I have been writing about stock markets as well as other related markets for about 40 years. At that time I was a stockbroker in Singapore and we were the only brokerage firm with any research facility, which included a file on each listed company that I largely contributed to.

My style has been subject to gradual change, and this varied from the formal Chartered Accountant sort of reply with which I started and evolved into a journalistic sort of approach, from when I took up journalism as a career, after having spent 10 years out of the market and out of finance, running my own beverage business in Hong Kong. My style at present is quite simple, and is intended to appeal to the smaller individual investors, as this is the market with which I feel most familiar. I have always considered that many institutions and larger private investors ought to know what they are doing and besides not needing my help, and advice, they rarely have much loyalty.

At that stage, during the 1960s, I was the principal contributor to writing Frasers Circular, the house broadsheet which gave full details of the various listed shares, and I used to split it into sectors, general, industrials, rubber shares and tin shares, as these were the two larger markets. This circular was distributed to investment institutions around the world, as it was probably the only coverage of the Malaysian and Singapore markets available.

But it is the theory as well as the style which has changed, as my own opinions have also been the subject of constant evolution, when I first started I tended to be more market-driven than I have now become, as this was how I myself perceived the market. As a stockbroker I was also interested in getting our clients to transact business, and therefore I was definitely on the speculative side of the bed.

My mentors at that time, the senior members of the company, who formed a large part of my experience were Max Bell and Joe Corless, both of whom have now passed away. It was in this period that I developed my own particular style, as I managed to trade through both a rubber boom and a tin share boom.

But over the years I have moved away from the more speculative and cyclical stocks to favour growth shares, ones that one considers will be higher than they are now in ten years time, because their profits will be higher which is the only and ultimate reason for investment.

These "Daily spots" are an anthology of my articles over the past four years. I believe that there is a general theme which runs through them, as I tend to be obstinate and do not change my mind, unless with good reason. That reason is to use one's capital to purchase current and, more important, future income, as that will ensure success and a happy retirement.

As I do not have any assistants to whom I can delegate the work of the daily writing, I am bound to remain in Hongkong, in order to keep in touch with my followers. Perhaps that will be a reason that there are some better articles, and ones at which I would wince, as it is very difficult to keep up a daily column with wise comments every day of the working week. However I do submit it with the belief that this message is constant, and that it is very easy for anybody to consolidate their own private portfolios. It does not require vast research but only a solid grasp of principles.