# Investing overseas



## chrisclarke545 (10 July 2014)

I'm new to investing overseas and am trying to get some ideas on where to invest. Are there any recommended sources???

Also is there a cheaper option to trade than the $70 which Commsec charges?

Thanks


----------



## bellenuit (10 July 2014)

chrisclarke545 said:


> I'm new to investing overseas and am trying to get some ideas on where to invest. Are there any recommended sources???
> 
> Also is there a cheaper option to trade than the $70 which Commsec charges?
> 
> Thanks




Interactive Brokers is a lot cheaper (and there are a few others but I don't use them). These are there fees for US trades:





More pricing here...

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=commission&p=stocks2


----------



## chrisclarke545 (10 July 2014)

Thanks.

What about getting ideas?


----------



## ROE (10 July 2014)

chrisclarke545 said:


> I'm new to investing overseas and am trying to get some ideas on where to invest. Are there any recommended sources???
> 
> Also is there a cheaper option to trade than the $70 which Commsec charges?
> 
> Thanks




how much money you got? the grass is always greener on the other side.
lot of analyst said we are but 1-2% of world market so why leave your money here is usually the trigger

the reality is the grass isn't greener on the other side.

I invest 100% in Australia and will always be even if I have ten of millions
Invest in your own backyards has so many benefits the so call expert discard.

1. you know the culture and the people
2. You know the system and the laws
3. Franking credits
4. highly developed country with transparent process and anti corruption laws in place
5. to some extend you know the management and people living in this countries and how they brought up. 

why would you give that away and go to some far out countries where you have no idea
how that countries operate? just because some people said you get better return over sea?

you can get extremely good return in Australia market if you know what you are doing.
Australia is not a dead market, you can make lot of money investing in the right companies
right here and some of the best of the best on the planet are right in your backyard so why go the distance?


----------



## chrisclarke545 (10 July 2014)

I agree that Australia is a good place to invest. 

But investing in Australia does not give you exposure to a lot of innovative sectors. For example, semi-conductors manufacturing companies which are building millions of little widgets which connect to the Internet. 

The problem is of course trying to get more details on these companies. I would love to hear about how active investors access research in overseas markets.


----------



## ROE (10 July 2014)

that is a good reason for you to go oversea invest in sectors you want that not available here.

Aussie Market has all the sectors I need to throw money toward so no need for me to venture oversea.

US companies publish quarterly report like our ASX companies but we only do it twice a year.


----------



## Value Collector (10 July 2014)

ROE said:


> how much money you got? the grass is always greener on the other side.
> lot of analyst said we are but 1-2% of world market so why leave your money here is usually the trigger
> 
> the reality is the grass isn't greener on the other side.
> ...




All that is true, 

But I have recently started a longterm international portfolio, mainly to get exposure to a few global companies i am interested in, so far all i own over seas is disney, roughly 3% of my portfolio, but for a beginner, I wouldn't rush to go overseas.


----------



## DeepState (11 July 2014)

Perhaps it might be informative to examine what well regarded institutional investors do and see if it has any relevance.

Harvard Management Company and Yale Endowment are US based investment organisations.  The US market is by far the deepest market offering highly diversified exposure to different sectors, opportunities for stock selection prowess etc.  These funds, one would think, ought to have fairly high home country bias with all else equal.

+ Harvard's strategy is to have 11% in domestic equity, 11% in foreign developed markets, 16% in emerging markets and 16% in private equity (around the world).  This excludes equity exposure in foreign and domestic equities that arise from investments in absolute return strategies.

+ Yale has a strategy of investing 5.9% in domestic equities, 9.8% in foreign equities and 32% in private equity (around the world).

In Australia, we where our liabilities are Australian and where we benefit from franking credits (with the following being at low tax rate or zero tax rate, meaning they benefit a lot from it and favour it more than most working people investing assets outside of an SMSF or pension), the exposures are as follows:

+ Future Fund's actual exposure as at June 2013 had 9.7% in Australian listed equities, 23.8% in global developed market equities, 7.1% in emerging markets equities and 7.3% in private equity.

+ The largest super fund is AustralianSuper.  It has a strategic exposure of 30% in Australian equities, 28% in international equities and 3% in global private equity.

Any way you cut it, these well regarded institutional investors have a lot of assets in international equities relative to their domestic exposures.  This does not mean you should as well.  If you can generate a great deal of returns from Australian equities from strong insight that is not available to you from international markets for whatever reason, then it may be appropriate to bring the exposures back in favour of Australian equities.  The stronger your insight, the stronger the tilt in favour of Australian equities.  The reverse is also true. 

Institutions diversify to profit from opportunities around the world, not believing that these are restricted to their homeland.  They also gain exposure to different economies, reduce event risk related matters....

Just for interest.  You are not an institution (yet).  What I do know is that these allocations receive a great deal of attention as they determine about 95% of the character of investment performance.

You can get info from looking at, say, ForexFactory and dig in to economic news for that stuff.  You can get lost in the trail of info from there.  Each company must issue earnings reports periodically and, generally, other news when material developments take place. This come off their websites.  Then you dig and dig from all the things which get mentioned which are material to you.  Every company has a host of things which are relevant to it and progressively less relevant to others.  Same deal with Australia.

You can get a very diversified exposure to global equities via a simple ETF, if you are keen to obtain this.  This would give you instant exposure to the global economy.  As you develop your skills, this can be replaced by your own hand-crafted portfolio.  Anyway, many paths to Rome, London, New York, Tokyo, Beijing...


----------

