Everyone is worried about what happens next to the Suez Canal. The owner of the ship, Shouei Kisen, is located in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. I am worried that compensation payments will be enormous, and the chances are that some insurance companies could blow up.
Besides, in connection with Archegos fund’s blowup, Nomura and Mitsubishi warned of possible losses of $2 billion and $300 million, respectively.
Both problems could spread systemically. So I needed to protect my portfolio. But how?
Ray Dalio said last week that it is crucial to diversify your portfolio in terms of currency and country.
So I looked for a country and a currency that I haven’t tried yet. And I came up with the idea of investing in Russia.
In Japan, through the SBI Securities account, I can choose from 31 stocks. I took a quick look at the list, and the name Rosneft struck me because one of the company’s directors is Gerhard Schroeder.
On December 4th, 2013, the former German Prime Minister came to Japan to lecture on the reforms that led to the German economy’s revival. I attended that lecture and had a short conversation with him at the party after the lecture. In 2017, he became the director of Rosneft. So the name was familiar to me.
I took a look at Rosneft on Bloomberg and found that the company’s dividend is over 6%!
https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/ROSN:RM
Among companies listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange, only several stocks have over 6% dividend. So I was really impressed with Rosneft and decided to buy it.
To buy Russian stocks, you have to buy ruble (RUB) first. To buy ruble, first, place an order. The order will then be transferred to the Russian market the next business day and filled at the current rate. Today I place an order to buy 350 thousand rubles and wait until tomorrow to buy RUB. That’s all for now!