Curious, why would you want to invest in Europe at all? For awhile now I've seen Europe as the past, and Asia as the future.
Asia, and then Africa
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Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#42Curious, why would you want to invest in Europe at all? For awhile now I've seen Europe as the past, and Asia as the future.
Yeah, why would you want to support your own economy rather than someone else's?
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#43Curious, why would you want to invest in Europe at all? For awhile now I've seen Europe as the past, and Asia as the future.
Yeah, why would you want to support your own economy rather than someone else's?
Your 5-7 figures are a margin of error of a margin of error (maybe a few more of these?) of a global financial market. All you are supporting is your ego.
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#44Curious, why would you want to invest in Europe at all? For awhile now I've seen Europe as the past, and Asia as the future.
Yeah, why would you want to support your own economy rather than someone else's?
I don’t think buying some stock from Euro-based companies constitutes as “supporting your own economy.”
If that’s your goal, then I’d argue buying Euro bonds would be closer to that, though many have negative interest rates at the moment.
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#45Curious, why would you want to invest in Europe at all? For awhile now I've seen Europe as the past, and Asia as the future.
Europe has a rich diversified economy with the rule of law, strong reporting etc.
Asia has economies that respect the rule of law (e.g. sg, kr, several others) but they are small. There are also some large economies (China, India) but they lack much transparency and especially in the case of China obscure manipulation and heavy government participation. Japan of course is the exception (large economy, good governance, good reporting etc) but is less of a growth prospect.
These aren't reasons to put all your money in Europe and none in Asia. I also don't mean to challenge your statement that Europe is the past and Asia the future. But there are good reasons for some people to choose to invest in Europe even if they don't live there.
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure if these are available in Europe, but Vanguard in Australia offers hedged indexes like this one https://www.vanguardinvestments.com.au/retail/ret/investment... specifically to avoid the currency exchange floating.
Vanguard doesn't really exist in Europe per se. They have a range of funds in GBP in the United Kingdom, because the retirement system there is similar to the US. That's all. There is a handful of funds in EUR through an European subsidiary, but it's laughable compared to what is available in the US and they are pretty hard to buy.
Vanguard as well as iShares (Blackrock) funds are readily available in Europe unless you are looking for niche stuff. But then there also is Xtrackers, Lyxor, HSBC, .. which offern funds based on the famous and not so famous indices.
And they not hard to buy at all.
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#47You can have a look at ETF from Amundi, Lyxor, Legal and General (UK), Vanguard EU/UK. There are three problems broadly speaking. First is the currency, American index funds are in dollars while you don't have dollars. There are a couple of index funds that are quoted in EUR/GBP, above. Second you need to find a bank that offers trading accounts and allow to buy these. It is god awful to find one. European banks are…
In general, you can ignore the currency that an index fund uses internally for reporting. You can buy A1JX52 using USD in the US or using EUR in the EU; the same as you can buy JPY using USD or EUR, whatever is more convenient for you. I don't know how the situation in general with Banks in Europe. But in Germany you will find many Banks which are convenient and offer cheap access to the stock market. Yes, they will…
US applies 15% dividend taxes then France applies income tax 0 to 30% depending on your personal situation, a part of the double taxation can be had back through tax credits in the following year. It's yet another thing for capital gains.
It's quite complicated and it's up in recent years with the government going against capital gains (i.e. rent seeking). If you invest in some European stocks instead, it can be eligible to 0% taxation on all gains.
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There's nothing that keeps non-US citizens from investing in US market ETFs. Actually, there is. Unless an ETF provider publishes key investor information documents in the format required by the EU, EU citizens are not allowed to buy those ETFs. Since 2018, I have a number of US ETFs that I can no longer buy. I have to search for alternative UCITS funds instead, which are neither as diverse nor as large.
That's not a problem for non-US citizens in general. It's a problem the EU imposes upon its own citizens.
Nothing in the parent comment was untrue.
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is outrageous that the eu is effectively blocking its citizens access to products like spyder snp500 etf which is a far cheaper and more liquid etf than what is offered on the European markets.
I'm an EU citizen and I can buy, e.g, the iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (ISIN IE0031442068) which gives me access to the S&P 500 and is as cheap as it can get.
The spy etf has better liquidity and (probably) lower costs.
Re: Ask HN: How to invest safely in Europe?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm an EU citizen and I can buy, e.g, the iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (ISIN IE0031442068) which gives me access to the S&P 500 and is as cheap as it can get.
The spy etf has better liquidity and (probably) lower costs.
Maybe the liquidity (though for a buy-and-hold retail investor the iShares has plenty) but the costs are comparably minuscule for both: <0.1% pa.