Indexed funds

[jjbinks]

Hi,

I'm someone who atm subscribes to efficient market hypothesis, after reading 4 pillars of investing by bernstein.
I think more recent reading on the internet suggests that the hypothesis is incorrect but I still feel its difficult if not impossible to beat the market especially at my level.

Because of this and also because i don't have enough funds (starting with $5000 to get used to trading). I'm thinking of buying etf's.

The two I'm looking at are

VAS - australian stocks --> i'll be guaranteed to more or less keep up with the market.
VTS - us top stocks --> more risk involved because of currency but greater potential of growth as US currency is bound to rebound.

The investments would be long term with no intention to sell until (maybe retirement) in 40+ years. At this stage I'm tempted to put $5000 in VTS but am not sure whether this is too risky. Also vts has gone up alot recently so am not sure if it is overvalued at the moment.
Should I be considering some other ETF instead of VAS if i'm interested in aussie stocks.

 

[ROE]

Hi,

I'm someone who atm subscribes to efficient market hypothesis, after reading 4 pillars of investing by bernstein.
I think more recent reading on the internet suggests that the hypothesis is incorrect but I still feel its difficult if not impossible to beat the market especially at my level.

Because of this and also because i don't have enough funds (starting with $5000 to get used to trading). I'm thinking of buying etf's.

The two I'm looking at are

VAS - australian stocks --> i'll be guaranteed to more or less keep up with the market.
VTS - us top stocks --> more risk involved because of currency but greater potential of growth as US currency is bound to rebound.

The investments would be long term with no intention to sell until (maybe retirement) in 40+ years. At this stage I'm tempted to put $5000 in VTS but am not sure whether this is too risky. Also vts has gone up alot recently so am not sure if it is overvalued at the moment.
Should I be considering some other ETF instead of VAS if i'm interested in aussie stocks.

The other way is do a bit of research ... Find 2-3 business you like with rock solid fundamentals
And split money three ways .....that way you sort out 50% of the bad stocks in the index and you should outperform

To out perform you dont need to pick super star stocks but sort out bad stocks you dont want to put a dim in -

 

[jjbinks]

well in the end i bought two etf funds (vts and arg) and am slowly researching other companies which may be good buys. I know arg isn't indexed but seems to have a good selection of stocks and is reasonably priced. With vts I think there is good potential for the US stockmarket to continue to improve aswell as the USD to strengthen which would increase its value.

I also, bought some SHL. It seems like a reliable business, with potential for growth internationally. Currently it is probably overpriced but I will continue to monitor it and buy more if the price drops further.

 

[chops_a_must]

Good stuff.

The big advantages ETFs have is during big downturns.

If individual stocks don't suit your risk, you can buy an index etf knowing it isn't going to go to zero, but might be yielding a fair clip. And over the long term, they will recover etc.

I bought stw during the crisis, and was glad I did. Also good if you want to start trading indexes on a longer term basis, with a directional bias.