. For some bare basics:
Growth companies(Read up observer2 threads)
PE, PEG, FCF are important matrics for growth companies. Companies that are fast expanding. YOu need to be able to predict their future earnings for the next 2-3 years at least to be able to value them properly, the longer you can guage their earnings growth, the more accurate your valuation. Matrix than can help you do that are orderbook, projects under development, sector/industry outlook, major customers' capex plans, operating and net margins.
Undervalued companies (Read up sumer threads)
NAV. FCF, consistency in earnings and profits. Quality of assets, assets must be easily liquid, rate of depreciation of assets, cash generating yield of assets. e.g. property- rental yield, plantation- yield per area and the price the produce would fetch.
Income-generating income,
FCF, dividend yield and payout ratio and important matrix to value such companies. Of paramount importance is not yield per se, but the sustainability of it, e.g. competition, barrier of entry, SGX, SPH, SIngpost has a fanstatic monpoly but yield is so-so. Telcoms operate as a oligpoly. Their debt level, future capex etc.
3) I want to make a living out of it.
It means you want to be a trader, and I have no ideas how to do it.
4) I want to get rich fast, ultra rich even faster
Either you are born lucky, or you are 1 in the millions genius in the stock market, otherwise, stop dreaming.
5) I don't want to kill myself, I want some beginner experince to build on.
You need to know debt level, Net debt to equity, debt to current assets, interest coverage ratio, earnings to fixed-cost ratio, current ratio, inventory days, receivable days, ratio of receivables to sales, erosion of margins, recurring of impairment, constant fund raising, frequent changing of CFO, CEO's statements which are always off the mark and failure to execute plans. Read the "risks" section of the prosepctus
sound complicated? Is there a single matrix that works? Yes, the HMIKATB. How Much I Know About The Business, the more you know, the better chance in identifying the winners.