... ON INVESTING IN THE STOCK MARKET If you want to invest in the share market, you have to be something of a fortune teller. Throw your mind forward four to five years. Try and imagine what the world will look like at that time and which companies you believe will be prospering. Then, look at the companies not as shares, but as businesses. You have to ask, ‘do I want to own this company? Do I believe their numbers? And am I prepared to play for the longer term? Finally: would you buy the entire company, if you had the funds? If the answer to those questions is yes, then look at the financial statements – the company’s war chest – and look at its debt, its capital, its cash flow, etc. All these things are terribly important to the value of a share. And you have to be prepared to say ‘no’ after all the time you have invested in research. If the numbers and price don’t stack up, then you have to have the ability to walk away. That is one of the most important abilities for a very good investor. MERCEDES-BENZ PARRAMATTA 12 FEATURE