Investing in your home country or Singapore?

[revhappy]

Hi Guys,

As the title says, I would like to know the views of expats on investing here vs your home country.

As I am from India, the whole of last year I kept transferring money to India to benefit from the stock market rise there. And it has worked out good so far. But I have learnt that the Strait times index has grown 65% over last year! Pretty impressive. I would like to diversify and invest here as well.

Has anybody invested in unit trusts here and could you share your views?

Cheers,
Revhappy

[nakatago]

Sound interesting. I would like to learn more about investing in Singapore but PLEASE, nobody post about selling special software or making us attend their expensive seminars or what-have-you

[sundaymorningstaple]

It's okay. I'm pretty good at spotting 'em and cannin' 'em!

[carteki]

Any investment decision needs to be made for the right reasons. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned "diversify". It doesn't have to be in Singapore, but diversification is a cornerstone to any good portfolio.

I'm in a similar situation to you. I come from South Africa which is an emerging market economy where I am used to sky high returns (to counteract the inherent risk in the economy), so leaving my money in a bank account where it earns 0.00001% interest in SG seems just wrong. In comparison to other non-South African non-Emerging Market investors I am very comfortable with the level of risk (its normal and I don't really know anything else about it) in Emerging markets, but it is quite a challenge to try and diversify my investments in an economy that I don't know that well, in companies I don't know that well and with rules and regulations that are different even though the fundamental reason is correct - diversification of risk.

All stock markets sky-rocketed before Oct 08. The question to me is which ones weathered the storm better (ie fell the least) and where the good fundamentals are. Investing in Singapore is attractive because you are familiar with the environment, but that may not make it the best place to invest.

[aster]

If I'm not mistaken you can invest in US stocks from Singapore without paying any capital gains taxes either in the US or here. This is quite a plus as usually when you invest in markets where CGT applies then non-resident investors also have to pay it in one form or another. If I'm wrong about this then someone please correct me...

[ksl]

"diversify". It doesn't have to be in Singapore, but diversification is a cornerstone to any good portfolio.

Only for those that don't know what they are doing! Risk maybe minimised for the uncertain professional financial advisor, after all it's your money.

A person that is clued up on a specific industry, has more opportunity to make a killing especially in high tech markets. Just take a look at the Taiwan market http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5ET ... I;range=1y

I don't diversify, simply because the inventories around the world have run out in the electronics industry, I take the cream and then leave it with specific hi tech companies that are focused on growth, but in the same industry having the leading edge knowledge in what you are investing in is more important, than spreading your bets. Again it's different strategies for different folk!

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=3034 ... W;range=2y

This little baby above is what I'm talking about, and buying at the right time, on knee jerk reactions.

If you read all the news everyone is blaming Obama for the drop this week, which is not really the case in my eyes at all, what is happening around the world is a consolidation of the markets for the next run, which will take us through June and July the T/A is pretty convincing at the moment if Taiwan market drops below 7753, that would be a signal for me to sell off to keep the cream and wait and see how far it drops!

One minimises risk by home work, not by handing your money to a 3rd party investment vehicle, that only follows the norm of panic selling

I agree that one should diversify if one doesn't really know the industries well enough to make, the kind of decisions that are needed! I have more than recouped any negatives i had in my portfolio, because i averaged down after the economy crashed in sound fast growth companies which move on supply and demand and there hasn't been any supply at all, after the crash, so all inventories dried up and this year will see the restocking in my opinion.

For Singapore I use http://www.poems.sg/