I have been slowly building a long-term investment share portfolio for some time now. While I read as much as I can about investment strategies, I have simply adopted an incremental 'learning from doing' approach to investing. It has become increasingly evident to me that I cannot pre-empt - with any degree of confidence - the effects of these continuous global, regional and national upheavals on my share portfolio, simply because in most instances there seems to be no clear logic to, or consistency in, the market response to these changes. I have traded in many of the blue chip 'darlings', and taken punts on 'dogs' with potential - they sometimes go spectacularly up, sometimes precipitously down, but most just seem to bumble along oblivious to the 'market forces' that economists keep shouting about (including EWC). Over time I have got rid of all my individual company shares (too stressful to see the 'bouncing effects'), and have now moved all my money into ETFs (STX40, SYGUS, STX500, SYGWD, SATRIXIND), along with one or two large companies with regional/global footprints (such as ANH). I have found that while this rebalanced portfolio does not give me spectacular returns, it does remove the constant stress of the big market moves asociated with individual shares whenever one or other market is hit with the effects of 'dumb politics' (whether its SA, UK, US or other). Now, even where there is a big impact on one ETF (e.g. STX40), the others typically offset and soften the collective blow. I would say that, over the last 2 years now, my share portfolio has constantly grown, albeit modestly (but far more that CPI), and I stop caring about all the political machinations because they are just short-term 'noise'. All I have to do now is just focus on growing my portfolio with spare cash (increasingly scarce by the day). So yes, in principle I agree with you, but suggest you rather mix it up a little with the ETF portfolio, instead of locking into one. Forget trying to second-guess the individual JSE-listed shares. I have no idea if this helps, or is even sensible, but it (at least for now) works for me.
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