How goes your Greek Fund?

racing_blue

As part of a no-meddling drive, I made a pact not to look at my investments for 3 months. Dread to think what that Greek ETF is doing.

Ouzo, anyone?

Mistermeaner

If a tree falls in a forest and lands on a mime....

I'd keep not looking.

ps2659

ggb1979 wrote: »

If a tree falls in a forest and lands on a mime....

I'd keep not looking.

Whats a mime

bowlhead99

ps2659 wrote: »

Whats a mime

It's one of those actors who performs without making noises.

racing_blue wrote: »

As part of a no-meddling drive, I made a pact not to look at my investments for 3 months. Dread to think what that Greek ETF is doing.

Ouzo, anyone?

SPOILER ALERT

Your greek ETF is down since you bought in - but it does depend on what price you paid. As I recall, (ok, I cheated and looked back at a previous thread), you bought the Global X one in mid Feb which is the same one I bought at the beginning of that month. I paid about $11.70. At market close today it was $11.10. So only down 5% in nearly 5 months. Maybe the smart man would have taken the opportunity to sell out at what in hindsight was a temporary peak of $14 after only three weeks, but I didn't think 20% was enough reward for something that could have just as easily lost 50%+

My 5% loss would have been doubled in sterling because that's weakened 5% against the dollar too, but I bought it with spare dollars I'd been sitting on, and haven't been looking at the gbp price. Having just done the maths, it's about £7 now. So, if you paid about 50p more than me (you mentioned you paid £8.35) and it's now £7, that's hardly the end of the world. You've still got more than 80% of your £5k left, and can save the Ouzo for a week when you really need it.

This week I also added to the position a bit with a different account, buying the Lyxor ETF which trades on Paris rather than NY so different market hours. That one's priced in Euros and dipped below 1.00 briefly this week though I didn't catch that. The mid-to-late Feb peak had it very briefly at Eur 1.35, so a price around 1 (albeit with quite a spread) seemed like another fun bet.

Of course as I said on your previous thread, with all the news flying around this has to be seen as a bit of a punt rather than the serious part of my portfolio. Whereas most of your portfolio at the time was a 'bit of a punt' Do you still have your aluminium ETF or is that steadily draining your ouzo supplies too ?

tg99

I took a bit of a punt too last week but couldn't find any Greece ETFs with UK Rpting Status so did via a spread bet on the Global X fund in the end (which I don't think has it nor the Lyxor one?). Anyone come across any Greece funds that do have this status? (Quick search of the HMRC list only seems to come up with a Morea Greek Recovery Fund.)

bowlhead99

A spread bet is probably the most efficient way of doing it (if you don't have capacity in your ISA or pension allowances). I bought my Global X one unwrapped, but if it makes profits I'll likely add them to a VCT anyway at the end of the tax year.

If you're spread betting though, you might find your provider lets you just bet the index direct rather than having to try to find an ETF and bet that. IG offers Greece 25 for example, maturing third Friday of every month.

Onawingandaprayer

ps2659 wrote: »

Whats a mime

What's a mime is mime, and what's a yours is yours. Thought everyone knew that.

Kendall80

ps2659 wrote: »

Whats a mime

I'll show you...

tg99

bowlhead99 wrote: »

A spread bet is probably the most efficient way of doing it (if you don't have capacity in your ISA or pension allowances). I bought my Global X one unwrapped, but if it makes profits I'll likely add them to a VCT anyway at the end of the tax year.

If you're spread betting though, you might find your provider lets you just bet the index direct rather than having to try to find an ETF and bet that. IG offers Greece 25 for example, maturing third Friday of every month.

Yep I did look at that option on IG first off but I'm planning - all going well - on potentially holding this for more than a couple of months or so and the issue with the index is that each monthly roll is v expensive given the large spread (notwithstanding the concession you get on rollovers) so soon outweighs the benefits of the potential saving on the ETF expenses etc (as opposed to more liquid stuff like S&P 500, FTSE, Nikkei etc where roll costs v cheap given how tight spreads are). That said, as I don't want to be long Euro at present then has meant I have had to put short EUR/USD position on alongside it which wouldn't have been needed if was betting on the index. Just need a relatively positive outcome on Monday now to get the rally started!

racing_blue

The Greek Prime Minister Karolos Papoulios took a walk on the beach, and found a bottle. It was breakfast time and he hoped it was Ouzo, but instead when he rubbed the bottle a genie appeared.

"I can give you anything you wish for", said the genie. "But out of respect for Germany, whatever you wish for, I will give Angela Merkel DOUBLE."

Mr Papoulios checked the front page of the newspaper he was carrying. "Give me 226 billion Euros" he said, "and then beat me half to death."

racing_blue

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Of course as I said on your previous thread, with all the news flying around this has to be seen as a bit of a punt rather than the serious part of my portfolio. Whereas most of your portfolio at the time was a 'bit of a punt' Do you still have your aluminium ETF or is that steadily draining your ouzo supplies too ?

Ha

Yes I do still have rather a large supply of Aluminium and am in little danger of running out of virtual kitchen foil.

As you may recall, 50% of my portfolio consists of a joyous tableau of disparate punts. The other 50% is split between a world stock market tracker and cash. I'm deliciously happy with that. It perfectly balances my irrational need to make a smorgasbord of dubious and potentially self-impoverishing investments, with my more pragmatic need to actually have some money in the future.

It took me quite a few years to get to this point. But now I can look at my asset allocation and say "Ha!" in the face of whatever misfortune. Greek crisis? Ha! Commodities crash? Ha! Global conflicts? Ha! (Actually I wouldn't say those things out loud, but you get my drift)

Since finding this Zen-like inner harmony, I have been trying hard to slow things down. So I have not checked my portfolio since 31st March, and am due to check it in 9 days time. Will report back then, spoilers notwithstanding. I have however made a couple of punts in the last three months. One was in the Greek shipping company Hellenic Carriers, just 2% of portfolio, what could go wrong.