Honest accounts from people who have taken the courses.
We share these because the people who wrote them were kind enough to let us — and because they describe experiences we recognise.
HomeWhat course participants have written
Sandra Wong
Accountant, 51 · Wan ChaiI had a vague understanding of the Hang Seng Index before taking Hang Seng Basics — the sort of understanding that comes from reading the SCMP without really engaging with it. After four sessions I could explain the index composition to a colleague without reaching for a guess. That was not something I expected to be able to say four weeks later.
Hang Seng Basics · March 2025Philip Leung
Architect, 46 · Kowloon TongThe HK Equities for the Long View course changed how I read financial news. Not dramatically — I still don't enjoy reading annual reports for pleasure. But I can follow a company earnings discussion now without losing the thread halfway through, and that is more than I could say before. The pace was right for someone with a full-time job.
HK Equities Long View · February 2025Mary Cheng
HR Director, 53 · Mid-LevelsI joined the Portfolio Construction Workshop after doing the Long View course the previous year. The written allocation document took considerably more thought than I anticipated — which was precisely the point. The feedback I received was detailed and specific to what I had written. I've come away with something I can actually refer back to.
Portfolio Construction Workshop · January 2025Thomas Fung
Engineer, 48 · Sai KungI appreciated that the course didn't pretend the material was simpler than it is. The Hang Seng Basics sessions were clear, but they didn't talk down to the participants. I found out more in four evenings than I had from a year of reading financial news. The group size made it easy to ask the questions I actually had.
Hang Seng Basics · March 2025Yvette Wu
Marketing Manager, 44 · Taikoo ShingWhat I valued most was the clarity about what the course was and wasn't. Nobody was going to tell me what to buy. That was stated upfront and held throughout. For that reason alone the course felt honest in a way that much financial content doesn't. The instructor's background in equity research was evident in the way questions were handled.
HK Equities Long View · February 2025Raymond Kwok
Operations Director, 57 · Pok Fu LamI completed all three courses over about eighteen months. The progression makes sense — each programme assumes a little more than the last without being exclusionary. The Portfolio Construction Workshop was the most demanding, as you'd expect, but the individual feedback on the allocation document was worth it. I still have the final version on my desk.
All three courses · 2024–2025A few participants' paths through the courses
A solicitor with no market background
A 49-year-old solicitor enrolled in Hang Seng Basics after her firm began handling more transactions involving listed HK companies. She wanted to read client documents without relying entirely on colleagues to translate the financial context.
Two courses over eight months
After Hang Seng Basics, she enrolled in HK Equities for the Long View. The financial statement sessions were the most directly applicable to her work. She found the case study format useful because it let her focus on analysis without the noise of current market commentary.
Genuine reading fluency
After completing both courses, she described being able to read a listed company's interim results without feeling she was missing the main point. She noted the pace had been manageable alongside a full case load.
A retired civil servant, curious but hesitant
A 55-year-old recently retired from government administration. He had held savings for many years but had never engaged with equities, partly from uncertainty and partly from not knowing where to start learning that felt trustworthy.
All three courses, taken in sequence
He took all three programmes over about fourteen months. The Portfolio Construction Workshop was where he did the most work — the written allocation document required him to articulate positions on topics he had previously left vague. Instructor feedback was specific and challenged several of his initial assumptions.
A framework he is comfortable with
He left with a written allocation document reflecting his actual situation and risk disposition — not a generic framework. What he found most useful was that the courses had given him a vocabulary for making decisions rather than making decisions for him.
A doctor, some investing experience, no HK market understanding
A 52-year-old physician had held a small investment account for some years but described herself as having no real understanding of the Hong Kong market specifically — just a general familiarity with investing as a concept.
Enrolled directly in the Long View course
She skipped Hang Seng Basics and enrolled in HK Equities for the Long View, which worked given her existing general investment background. The dividend policy sessions and the case studies on historical HK-listed companies were the most substantive for her context.
Clarity on the local market's particular structure
She came away with a much clearer sense of how the HK market's sector concentration and its relationship with mainland cycles differed from the broader investing context she had read about previously. She subsequently enrolled in the Portfolio Construction Workshop.
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