Stock Market & Brexit

[LooseCannon101]

Keeping most of one's assets in foreign equities means that you don't have to worry about Brexit, the value of the pound, the UK's economic growth,...etc.

In my opinion, the current depressed UK stockmarket will be seen, with hindsight, as a great time to buy UK shares.

[gryffron]

Important to remember that article 50 removes us from all treaties including those with which we trade with other countries and not just the EU. We will not get a deal on those, we will lose ability to trade without friction with 60 other countries outside the EU. Huge loss of earning for exporters.

I don't think for a moment that no deal = no trade. I think that is nonsense. It will take no time at all to agree fallback WTO deals.

But EVEN if you are right, it is still wrong to equate UK investing with UK trade. Somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of FTSE100 earnings (depending who you listen to) are from overseas. That's not UK exports, it is FTSE listed companies doing their business completely overseas.

So EVEN if all UK trade ceases (which it won't), that would be disastrous for sterling and thus boost FTSE100 hugely.

It is actually quite hard to come up with stock picks which are ONLY Britain. Because so many companies are so multinational. You'd have to very selectively pick companies which rely only on UK markets. Which does mean it is quite hard to back "soft" brexit, and thus rising sterling, if that's what you think will happen. I guess you'd just need to put your pounds in the bank. Rather perversely, I see the vast majority of stocks (British and foreign) would take quite a hit from soft brexit.
In fact, it would be quite an exercise to try and find some. Maybe I'll start another thread for that.

Gryff