Interview with Yougin Cheng, Alumnus and 2024 Co-CEO of Singapore Chapter

A great chat with Z Club's 2024 Co-CEO, Yougin Cheng! Read about his experience in the club, the many connections he built through the club and his advice to future members.

This March, I met Yougin at a Koufu food court in SMU for a cup of coffee and a good conversation. As 2024 co-CEO of Singapore Chapter's Value Investing Programme alongside Javier Chan, he has contributed in an invaluable way to the growth of the club and its members. In this chat, he shared more about his philosophy and approach to university life, his experiences in the Z Club and advice he would want to share to his juniors. Read on to learn from the exciting and memorable time Yougin had in the Z Club!

Hi Yougin! Thanks for taking the time to share some of your insights with our Substack readers today. Let's begin with some background introduction. How did you find out about Next Gen and what made you sign up?

Hey Judah, no problem! There was a message blasted in SMU Telegram channel in my second year, and at that time I was open to trying new things, so it was more of trying things out that led to me applying and joining Next Gen.

Wow that's interesting! So what was your first impression of the Z Club?

My first impression was good really because I had good seniors who were willing to share their ideas, I was a "noob" back then and realised the seniors knew their stuff; they are all now doing very well as well. So it was really interesting to hear from them and it opened my eyes to what equity analysis actually means. They were able to do in depth analysis that I didn't think of, which meant it was a lot of learning for me. What was great was also that we had a lot of meeting activities, like a barbeque at Tiffany's place and a meeting at Arisaig Partners. Those in-person meetings were good because purely online, you won't get to know anyone. So it was during those activities in-person where I could talk to many people, especially those not from SMU.

Yougin (far left) at a members’ meet-up in November 2023

Wow, who are some of these people you met?

I met many people, like Wai Hong at a Next Gen sharing at a community club; he interned at Star Magnolia and then at HSBC doing investment banking. We had a great talk and in the club, I met many other great seniors who are at great places and jobs now as well. For example I was in the same group as Hui Ling presenting on an idea when she was on exchange, but it was midnight at the time for her so it was some dedication from her. I also met people like Sooria and Javier who talked about trading ideas, our own ideas, and exchanged ideas for the club's portfolio, just talking about many different things and sharing our ideas. I also met many people in the ESG space who were doing work in sustainability, so I could hear from their perspective.

In the end, my opinion is that the value of the club is really in meeting new people. You don't come here to have a step one to ten lesson on investing, or just for the introduction in the bootcamp. What's really valuable is being able to meet many people, whether its seniors, peers, or even fund managers. Because of Shinya's and Tiffany's network, we get so many opportunities to meet fund managers who are more lowkey than those in corporate. Many of these fund managers do very well as well, but they don't want the publicity or attention. For example, a fund manager I met in person manages 5 billion, compounding at some insane rate like 20-30% a year. We can meet so many of these people through the club, many whom students don't even know exist but manage billions. It's really an industry that people don't even know about and being in the club gives us the opportunity to poke their brains and see what they say. It really gives you a different perspective.

Yougin (second from the left) at a Meet-the-Investors session w/ CEO and Head of Investment at Xen Capital Yasushi Nakahara

That's really true, I have also met so many fund managers that gave me a different perspective on life and money. Is there one that was memorable for you?

For some context, I am now interested in commodities trading which is usually more short-term in nature compared to longer-term fundamental investing. However, I met this fund manager who almost convinced me that fundamental analysis was the best way to trade. He makes like three ideas a year, and don't sell at all. They just hold it all the way with really high conviction -- I asked him when he sells, and he just said he never sells. He really believes that if you know everything about the company, you can own it forever. And yet he makes a really high rate of return. I was really impressed by him, he is also a very humble guy with a simple office, buying out companies he likes and having a great network but still a very simple and nice guy. So yep he was someone really memorable.

Sounds interesting, I hope to meet him one day too! I wanted to ask about your leadership experience in the club as well. What did you do as co-CEO in the club?

One of my main areas of responsibility was actually the Z Club Academy (ZCA). The ZCA is an open online dialogue with managers around the world where students from the club and the public are invited to listen and engage with these managers. I planned and moderated about 80% of the sessions, liaising, moderating, getting people to register and so on was one of my big roles. I also had to lead in giving ideas and discussing during monthly meetings, organising meet-ups and things like that.

For me, my take is that meeting people is important, so I took a lot of time for ZCA. Even on exchange, I was moderating the sessions, catering each session to the investor because each of them have different domains and areas of expertise. So it was really about drawing out their expertise and letting the rest learn from them; that was something important to me.

In fact, some of the club members even got hired as these firms may have been looking for interns. Some graduates got hired as well because they found out through ZCA that the companies were hiring and just reached out. So everyone is really connected and giving the members these opportunities was important to me.

Yougin (far right) at a Meet-the-Investors Session with Mr Pulak Prasad, founder of Nalanda Capital. He had organised the meet-up for the club’s members!

Wow those sessions sound really useful. On a different track, what were the monthly meetings like and what did you do in them?

Well, at the start it was more updates on holdings by members and even industry talks. For example, one of the VIP alumni talked about the Steel Industry in the US. But mostly it would be us trying to generate ideas, thinking about more short-term trades, like three months to a year. We were really focused on generating ideas and giving people opportunities to share their ideas. I recall China was doing badly then, so we wanted to quickly deploy capital and try to come up with more ideas to redeploy capital there.

Wish I was in those sessions! So what motivated you to take up this leadership position and put in so much work for it?

For me it was really to just try and get the opportunity to work and learn from Javier (co-CEO) both on the fundamental equity side, as well as in management. I also wanted the opportunity to work with more people in management and give back to the club as well.

And what would you say to future club members who are interested in taking up such a leadership position?

Keep doing what we are doing, don't try to be like other investment clubs. We have a lot of strength in our network, and we should stick to that. If you want to do public equities, this club is the best place to be. Other clubs may teach you how to invest and so on, but the network in this club is great so really go for it.

That's great Yougin, one last question. How were you able to balance leading the club and your other school/work commitments?

Hm its hard to say. I think know the purpose behind what you do because when you know it, you will be motivated to do it. Its as simple as that, I think its something to live by in the rest of your life outside of the club as well, being able to find joy in the things that you do is important. When you know why you're doing something, you enjoy it a lot more, you can produce better quality work, and are more motivated rather than just seeing it as a chore. You come up with more new ideas and will really be able to help the club grow.

That's great! Thank you so much Yougin for taking the time for this interview and I hope to see you around!

Thank you Judah and all the best to the club members!