Author Topic: Investing Newsletter in Europe  (Read 3149 times)

Closetoretirement

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Investing Newsletter in Europe
« on: July 21, 2015, 07:16:42 AM »
Hello fellow mustachians,

Retirement is coming and I plan to spend a significant part of my time in Europe and USA. I currently live in Canada. To make sure I can afford to do so, I decided a while back to buy american stocks in american dollars so that now I receive dividends in US dollars on top of my dividends in CAD dollars. I now want to invest money in the european stock market to receive dividends in euros. For the canadian and american markets, I use a canadian broker and I selects stocks with Morning Star and the newsletter from Investment Reporter. I would like to get your feedback regarding investing newsletters like Investment Reporter published for european companies. Any advice with this? I plan to use TD Global Trading to buy stocks on the european market. Thanks for your help.

brainfart

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Re: Investing Newsletter in Europe
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2015, 10:17:57 AM »
You are actually betting on the Euro to rise against the other currencies.

This scheme totally sounds like a tax nightmare to me. Just buy an index fund covering Europe in your home currency, or better yet diversify your investments globally, receive dividends and exchange the money into another currency when you need it.

> Investing Newsletter in Europe

So you are into investment porn? I thought people here avoid it like the plague?

Closetoretirement

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Re: Investing Newsletter in Europe
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2015, 11:27:21 AM »
Since the value of the canadian dollar is highly correlated with oil price, that we have no idea how oil price is going to evolve and that I am going to use euros, I want to diversify my currencies.

samuck

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Re: Investing Newsletter in Europe
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2015, 12:49:12 PM »

jaizan

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Re: Investing Newsletter in Europe
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2015, 01:54:24 PM »
Firstly, congratulations on recognising that you can reduce your exchange rate risk by investing money in the same currencies you expect to spend it in.   

I find it astonishing that other people retire abroad, then invest nothing in their destination country and spend the whole time fretting about exchange rates. 

As for brokers, I used to utilise a TD Direct account in the UK to buy overseas stocks.   
I am no longer happy with their  charges, so try to route the business to another broker. They increased charges so I now pay 2% on exchange rates.   So I lose 2% when buying and 2% when converting back.    Not only that, if I have $20,000 converted to HKD (say), they only allow me to spend 90% of it in one trade, in case there are exchange rate fluctuations.   They ignore the fact my total account would cover any liabilities many times over.  If the US arm is as bad as this, I suggest you look elsewhere.   You need to target less than a 1% loss on exchange rates.

A lot of my overseas holdings are in Investment Trusts (closed end investment company).   LSE:JEO has a very good long term track record.   I presume you have some similar options listed in the US.   

« Last Edit: July 22, 2015, 01:57:10 PM by jaizan »

Closetoretirement

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Re: Investing Newsletter in Europe
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2015, 03:57:44 PM »
Thanks for this info. I will contact TD to verify the charges. I do not plan to exchange euros with them though as I already bought a large amount to reduce the fees. I will just have the euros I already possess transfered in the trading account. Since you're in the UK, do you know any good investment newsletter that you would recommend?

jaizan

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Re: Investing Newsletter in Europe
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2015, 10:40:12 AM »
I cannot think of any European Investing Newsletter that I would recommend.  I have seen a few that I quickly dismissed. There are a lot of newsletters written by journalists who are paid to write something every week, but reading their material does not improve my investment process.  I like to read and learn from people who know what they are doing.

For the UK market, Paul Scott's small cap blog on Stockopedia is good.   However, if you want Eurozone exposure, that is no use.

When I invest in the Eurozone, I either:
1 Pick well known large caps on a low PE ratio.  Such as Muenchener Ruckerversicherung  (think Berkshire have a holding in that as well).
OR
2  Buy into investment trusts where the manager has been around a long time and built up a terrific track record.   For example, Jupiter European Opportunities.  I don't expect to do any better Mr Darwall does there.

Closetoretirement

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Re: Investing Newsletter in Europe
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2015, 03:10:24 PM »
Thanks!