People ask this question all the time.
Considering all the new readers that have joined the Barkada recently, I thought it would be a good idea to give everyone a basic idea of my sources and how I use them, to help new readers gain a better contextual understanding for the things that I write. Ok, here we go.
The unimpeachable king of all sources is the PSE’s “Electronic Disclosure Generation Technology” system, or EDGE (not sure if this is “Electronic Disclosure GEnerat
You can see the website here. This is where all of the PSE’s companies are required to submit their disclosures to the market.
It is exceptionally rare for investors to know about something (not just guess, but actually know) before it appears on EDGE.
Most of the business writing that you read is based on these funny little documents that trickle in throughout the trading day. This is really where I spend the bulk of my time.
Aside from EDGE, though, I read business news (online and in print, but mostly online), and have a very finely-curated Twitter account where I’ve followed what I consider to be the most informative local business journalists, plus many other primary sources relevant to business and the economy, like the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Philippine Competition Commission, and of course, the Philippine Stock Exchange.
I fill out my feed with follows of top brokerages, top thinkers (like Leechiu Property Consultants), and people of interest that add dependable flavor to what can often be dry financial news.
On top of that, I lurk Investa forums, Reddit, and a small number of Facebook groups, but the “signal to noise ratio” for these sites is not all that rewarding.
MB BOTTOM-LINE
It’s true that I have friends and connections in the legal, finance, and banking industries, but long-time readers will know that I’m not a big fan of doing blind items or name dropping fancy sources of information.
The reality of the situation is that I’m an unrepentant EDGE junkie, and everything that I do, my investments and my work with Merkado Barkada, flows from that original information addiction. I’m excited by new posts to the EDGE Listing Notices section.
I’m in my happy place page-upping and -downing through a 300-page prospectus for a new IPO in a sector that I’m unfamiliar with.
I don’t think that it takes my level of information consumption to be a “good investor”, but it does take my daily habit of reading so many sources of information to author Merkado Barkada every trading day, as I have since May of 2019.
There is no secret Viber group in my life filled with corporate insiders just waiting to provide me with market-moving information.
There’s no “one weird trick” trope to get rich quick.
Just an absolute firehose of information coming at me from all sides. Only about 5% of that information is really important, and separating out this 5% from the remaining 95% that is administrative, repetitive, or outright useless is perhaps Merkado Barkada’s biggest value proposition!
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