Is your share portfolio a dud?
It takes a while for investors to cotton onto the fact that investment booms are happening every day – somewhere around the world. By the time the last property boom had run out of puff in Australia, the commodities bull was well into the swing of things and canny investors had already smelt out profits…
Does the strategy to buy and hold really work?
One of the most straightforward sharemarket investment strategies is ‘buy-and-hold’ investing, where you simply buy a portfolio of stocks and hold them for the long term. If you stay in the market long enough, the theory goes, you minimise the risk that your portfolio may lose its value and you allow compounding to get to…
How Australia’s wealthiest investors are navigating the financial crisis
High net worth individuals are cashed up, debt free and waiting for opportunities. But they are in no hurry to rush back into buying equities, say advisers to people with millions to invest. Paul Huggins, director of RetireInvest, Melbourne has clients telling him it is a good time to go on holiday and not look…
Yes, you can buy stocks in China
Yes, Aussie punters can buy stocks in China, but it isn’t easy. The Chinese government restricts investment by foreigners but it is possible to trade some Chinese shares through accredited global brokers with offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen as well as via Hong Kong stockbrokers. The mainland China markets have fallen over 40% since their…
Starting a share portfolio from scratch
Many newcomers to share investing spend a couple of agonising months tossing up which stocks to buy, and after taking the plunge into their first share purchase begin snatching up stocks at an increasing rate. Stock picking is where the action is, and the consumer in us is compelled to buy up big and fast….
Why every stock picker should know about ETFs
If there is an investment product that is benefiting from the turbulent times, it is exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are burgeoning in number, and capitalisation. From $1 billion in market size in 1995, ETFs have grown to a $760 billion market around the world, with about 1500 ETFs trading worldwide. An ETF is a stock…
Gerry Harvey reveals his personal investment portfolio
Billionaire Gerry Harvey is licking his financial wounds because of the sharemarket crash. He’s a big equity holder and quickly calculates that Harvey Norman’s retreating share price during the past 12 months has stripped more than a $1 billion from his immense wealth. But we’ll chat more about that later. Harvey is chairman of an…
