I would like to contribute a little opinion.

Generally, when buying into a stock, I will do my research on the particular stock's strength. I consider myself the fundamental player as compared to the other group of player (speculative).

What do I look for in a stock to buy ?

First, profitability of the company

Second, past year result (no point buying a 1 HIT WONDER company)

Third, independence of the audit committee (no point if the CEO/Chairman/MD sits in the audit committee. the audit committee should be independent whenever possible.

Fourth and I place most emphasis, look for shares which have their stock price lower than their Net-Tangile- Asset (NTA) example: stock price RM1.80 and NTA RM2.50 means each stock valued at RM1.80 is BACKED by RM2.50 worth of ASSETS

Fifth, Price-Earning Ratio (PE Ratio)

Nevertheless the market is bigger than our control so these are no guarantee of me making a decent profit EVERY TIME ! It is MERELY a guidelines I followed when choosing a stock.

Do feel free to contribute.

Yup you got that spot on.

Gearing / Debt of a company (whether long term or short term) have been included in the calculation of the NTA.

Normally if a company have high debt, NTA will be low numbers or even worst in Negative.