A INSIGHTFUL MASTER IN THE WORLD OF INVESTING AND TRADINGIssue 11/2013 Beyond Insights Sdn Bhd (Beyond Insights) is certainly more than a vibrant organisation that brings out the best in people and their financial future. Since 2008 Beyond Insights has been training many others to become more than just being financially successful. In this issue, Top 10 of Malaysia speaks with its founder, Kathlyn Toh, an inspiring and unique entrepreneur, who resigned from her full time job that paid more than RM 350,000 remuneration annually, to pursue her passion in the world of investing and trading.
Kathlyn’s 17 years of experience working in the corporate world has proven to bean extremely valuable foundation for her after she left the company to venture out on her own. During her time at Intel she has been recognised as a role model manager who is passionate about bringing out the best in people.
“In my previous career at Intel, I have worked with diverse teams from differing geographical locations while managing a global team across the United States,Costa Rica, China, Philippines and Malaysia,” says Kathlyn.
“Having had the opportunity to manage a department of more than 100 people in the Asia Pacific region besides conducting and facilitating leadership,management and employee development trainings have broadened my horizon and outlook,” she adds. “In fact, I realised later that personal leadership and management skills are even more crucial for a full time investor and trader as you need to manage your own performance.
”Kathlyn had already started trading on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange way back in 1993 and on the New York Stock Exchange some four years after that. “I went into Options trading in 2005 and since then have traded actively in them and also in US stocks, Contract For Difference (CFD), currencies and some commodity futures,” says Kathlyn. “What really inspired me to take my trading seriously was when I worked out my financial plan at the age of 35 and realised that no matter how hard I work, I won’t have enough to retire financially free at 55 and live until 80 (average lifespan of Malaysian Chinese women based on official statistics), and more importantly I wanted more time freedom. It’s also sad for me to realise that many people I managed will have even a bigger problem than I do.
”By practicing the skills that she learnt on the psychology of people transformation, Kathlyn was able to successfully improve her consistency in her own trading significantly. In 2009, she left high paying job at Intel to pursue her passion in investments, trading, training and coaching and the rewards have been plentiful not just for her but for all those who have adhered to her values,teachings and advice. That was the time when she started Beyond Insights.Today, Kathlyn and her team has coached and trained more than 1,000 people in their journey to take up investing and trading as a source of wealth. “They come from all walks of life – business owners, financial controllers, accountants,doctors, stock brokers, full-time traders, house wives, college students and even retirees. It has been a tremendous educational experience for me as well,” says Kathlyn.
Kathlyn points out that the best part is that all the trainers and coaches at Beyond Insights are full time investors or traders themselves and therefore the education can be delivered in the most authentic and practical way.
“We preach what we do,” she says.“The most fulfilling feeling for me is to see people transform. Therefore, I continue to coach and facilitate on a voluntary basis at several international seminars related to personal mastery,” says Kathlyn. “We were the first in Asia to run the ‘Investing & Trading Psychology Boot Camp’ and we offer the most comprehensive education in this country for anyone who wants to create consistent financial success through investing and trading,” she adds. While negative news and vibes about the economy abound, Kathlyn has been reaping returns of some 300% from investing in the US stock markets in the past three years using CFD and Options. High volatility markets like the recent ones and the full cycle of the Bull Run, the market crash, after crash recovery and the side way markets have all boosted Kathlyn’s experience and skills in making timely strategy adjustments according to market conditions.
Kathlyn is more than passionate about coaching people on trading psychology.She does it based on her personal journey in managing her own psychology in trading. According to her, consistent success in trading is more than 80%psychology and money management and just 20% mechanics. “Unfortunately most people still focus way too much on strategy,” she laments. Studying the feedback collected from students on the challenges they face has enabled Kathlyn to provide them with the necessary insights and to device ways to effectively help them overcome. She admits that the psychology skills she has personally learned from Tony Robbins, an American self-help author and a genius in psychology of people transformation as well as her completion of Master Practitioner and Coach of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, have come in very handy.
Kathlyn believes that success in investing and trading is not about how smart one is but it is really about character, discipline, commitment, persistence,perseverance and a strong desire to create a meaningful life with one’s wealth.Her favorite quote is “Being a successful investor is a journey of character building” as one needs to master discipline to follow the rules and overcome the human tendency to be greedy. At Beyond Insights, the passionate and dedicated team of trainers and coaches led by Kathlyn herself is always well equipped and committed to assist those who have set their hearts and minds on this journey of investing and trading. As for Kathlyn, she is extremely happy about what she is doing now and is enthusiastic about getting more like-minded people to possess for themselves the kind of freedom and financial success that she has achieved.
“My greatest success is attaining the freedom that I now have, doing what I love to do when I want to do it at wherever I want to be. We call it Financial Freedom,Time Freedom and Location Freedom. To know that my passion has brought mehere today is one of the greatest feelings of success one can ever imagine,” says Kathlyn with a great sense of satisfaction. “You can download my articles and also attend free seminars organized by Beyond Insights – just log-on to www.beyondinsights.net to register yourself as a subscriber and check out the upcoming seminar schedule,” she adds.This article is available online on:http://top10malaysia.com/home/index.php/towering-personalities/kathlyn-toh
