Investing for income and corporate financing is all about numbers

  1. Pick a number from 1-9.
  2. Multiply that number by 3.
  3. Add 3.
  4. Multiply by 3 again.
  5. Your total will be a two-digit number. Add the first and second digits together to find your best approach to investing or financing a privately-owned company. The list follows:

Possibilities:  

  1. Buying stocks which have closed at a higher price in 4 of the last five days.
  2. Only buy stock in companies with a record of increasing dividends.  
  3. Never buy stock in a company if the CEO is getting a divorce.
  4. Never buy stock in a company if the CEO has only worked for that company.
  5. Invest in companies having P/Es of less than that of most relevant market measure.
  6. Finance a company with the greatest amount of debt obtainable.
  7. Use units of debt and equity to finance an early stage company.
  8. Use units of equity and warrants to finance an early stage company.
  9. Royalties are the better way to both invest in and finance privately-owned companies.
  10. Buy stock in companies spending a lot of money on research.
  11. Buy stock in companies having both favorable profit margins and growth potential.
  12. Study companies carefully so that portfolio concentration is warranted.
  13. Use portfolio diversification limitation of five percent to reduce risk. 
  14. Invest in companies having consistently increasing per-share earnings.
  15. Do not invest in companies having excessive debt.
  16. Invest in companies which are widely held by mutual funds.
  17. Be careful about buying stock in companies which are highly promotional.

Arthur Lipper, Chairman, British Far East Holdings Ltd.
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