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Invest in foreign shares without the complexity and high costs

By Alec Hogg

As you may be aware, since September last year the Biznews Global Share portfolio has been run on Standard Bank’s Webtrader. The idea is twofold – from our side, to show successful investing isn’t rocket science. Provided you do your homework, structure your portfolio sensibly and exercise patience, rewards will flow. For Standard Bank it’s a way of showcasing how to invest via computer into shares anywhere in the world.

For technical reasons we needed to rebase the portfolio in December. In four and a half months since its value has grown 13% in rand terms. That’s 30% annualised – an excellent return from a conservative portfolio whose constituents are expected to be owned “forever”. We’ve adopted the core/satellite approach by holding a third of the money in a low cost exchange traded fund that tracks the S&P500 Index, the same chunk in two foundation shares (Berkshire Hathaway and Google) with the balance into five stock picks (two of which are up 30% already).

Why am I telling you all this? For one thing, towards the end of last year we turned into long-term bears on the rand. Primarily because of our reading of the consequences of economic policies being followed by the SA government. That view forces one to embrace an offshore investment strategy.

For another, it is to encourage you to manage at least some of your investments yourself. Nobody will ever care as much about your money as you do. DIY investing can be a lot of fun, too. Replicating the Biznews Global Share portfolio for yourself isn’t a bad place to start.

* For more in-depth business news, visit biznews.com or simply sign up for the daily newsletter.

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Rand - Dollar
18.98
-0.2%
Rand - Pound
24.14
-0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.63
-0.2%
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