Jeremy Tan: From "Old Testament" to "New Testament": The Evolution of Value Investing

Speaker: Jeremy Tan, Investment Representative at Tiger Brokers (Singapore) $Tiger Brokers(TIGR)$ , as he shares how these concepts relate to modern market mechanics, including position sizing, catalysts and options. He will also bring you through the Barbell portfolio approach in global and Singaporean markets, alongside analytical frameworks used to assess global equities and the broader SEA small-cap market.

[About the Speaker]

Jeremy Tan is a seasoned investor with over 25 years of experience spanning equities, futures trading, property development, and business growth. A CFA charterholder who has managed money through both bull and bear markets, Jeremy has helped scale businesses to S$10 million in revenue and is a regular speaker at SGX derivatives workshops across Singapore and Taiwan. Fluent in English, Mandarin, Hokkien, and Cantonese, he brings a uniquely Southeast Asian lens to global value investing.

[The Hook] "Benjamin Graham is the Old Testament; Warren Buffett is the New Testament."

The room went quiet when Jeremy dropped that line. He used an analogy we all understand: the Bible has two testaments, and so does value investing. If you're still using 1930s methods to trade in 2026, it's like trying to charge an iPhone with a Nokia charger — the idea is right, but the connector is wrong.

[The Old Testament: Graham's Statistical Mindset]

Graham lived through the Great Depression. He saw people queuing for a bowl of soup. That trauma made him brutally conservative: I don't care what you sell. I only care if the numbers are statistically cheap.

He looked for:

• Price vs. Book Value: What does the company actually own — land, buildings, cash?

• Low P/E, Low Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow: He hunted for stocks trading below net cash — imagine buying a company for $30 million when it has $40 million in the bank. Liquidate it, and you pocket the difference.

"Singapore used to have plenty of these small caps," Jeremy recalled, drawing from his early days in the markets. "A curry puff company — I checked its books, and the cash exceeded its market cap. That's Graham-style cheap."

[The New Testament: Buffett's Moat Mindset]

But Buffett's partner Charlie Munger woke him up: "If you keep buying cigar butts, eventually you'll run out of cigars. You need to pay up for quality businesses."

So Buffett evolved from "cigar-butt picking" to "castle buying":

• The Moat: Great businesses are like castles with ever-widening moats. Coca-Cola's brand, Visa/Mastercard's network effects, Apple's ecosystem lock-in — "You've got 20 years of family photos on iCloud. Are you really switching to Android?"

• High ROE: A great Singaporean company might deliver 15%. Apple does 40–50%. "For every dollar reinvested, they earn 40–50 cents back. That's a money-printing machine."

• Quality Management: Tim Cook isn't a magician; he's the world's greatest supply-chain general. He squeezed TSMC for 10–15% price cuts and kept Apple focused on a handful of products — "Do less, but do it insanely well." That's the DNA Jobs left behind.

[Case Study: BYD, Held for 16 Years]

Jeremy bought BYD 16 years ago when Wang Chuanfu was still making batteries. "The factory looked like an old warehouse — four or five people inside." But Wang already had the roadmap: batteries first, then EVs, then robotics. "This guy thinks in technology cycles, not quarterly earnings."

That's New Testament thinking — you're not buying today's discount; you're buying the width of the moat ten years from now.

[Key Takeaways]

1. Buying a stock = buying a piece of a business: Whether it's one lot or 10,000 shares, you're a minority owner.

2. Mr. Market: The guy quoting you prices every day is an emotional "xiao ting dong" — euphoric one day, depressed the next. Use his mood swings; don't join them.

3. Margin of Safety: Engineers build a 10,000-ton bridge to withstand 50,000 tons. Buy stocks the same way — if it's worth 50, wait for 30.

[Call to Action 🎯]

Open your portfolio and ask yourself three questions:

1. Are my holdings "Old Testament" cheap (cash-rich, below book value) or "New Testament" great businesses (wide moat, high ROE)?

2. If this stock were suspended for three years and I couldn't sell, would I still sleep well?

3. Drop a comment: Which stock in your portfolio has the widest moat, and why?

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