Equity research · by John Huo, VUCA Insights
Two deep dives a month, each done for you in ~2 hours — the same research that's beaten the S&P 500 for 12 straight years.
A faster, saner way to find world-class companies — I call it the Value-Chain Method. It works especially if the usual investing advice hasn't worked for you.
The problem
But no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to get out of an investing rut.
You've voraciously read thousands of threads on investing forums, followed the news, even taken stock tips from gurus. Yet nothing has stuck.
Most of the companies you bought turned out to be flops. Some looked promising, then quietly fizzled out.
It's 11pm. Fourteen browser tabs open, three forums giving you three opposite answers, and that familiar knot in your stomach that whispers you're about to buy at the top again. You came into investing to grow your wealth — now you're wondering if you're making a mistake, exhausted, and quietly starting to panic.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: to know if a company is worth owning, you have to understand it inside out — and its whole industry too.
Take an Automated Test Equipment maker in semiconductors: you'd need to understand at least 60% of the value chain first. Even as an electronics-trained engineer, it took John seven years to grasp that industry.
It's not that it can't be done — it's just a lot of work. And time is the one thing most people don't have.
The shortcut
Instead of carving out 3–4 hours a night, hitting walls and watching your portfolio shrink — you simply attend the two live sessions each month, or watch the recordings. Everything you need to judge a carefully selected company, laid out for you.
A company and its whole industry analysed live, twice a month, so you can reach a confident buy-or-wait decision in about 2 hours.
FORMAT · 90 MIN VIDEOKey ratios, competitor data and a valuation range on a single page, so you can size up a company in three minutes when you're short on time.
FORMAT · 1-PAGE PDFEverything distilled and laid out for you, so you can act on an invest-worthy company within the hour — no forums, no second-guessing.
OUTCOME · CONVICTION
These aren't the boring one-pagers you'll find in a generic newsletter. Inside every deep dive:
Case in point — in May 2024 I covered a company most investors have never properly studied. Twenty-seven months later: +157%. That deep dive sits in the archive you get the day you join — and you'll get the same depth on a fresh company twice a month.
Applied Materials (AMAT) — the company from that deep dive · coverage point marked by us · price to 7 Aug 2026 · source: GuruFocus
The operator
I'm the founder of VUCA Insights, where I manage an 8-figure private-mandate portfolio for clients' equity accounts. I caught the investing bug 16 years ago, when I started my career at the world's second-largest energy company at the time, Royal Dutch Shell.
For 16 years I've invested my own portfolio — and my family's money for the last 10 — using a method I've refined the whole way through. I call it the Value-Chain Method: the same way I mapped semiconductor supply chains as an engineer, now pointed at the stock market to see which companies get crushed and which quietly compound. It's generated a compound annual growth rate of 15.40% — outperforming the S&P 500 for 12 straight years.
You get that method from a real-world practitioner — not an academic preacher sharing concepts with no skin in the game. In-depth, concise, and genuinely actionable.
— John Huo
The Value-Chain Method
Where a company sits in its value chain decides whether it gets crushed — or quietly compounds. Mapping that position is the method — and it's what every StockWyse deep dive is built on.
The principle
How Warren Buffett turned $8.3m into over $1 trillion with one “boring” skill — reading.
over 100,000× returnon the same “boring” skill · bars illustrative, not to scale
Asked at Columbia for his secret, Buffett held up a stack of paper and said he reads 500 pages a day — and that anyone's knowledge would compound if they did the same. One student took it to heart, dedicated himself to reading, and became one of Berkshire's best-performing managers.
But you're not a fund manager. You can't read 500 pages a day between work, family and the occasional holiday — most weeks you get an hour or two.
The good news: even if you can't read 500 pages a day, you now have the next best thing — StockWyse.
The track record
The S&P 500 tracks the 500 largest US companies, so it's the benchmark almost everyone is measured against — and it's brutally hard to beat. In fact, a 2022 study found 80% of active fund managers fail to beat it.
I'm not just going to tell you I did — I'll show you.
JH_ETrade account · +99.00% vs S&P 500 +73.24% · 11 Aug 2023 – 7 Aug 2026
“Hang on — doesn't that window include the Trump tariff crash?”
It does. You can see it in the chart — April 2025, everything falls off a cliff, and plenty of people panicked out at the bottom.
The market moves in cycles. I sat through that one and kept compounding.
My portfolio is proof you can make time your friend instead of your foe:
Here's the best part — you get to “tag along” for the ride.
Beyond my own account
Everything above is my account. This is what the same research did for eleven private-mandate clients — different people, different entry dates, different amounts.
Every one of them is up. But a headline gain means nothing until you know how long it took to earn it, so the column that matters is the last one: what each account compounded at per year.
The weakest of the eleven is running at 14.49% a year, the strongest at 22.22%.
