Hard to understand how Telkom Indonesia (TLK) or more formally Telekomunikasi Indonesia managed to turn its first quarter into a disappointment but it did. The company, Indonesia’s biggest telecom business, broke through the 100 million subscribers ceiling in the quarter. And predicted that it would add 10 million to 12 million subscribers this year.

But big increases in operating and marketing costs negated all that good news. Read more

Up/down, buy/sell, gloom/boom: It’s not easy to be a long-term investor

Take the long view

The stock market is fixated on the short-term, we all know that. It’s an unusual occasion when stock analysts and investors look more than a few quarters ahead. That means stock prices often tend to respond to short-term news as if it were the only news.

And that means investors with a long-term view of companies and economic trends can often buy likely long-term winners while they are temporarily depressed by short-term news. This kind of long-term thinking in a short-term market is one of the best ways I know of for the average investor to beat the stock market indexes.

In pursuing that kind of strategy, however, too much caution is actually a bad thing. Let me explain—and give you some examples of stocks and sectors where taking the long view will pay off. Read more