Investing shares and HSI

[nucleus888]

What's the minimum amount I need to spend to invest some money into the HSI or shares?

I am clueless ... Just need some advice or pointers
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[PDLM]

Shares in HK are generally sold in "lots". You can buy them individually, but it is hard to do, and expensive, so don't.

The lot size of the Tracker Fund (the best way to buy into the HSI as a whole) is 500, and the current price is $20.05, so you would need just over HK$10,000 to buy one lot. In addition to the prices of the shares you have to pay brokerage fees and some small taxes, which generally add up to about 0.4-0.5%, although for small trades the percentage can be higher if your broker has a minimum fee (for example a $100 minimum fee would be 1% of a $10,000 trade).

[nucleus888]

So say for example an investment of say $100,000 ... what am I expected in return after 1 year?

Do I keep track of the Hang Seng Index on a weekly basis?
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[PDLM]

You could gain 50% or lose 50%, or more - it all depends on what the share price does. I've had shares triple or more in price within weeks, but I've had others which have become worthless more or less overnight. You can keep track of the index as often as you want. Get real time quotes may cost a little but sites like Google Finance let you see stocks and their histories, with prices delayed by 15-20 minutes.

[nucleus888]

What's the share name for HSI?
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[shri]

Tracker Fund of Hong Kong

[PDLM]

Or on Google finance just use its share code of 2800.

[hk.com]

I've never invested in the hk stocks. Is now a good time to invest in view that we have a property bubble that is mean to pop any minute now?

If so what would one invest in?

[newsense]

What's the minimum amount I need to spend to invest some money into the HSI or shares?

I am clueless ... Just need some advice or pointers
Posted via Mobile Device

Nucleus, if you really are clueless I would suggest getting some professional advice before jumping in to anything. Shares can be a risky business (especially at the moment) and you have the potential to lose a lot of money. That's not to say that you will, you may find make a lot, but it's important to be aware of the risks.

HSI would probably be better suited to you than individual shares, but depending how much you have to invest, you might also want to consider something like a unit trust or mutual fund. These allow you to invest a certain amount of money which is then pooled with many other investors, and a professional fund manager invests all the money on your behalf. Fees will likely be higher than with personal investing, but it makes life a lot easier if you are not an experienced investor and potentially you could earn better returns (althoug bear in mind there is no guarantee of that).

[PDLM]

Personally I would never recommend unit trusts or mutual funds - they almost all underperform the indexes they try to track and a significant proportion of your money goes to the fund managers and as commission.

For investing generally in Hong Kong you can't beat the Tracker Fund in my opinion - it even pays dividends as if you heldd the underlying shares (which many mutual funds do not).