These are accounts I manage. StockWyse hands you the same research — what you do with it is your call.
| Client | Inception | Held | Total return | CAGRper year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 01 Nov 2022 | 3.78 yrs | +66.66% | 14.49% |
| 02 | 29 Nov 2022 | 3.70 yrs | +71.59% | 15.72% |
| 03 | 21 Feb 2023 | 3.47 yrs | +78.44% | 18.16% |
| 04 | 09 Mar 2023 | 3.42 yrs | +62.23% | 15.20% |
| 05 | 24 Mar 2023 | 3.38 yrs | +65.09% | 16.00% |
| 06 | 23 Jun 2023 | 3.13 yrs | +67.81% | 17.98% |
| 07 | 25 Aug 2023 | 2.96 yrs | +63.11% | 17.98% |
| 08 | 13 Sep 2023 | 2.91 yrs | +57.59% | 16.93% |
| 09 | 14 Mar 2024 | 2.41 yrs | +62.05% | 22.22% |
| 10 | 14 May 2024 | 2.24 yrs | +53.46% | 21.08% |
| 11 | 21 Jun 2024 | 2.14 yrs | +50.61% | 21.13% |
Swipe the table to see every column · 11 client portfolios · VUCA Insights managed global mandate · as at 8 Aug 2026 · names & balances withheld
Figures from VUCA Insights’ managed global client portfolios as at 8 August 2026; each account is annualised over its own holding period — between 2.1 and 3.8 years — so results vary with entry date. Past performance is not indicative of future results. StockWyse is a research subscription — not a managed account, and not a promise of any return.
Why it's different
They don't always work — and the biggest reason is that the people writing them are analysts who usually don't have a cent of their own money in the companies they're pitching.
StockWyse is different. It covers only companies I've analysed thoroughly, some with my own money invested in them, and some kept on the watchlist because valuation is too high right now. That — my skin in the game — is what sets this apart from the newsletters you see everywhere else.
Your options
Do it yourself, chase newsletters, or hand a manager RM250k+ — here's where each one leaves you, and where StockWyse fits.
| Criteria | Do it yourself | Stock newsletters | Private mandate | StockWyseBEST VALUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time you invest | 40+ hrs / company | Minutes — but shallow | None — hands-off | ✓~2 hrs / company |
| Research depth | However far you get | Thin, generic tips | Deep — but you never see it | ✓80–100 hrs per company |
| Skin in the game | Yours alone | ✕Usually none | ✓Yes | ✓John invests his own money |
| Minimum to start | Your time | Low $, poor results | From RM250k | US$699 / yr (~$29 a dive)US$999 / yr (~$42 a dive) |
| You stay in control | ✓Yes | ✓Yes | ✕Managed for you | ✓You decide & own the shares |
| Conviction to hold | Low | Low — hype-driven | Not yours to build | ✓High — you understand the why |
← swipe to compare · The practitioner's research — without the RM250k minimum.
Who it's for
You want to grow your portfolio with high-quality companies — and want the research done for you.
You want to know which companies are worth owning, but you're simply too busy to research them yourself.
You want a guided, credible approach to finding high-quality companies to invest in.
Why I put this on my site
I've known John for years. We're both published authors, we've travelled together, and I trust his judgement enough that I've handed him RM300,000 of my own money to invest on my behalf — and I'll be adding more this year.
I never want to miss one of John's sessions — and even when I'm too busy to join live, I always catch the replay. John keeps introducing me to world-class companies that were completely off my radar.
That's exactly why I wanted his research here. If you're on my list, this is the closest thing to having John do your homework for you.
The offer
A fresh company analysed live, twice a month, so you can add a world-class idea to your watchlist without doing the research yourself.
The numbers, competitors and valuation on one page, so you can judge any covered company in three minutes flat.
Every past session on demand, so you can catch up in your own time and never miss an idea you were away for.
See how every covered stock is doing, updated through the day, so you can time your entries with confidence.
Ask John and fellow investors anything, so you can hold through the dips with conviction instead of panic-selling.
Join StockWyse today
Not $10,000/yr Not even $2,000/yr
That's ~US$29 per world-class deep dive — ≈ RM2,870 a year, about RM8 a day.
That's ~US$42 per world-class deep dive — ≈ RM4,100 a year, about RM11 a day.
Locked at US$699/year for as long as you stay. Your renewals stay US$699 — they do not go back up to US$999.
Renewable at the same rate — no hikes, no inflation.
Get started in as little as 1 hour · instant access to the full archive
“Why so cheap, when your private-mandate clients start at RM250,000?” Because the research is already done — I do it for my own money anyway. Opening it up costs me next to nothing, and it's the leg-up I wish I'd had when I started out with no six-figure portfolio to my name.
On a RM100k portfolio, a single stock that does just 5% better than what you'd have picked alone more than covers a full year of membership.
24 deep dives a year at 80–100 hours each. At US$699US$999, that's time you get back — for less than RM8RM12 a day.
What happens the moment you join
Subscribe securely and your StockWyse membership is active straight away.
Get instant access to every deep dive already in the membership — 56+ stock ideas to explore right away.
Join the next live webinar — or watch the replay on your own time, like KC does.
There's not a single wasted word in these reports. If I can save you a minute, I will — because time is the one resource that, once gone, is gone for good.
