What Index in Europe?

[bortasz]

My First post :] Hello everybody :) I want ask you for advice.

What Index chose in Europe?

I'm come from Poland, but I don't trust anything that come from Warsaw( Our stock is there and our Politicians).
The Switzerland is nice, avoiding most of wars and don't have Euro.

I'm very green in this so pleas help me.

Thank you in advance.

[Joet]

There's a million ways to slice it, but I'll just throw this one out there:

FTSE Developed Europe Index

[cerberusss]

In The Netherlands, Vanguard is available through multiple online banks. Aren't there online banks available in Poland? If so, just check on their website which funds are available.

[bortasz]

In Poland we have online Banks. But I don't want invest in Poland. That's why I ask about index in rest of Europe. Do you know witch one is the best?

[pom]

Hi Bortasz,

I think that what Cerberusss is talking about is that you should check with your bank what non-polish funds they can offer you. Maybe they have a good selection, maybe not.

Do you have a stock broker? If yes, in what stockmarket are you able to buy? Can you buy stocks on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange? How about Paris or London?

My point is that I can tell you what I buy but you need to check if you can buy on the Paris Stock Exchange first.

Let us know, I am sure that we can find a few options for you.

[bortasz]

I have two banks.
Raiffeisen Polbank and BZ WBK.

http://dmbzwbk.pl/dm-bzwbk.html
https://r-brokers.pl/

I don't have stock broker, and I'm really green in this subject. I have some Saving (2 500 euro) and want them to start working for me...

[pom]

Thanks,

I couldn't find the info on Raiffeisen but on BZ it seems to me that you have access to the following markets: Austria, Belgium, France, Holland, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Italy, Swiss, Great Britain, Hungary, USA

So that gives you quite a bit of options. I personally use the Lyxor ETFs (which is owned by Societe Generale), others prefer iShare (which is owned by blackrock) and others prefer Vanguard.

When you chose you want to check the following, in order of importance:

- Select the geographic area that you want to invest in : US, Europe, Asia, World ...
- Fees : good etfs have fees under 0.25%, anything over 0.5% is usually bad. The lower the better.
- Fund Total Asset Value : you want to make sure that the fund is not too small, otherwise not enough people trade it. Personally I think 100 million euros is the minimum and above 1 billion euros is good.
- You can look at average daily volume to make sure that it is traded often. The higer it is, the better.


Assuming that you want to invest in the World, some options are:

Lyxor ETF MSCI World
http://www.lyxoretf.fr/homefr/products/country/FR/product/FD-LYX-MSIWO/
Ticker: WLD on the Paris stock exchange
Fees: 0.45%
Total asset value: 650 million euros
Average trading volume: 3 million euros

Vanguard Total World Stock ETF
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=3141&FundIntExt=INT
Ticker: VT on the New York stock exchange
Fees: 0.19%
Total asset value: 3 000 million dollars
Average trading volume: 14 million dollars


iShare MSCI ACWI Index Fund
http://us.ishares.com/product_info/fund/overview/ACWI.htm
Ticker: ACWI on the Nasdaq
Fees: 0.34%
Total asset value: 4 000 million dollars
Average trading volume: 48 million dollars

All three are decent options, although from the numbers above, the vanguard fund is the best.

I hope this helps.

[Wolfsheim]

Well, next to personal distrust in the Polonian market, there are good reasons to invest long-term. Poland is a strong emerging economy and historically over 10 yrs. the WIG 20 has delivered positive returns. However, it remains an emerging market and that means more volatility.

To invest, I would recommend a large blue-chip index such as the German DAX, the mid-cap M-DAX, where most of the German hidden world market leaders are listed. Also you might try the FTSE and the Dow Jones as a reference index. Personally, I wouldnt recommend the French index (too small market and strange politics) or any Southern European indices (still to much economical problems).

[bortasz]

Thanks for all Responses. :)

Can you also told me about dividend? Does is good option to invest money in action for dividend? How manage such think?

[pom]

Hi Bortasz,

Many companies pay part of their profits every year to the shareholders in the form of dividends. When you own a stock that pays a dividend, you should receive deposits in your account every year (some companies pay one time a year, other two times a year and most of them pay 4 times a year).

Many companies give you the choice to receive the dividends in cash or to buy more shares with the dividends.

[bortasz]

Does exist any guidelines how to chose best company for dividends? Does Switzerland firms are good place to find dividends?

[pom]

It is difficult to find the best companies for dividends, some companies that have good dividends now can reduce them later. The best way I think for you is to just buy everything. For exemple, if you like Switzerland, just buy an ETF with all of the companies in Switzerland. ishare has a Swiss ETF :


http://us.ishares.com/product_info/fund/overview/EWL.htm

The fees are 0.50% which is a little bit high but not too bad. The symbol on the New York Stock Exchange is "EWL". It is in US dollar, I don't think there is one in Euros.

Switzerland is ok, it pays in average 3% in dividends, so after 0.50% fee you should get approximately 2.50% dividend.

[Marmot]

Regarding investing in ETFs, I'd try to find ones that are denominated in Euros instead of dollars. I would imagine the Zloty tracks the Euro closer than it does the dollar; plus I think part of the expectation of being a member in the EU is that the country will eventually switch to the Euro (though with all of the trouble lately with Spain, Greece, Italy, etc; not sure why they would want to).

Also, I'd recommend only picking ETFs that are frequently traded (kind of a pain if it does not have much liquidity).