How to BREXIT-proof my portfolio?

Filo25

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

I think Corbyn-proofing is more critical. God knows how though - 0% UK Exposure, 100% non-UK Equity perhaps???

I do agree on that, but I think there is a linkage there, a disastrous delivery of Brexit from the current government makes a Corbyn election win all the more likely.

MiserlyMartin

IanManc wrote: »

And for each sector the forecasts before the Brexit vote about what would happen after the vote if the country voted to leave have been shown to be completely wrong.

I suggest that you stop reading forecasts.

I agree, especially politically biased incorrect ones as these turned out to be

MiserlyMartin

dividendhero wrote: »

KFC franchises - all that lovely chlorinated chicken that UK will be forced to import from America

Builders - the likes of Nissan & Toyota's car plants will be demolished to make way for retail parks selling imported goods.

Rickshaws - Young people will need to lease rickshaws so they can peddle Chinese tourists around.

Properties straddling Irish border as Ireland becomes smugglers paradise

More scaremongering. And anyway, there is chlorine in our water. We already wash food in it. Chlorine is a good germ killer.

brasso

ermine wrote: »

Sure, an internationally diversified portfolio insures you well against any individual country's act of self-harm, but you needed to have bought that that before your Great British Pounds descended to 80% of their value before the referendum.

All you can do now is hope and pray that the pied pipers were right and they will Make Britain Great again, like it used to be in 1973 before we joined the nasty EEC and we all went to pot. Listen to blowhards like John Redwood and play some stirring music from the 1950s and hope that's the sort of thing that will happen.

Thanks -- when I read hysterical stuff like that, I'm reassured that I was right to vote for the UK to leave the EU.

Despite your reference to "the nasty EEC", many if not most Brexit voters were perfectly happy with the EEC, or old Common Market. It was the later treaties, and the parliament, the single currency, the growing judicial superiority, the move towards a unified superstate, and the Enlargement to 28, that made many pro-EEC people like me have severe doubts about the direction of travel.

I've no desire at all to 'return to the 1950s' despite people like you telling me that this was why I voted Leave. In EU terms, I'd be happy to revert to the 90s though, when we were a collection of cooperative but independent nation states.

blue_eyes

brasso wrote: »

In EU terms, I'd be happy to revert to the 90s though, when we were a collection of cooperative but independent nation states.

Then I’m surprised you’re ok with the decade of the Maastricht Treaty agreed in 1991 voted into law in 1993 that created the EU, and added amongst other things the Justice remit and freedom of movement of EU citizens, and defined European Monetary Union, if I am not mistaken.

blue_eyes

To get this slightly back on topic, how do others consider/calculate their exposure to markets?

As is often said, the FTSE100 esp top ten is more world than uk focussed anyway. The easy way of course is to define by stock market itself in terms of asset allocation exposure, in which case I’m running at around 20% uk. Yes way above the 5-6% of the world index.

But if I’m invested via a UK market, for example in an African company which wholly does business on that continent, then currency risk aside is that not perhaps even less at risk to Brexit than actually investing in European stocks who sell to the uk?

Sapphire

blue_eyes wrote: »

Then I’m surprised you’re ok with the decade of the Maastricht Treaty agreed in 1991 voted into law in 1993 that created the EU, and added amongst other things the Justice remit and freedom of movement of EU citizens, and defined European Monetary Union, if I am not mistaken.

Who voted it into law? I certainly didn't (I was never asked), and neither did the rest of the electorate, as far as I know (or perhaps there was a vote and I missed it). First chance I got, I voted leave.

Would have been fine with a purely economic organisation, created for trade purposes, i.e. the Common Market, but am certainly not fine with a corrupt European superstate directed by unelected spivs like Junker and the ugly Belgian fanatic. And one size will never fit all the disparate nations of Europe.

ermine

blue_eyes wrote: »

To get this slightly back on topic, how do others consider/calculate their exposure to markets?

As is often said, the FTSE100 esp top ten is more world than uk focussed anyway. The easy way of course is to define by stock market itself in terms of asset allocation exposure, in which case I’m running at around 20% uk. Yes way above the 5-6% of the world index.

About 70% of the earnings of the FTSE100 are earned outside the UK, so I guess you could scale down your FTSE100 UK exposure by ~70%. TD Direct had a portfolio x-ray function which could do this by taking the underlying components into account; I do it manually in my spreadsheet of the portfolio with a set of columns for geographic spread, though I simply allocated the remaining 70% of the FTSE100 across US, EUxUK and Asiapac, as a general guess, with 30% allocated to the UK despite the asset being VUKE (FTSE100 index fund).

Much of the illusory rise in the FTSE100 is due to the drop in the GBP, I am grateful for the rise. If I am unlucky enough to be in a country where a sliver over over 50% voted to economically shoot ourselves in the foot IMO then at least holding foreign assets false-flagged as UK assets saved this part of my assets from that black swan moment.

Since then I bought some IGWD (world eqities hedged to GBP) with my increasingly worthless Great British Pounds in the hope that Redwood, Boris and the bodacious bucaneering brexiteers turn out to be right and once we have gotten rid of the deadweight of the EUSSR our Imperial glory will soar.

In that case the foreigners shunning the GBP will rue their lack of faith as it finds its true outstanding value reflected on the world markets as a worthy reflection of independent UK's fiscal probity and dynamic economy, a bit like the Deutschemark of old. I can drink the Brexit Kool-aid and dream on.. One should always have something placed on t'other side of one's convictions, sometimes they might actually be right. That and foreign assets lets me play both ends.

BananaRepublic

dividendhero wrote: »

KFC franchises - all that lovely chlorinated chicken that UK will be forced to import from America

Builders - the likes of Nissan & Toyota's car plants will be demolished to make way for retail parks selling imported goods.

Rickshaws - Young people will need to lease rickshaws so they can peddle Chinese tourists around.

Properties straddling Irish border as Ireland becomes smugglers paradise

Invest in companies providing counselling for remain voters who will have a mental breakdown once Brexit has been shown to be a success.

If the economy collapses, tourism will boom as foreigners visit for cheap hols. Your European investments will be worth more. If the economy grows, your UK investments will be worth more, your European investments will be worth less due to a strong pound. So, spread your investments, and save some for some nice beer, so whatever happens you'll be smiling.

BananaRepublic

Sapphire wrote: »

Who voted it into law? I certainly didn't (I was never asked), and neither did the rest of the electorate, as far as I know (or perhaps there was a vote and I missed it). First chance I got, I voted leave.

Would have been fine with a purely economic organisation, created for trade purposes, i.e. the Common Market, but am certainly not fine with a corrupt European superstate directed by unelected spivs like Junker and the ugly Belgian fanatic. And one size will never fit all the disparate nations of Europe.

I wasn't able to vote in 1975, too young. I am sure a lot of people share your views. If only they'd keep it as a trading block, then we'd be happy to stay.