Boots on the ground
I make it a point to keep growing — which means mingling with the very best, even when it costs a bomb. Last year's trip ran into five figures, and it was worth every penny. You could stream the meeting online, but then I'd have missed meeting legends like these.
I'm never satisfied sitting in an office looking at reports. I go into the field and talk to the people who move the market. So when you subscribe, you're not just subscribing to reports — you're subscribing to a living, breathing investor's brain-pickings.
Full transparency
Most programs only show you the winners. I'll show you the worst and the middle too — because I don't need the best performer to prove the quality of StockWyse's research.
Members
“The value I've gotten has far surpassed the subscription fee for years to come. John's deep dives let me double down on a cybersecurity and an activewear name when both were beaten down.”
Wee LiamMEMBER · ~1 YEAR“Clear, confident insights on market trends like inflation and recession — with no hype. Unlike other groups, John builds real trust through regular, value-packed sessions.”
“John goes deep on the industry, company, products, financials and valuation. Now I have real conviction on why I'm buying a stock — so when holdings go negative in a downturn, I can add instead of panic.”
R. BushanFINANCIAL SERVICES PRO“For every stock, John's systematic analysis covers the ecosystem, business model, five-year financials, moats, valuation and risks. His insight clarifies my conviction to stay the course through VUCA times.”
Wong Fok GeeMEMBER“John makes complex topics easy, and his knack for uncovering quality companies has improved my journey as a value investor. His research is clear and detailed — and he's upfront about the risks too.”
Rui FongVALUE INVESTOR“Joining StockWyse was one of the best decisions in my value-investing journey. The interactions with John and KC make learning easy and genuinely enjoyable. Highly recommend.”
See LiungMEMBER“Your research introduced me to companies I'd never heard of and opened my eyes to new business models. You welcome differing opinions with respect, which enriches the whole community's understanding.”
Lee Chun TeikMEMBER“John breaks down technical financial ideas into simple, actionable advice. Despite his deep expertise he stays approachable, and consistently goes the extra mile. A remarkably reliable, honest professional.”
Goon Tuck LeeMEMBER“John breaks complex industries into clear mind maps that help me spot the trends that actually matter. Huge thanks for the effort behind those concise, well-prepared presentations — they've made a real difference.”
Wong Wei TungMEMBERStraight answers
The doubt · 01
“How do I know these returns are even real — and not just cherry-picked?”
Fair — everyone claims to beat the market. My 15.40% CAGR comes from a verified E*Trade account, and I don't only show the winners — scroll up and you'll see my worst pick (LULU, down 51%) right next to the best.
KC Lau has followed my investing long enough to hand me RM300,000 of his own money to manage — with more to come. Real account, real money, nothing hidden.
The doubt · 02
“What if I pay US$699US$999 and the picks just don't work for me?”
You're not buying tips to follow blindly — you're buying the research, and you decide what, if anything, to act on. Watch your first two deep dives; if you're not blown away, take a full refund within 30 days. And on a RM100k portfolio, a single idea that does just 5% better than what you'd have picked alone more than covers the whole year.
And it isn’t theoretical. Eleven private-mandate clients — different people, different entry dates — are all in profit, averaging about 17.9% a year. See the accounts.
The doubt · 03
“Isn't this just another guru selling a subscription?”
Most stock newsletters are written by analysts with none of their own money in the names they pitch. I do — I own some of the companies I cover, and I still manage an 8-figure private-mandate book using the exact same research.
I don't sell buy/sell calls to pump anything; StockWyse is the homework, so you decide. It's simply the work I already do, opened up.
Still unsure? Ask us on WhatsApp before you decide — no pressure.
Questions
Busy investors who want to manage their own portfolio but don't have time for the research — and who want a credible source where the researcher invests alongside them (skin in the game).
One full year. You can renew at the end of your membership at the same fee you paid — no hike, no inflation.
The goal is to find companies that are among the best in the world at what they do, regardless of geography — so coverage is mainly global. We don't define stocks by location but by their position in the value chain. It might be one of the world's largest aircraft-engine parts suppliers that happens to be listed in Malaysia, or the largest aviation-IT company not on a US exchange.
Two new deep-dive webinars a month — 24 a year. On top of that, we've already covered 56+ stocks, and you get those instantly when you join today.
It's not built for someone starting from zero. To get the best value you should have a brokerage account set up, some basic accounting knowledge, and at least RM20k–RM50k ready to invest.
No. StockWyse isn't about buy/sell calls. It gives you all the information you need to make an informed decision yourself on whether to buy or sell.
Yes — a 30-day refund policy. Requests received more than 30 days after sign-up can't be refunded. Refunds exclude SST and payment-provider charges, and are processed within 30–45 days of the request.
Message us on WhatsApp at +60 14-833 0979, or email support@kclau.com or hello@vucainsights.com.
One step away
Stop stalking forums, chasing the news and asking Google for stock ideas. Clear the confusion, see the facts laid out, and decide with conviction.
Twelve months from now, you'll own a portfolio either way. The only question is whether it was built on forum tips and hope — or on 2,400 hours of research you didn't have to lift a finger for. See you inside StockWyse.
🔒 Secure checkout — you'll finish on our VUCA Insights academy
