With offshore investing becoming an increasingly important aspect of wealth building for South Africans, one of the most common questions we receive is whether you can buy offshore Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) through local stockbrokers.
The main considerations here are:
- ETFs are popular with investors as they reduce concentration risk and mean you don’t have to pick your own shares
- You can target specific indexes, sectors or themes
- They offer a Hedge against a weaker Rand
The short answer is “Yes” – investors can access offshore shares through South African brokers but which broker you choose, may influence the type of ETFs.
- In terms of the local issuers, Sygnia, Ashburton, 1Invest, Satrix and Coreshares all offer you the option of buying local ETFs through your stockbroker and you can target a couple of themes including 4IR, High Dividend, Global Property, Technology (Nasdaq) and broad-based MSCI World baskets.
- Retail investors could add a US Dollar account to their EasyEquities portfolio which allows access to the likes of Powershares, Vanguard, iShares, SPDR Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). This is arguably the cheapest way for an entry-level investor to get some offshore access as you can also supplement with a few of the listed international shares (Ferrari, Tesla etc.)
If you are looking for more specific market opportunities – EG Cannabis, Russia, geared ETFs etc. then you might need to look at going through a platform such as Saxo, which is offered by a number of SA stockbrokers. Saxo gives access to over 19 000 stocks worldwide (including ETFs) over 36 different exchanges.
If you would like somebody to assist you in setting up a Saxo stockbroking account, please complete the form below and a licensed FSP will contact you:
