The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

– Philip A. Fisher

If we compare what generally happens in a stock market to the real world, it would be like being in the largest casino ever. Think Macau, the gaming capital of the world, only bigger. Players and speculators all over the place, goading one another to ever-higher bets. Frenzy surrounding the tables which players deem “hot”. Everyone jostling for a seat at those tables. Greed and manipulation are the names of the game.

In Asia, many still view the stock market as a speculative pursuit, associating equity investments with gambling. Those “not in the game” might be confused with the market's sudden highs and lows, where “hot” companies are valued astronomically and “boring” ones are priced as though the business and its assets are worth nothing.

The casino operator, in this case the stock exchange, does not bet with or against any players. It is merely a place to hold these games, a platform for players to play. It earns not from the winners or losers of the game, but simply from the number of games inside its door. However, in this stock-market casino, there is also something more unique. Every game taking place is like a game of poker.

This is because, like poker, when we invest, we are not playing with the house (stock exchange), we are playing against the player on the other side of the table. As we know, there are two ways to play a game of poker, based on pure luck or based on skill and probabilities. For players who base their play on skill, there is a higher chance that they might walk out of this “casino” richer than before.

This book is a guide for that journey, the journey of how to enter the stock market based on skill and probabilities. It is about understanding the difference between gambling and investing, and how to go about investing. It is about how to keep our heads level during the game, and invest logically, instead of emotionally. This is the journey where we show you how to find value in our speculative world.

This is the key concept we hope to drive home about the stock market. Yes, in many ways, it is still a casino. Yes, you can, and many players do, play with nothing other than luck. But you can choose how you want to play the game. Instead of relying on luck, you can learn how to earn serendipity, how to create luck by stacking the odds in your favour.

Investing in the stock market, like poker, is a game of both skill and luck. If you take the time to learn the skills needed and keep your emotions in check, if you can “keep your head when all around you are losing theirs”, there is a good chance that you will be able to walk out of the stock market wealthier than before.

This is not a “get rich quick” book. It is not a book about making millions overnight. This book is about understanding the skills needed to play the game intelligently and for the long term. This is a book about learning how to play the stock market game with skill and not luck, arming you with a framework for your investment journey and allowing you to tailor it to suit your needs.

Also, this book does not attempt to predict how markets will behave in the future. Instead of showing you how the “perfect” market should be, we want to show you how it really is, and how you can navigate through these waters. In this imperfect market, we feel that our investment process will help you make sense of, and benefit from the market.

The reason why we need such a process is simple. In this time and age, there is simply an overload of information and we need a process to help us to separate what's important from the noise. We believe that investors looking towards Asia are in need of a locally constructed framework to assess both the quantitative and qualitative sides of equity investments.

Investing is both an art and a science. We strongly believe that with both the “right” mindset and an appropriate investment process, investors willing to put in the effort might find the experience of investing in Asia to be both exciting and wildly rewarding. It certainly has been the case for us.

To demonstrate that this is not just nice-sounding theoretical stuff with no practical applications, we have included plenty of case studies, together with our personal experience. We hope that the lessons learned from these case studies will bring these experiences to life and translate into practical applications for you in your investment journey.

Moreover, we have produced additional bonus chapters for you. These are meant to prepare you for the next stage of your investing journey after you have completed this book. Feel free to view your bonus chapters at https://www.valueinvestasia.com/valueinvestingbook/.

No one can make you rich or successful in investing. All we can do is provide the tools for you to make intelligent decisions. Such is the purpose of this book.

Thank you, and let's begin our journey.