Nathan@Thaistocks

quote]

Your site is nice but I don't have access to the interesting parts. Do you have to pay ?  

we are about to launch a similar service here in Thailand for the public (only foreigners, no Thai investors allowed) so they can use our "tools" to beat the market or at least beat the "losers" shares, but the service is expansive (from $2k per year) so it is not suited for all investors.

What is it you provide exactly ? your website is not very clear

Butterfly, I agree the website is at times confusing, but we will be re-launching it within a month to fix that problem, stay tuned!  What exactly are these magical 'tools' you keep alluding too?

I've attached a little marketing piece we usually send out to expalin about Thaistocks.com and why it exists:

I am involved with a website called Thaistocks.com.  Thaistocks.com has been publishing its views on the Thai stock market since 1997.  We focus on publishing independent and objective investment research.  Paul Renaud, the founder of Thaistocks.com, is an ex-Morgan Stanley broker and has over fifteen years of on-location experience in Thailand.  Paul has appeared on CNBC Asia six times discussing the often under-reported Thai stock market.  Forbes Global has reported on TS.com on three separate occasions.  

One of the main reasons behind Thaistocks.com is to eliminate the unknowns and myths surrounding Thailand’s economy.  The Thai economy is a resurging and diverse economy that has learned from its past mistakes.  It is domestically driven by high consumer spending and has an ever-expanding export sector.  Many foreigners do not realize these facts.  For example, Thailand is the world’s fifth largest food producer.  Companies like Ocean Glass (glassware), Tipco (beverages), and Charoen Pokphand Foods (frozen foods) are world leaders in their respective industries.

Should you wish to follow-up or have any other questions at all please feel free to reply to myself or you may contact Paul directly at [email protected].

p.s.  It is a pay-site, but if you go to the "whats New" section you will find some free articles.  We do not offer specific investment advice and do not claim to have any special 'tools', we focus on finding real companies with strong growth and profit potential.

Sincerely,

You can purchase a SIM card for as low as 500-600 baht on the AIS network, which is the most reliable and certainly offers the best coverage - especially out of Bangkok. Dtac is also popular and I have seen SIM cards available for about 300 baht at MBK centre.

Most foreign phones will work in Thailand, but some require the "EMMI" to be changed. Any service agent can do this for a small fee at MBK also; I have changed the "EMMI" on a Nokia phone before at MBK without any problems.

Where can you get a AIS sim card for 500-600 baht?  I've only seem around 800 bt.

What are the reasons givien for charging falangs a premium?

If I were a Thai broker/floor trader, I would simply watch for a falang order and then buy the stock and immediatly sell it to the falang, making a quick profit!

???

The 'reasons' don't really exist anymore as previously mentioned, but the 'premium' was because there are restrictions on the foreign ownership percentage.  And as the foreign ownership level would increase towards its limit then those shares would earn a premium (basic supply vs. demand).

Besides, no one was really getting 'charged' a premium, there is only one buyer and one seller, i.e a falang can sell to a falang, just as a falang can sell to a thai broker.

Individual Falangs could and can always buy local shares, it was the large institutions that could not buy local shares, so its not really a discussion for individual investors and also add to the fact that this discrepancy doesnt really exist anymore.

Butterfly is right, the opportunity is there to make a ****load.  Most people dont realize that the SET Index is up 49% year to date.  And is in fact the second best perfroming stock market in the world this year so far (Pakistan is #1, yet hardly as stable as Thailand), yet it is largely ignored by both Thais and Foreigners.  

With respect to Thai prices and falang prices there is no difference anymore with NVDRs setup, so there is no discrimination there.  In the older days it was the individual falangs who had the advantage as they could purchase local shares and then register them as foreign and sell them for a premium.

If anyone has any questions about investing i.e Foreign shares vs. Local shares please ask or come to the website.

Butterfly, the implied meaning of smaller shares was smaller companies, sorry for the confusion.

Nathan Szabo

Thaistocks.com