What to buy vs When to buy ?

Many traders get too entrenched in spending hours after hours pouring over the net and attending courses to discover the holy grail of knowing when to buy a stock/index/commodity/ETF/currency/etc.

However, what's neglected is what to buy is just as important if not MORE. Why did I say so ?

Now, depending on where you are, you are probably familiar with your local stock index, ASX - Australia, SPX500/DJIA/Nasdaq ~ US, KLSE~Malaysia, STI~Singapore, etc.

So do you invest in your local index or choose a local stock to buy ? That depends on your investing objectives.

I would invest both for the following reasons -

STI - It contains a basket of 20 plus stocks which if I were to buy them individually would be too costly even for fractional shares. So, I would still invest it for long term as it offers a lower risk, stability and exposure/diversification

Individual stocks - this is where I can get picky because there are hundreds of them that one can choose from. My selection is based on trends, consumer behaviour , resilience to economy, etc. For example, I have some exposure in Industrial Reit, AIMS as I like the stable dividend growth and it is less affected by the current pandemic.

On a global level, the game gets more exciting. Many followers know I am a big fan of the China growth story and have vested interest in China A50, Tencent , Pinduoduo among many others.

I expect the Covid-19 pandemic to be resolved by 2021 Q2 or earlier as we are now in the phase of vaccine production (article here, here, here)

Hopefully, once this wave is contained, we can start to identify those sectors that are badly affected during the Covid-19 pandemic to return to its glory days. Some sectors that are in my watch list includes but not limited to hospitality, retail (some over lapping as online retail like Alibaba, Amazon,etc are already included), transportation, construction (government worldwide will be investing heavily on infrastructure to help its economy). Healthcare will take on a different dimension as post -prevention will still remain a priority for many post Covid.