Security used to be a thing of the past when investing and building up assets. Opened my passbook and slept well because the remaining interest was higher than inflation. Something reassuring. With the definitely dubious advantage that you hardly had to think for yourself.
The transition to today, when wealth accumulation is no longer possible without risk, will therefore be more difficult for those who were used to other things. The young people who are ignorant of the financial business and try their hand at the stock market, as a conspicuous number of people did this year, will not miss the savings book. But the others can also be told that there is a life after the savings account and that stocks are not the devil's stuff, as Austria's politics have propagated for decades – in my assumption because the citizens would otherwise have acted too mature and the protection provided by the omnipresent state would have needed less.
Sweden, which is so famous for its social system, shows that there is another way, where private provision has been mandatory since the 1990s, which is why people are simply more concerned with the market. “I always looked there enviously – especially when I talked to social democratic politicians,” said the late President of the Austrian Association for Private Investors, Wilhelm Rasinger, in an interview with the “press” in the spring: Sweden “has one strongly developed capital market culture ”.
Why this digression? Because there are still more years of zero interest ahead of us – in Europe as in the USA. For better or for worse, the future will require everyone to deal more with other ways of building wealth. Even the state seems to have recognized this, as it at least occasionally speaks of overdue financial education in schools.
What is driving people increasingly into riskier, but also more promising investments, namely the ultra-loose monetary policy of the central banks (and the state economic stimulus programs), is, mind you, also what will continue to support the stock markets the most. On the other hand, it will not be known for a few weeks or months whether the vaccines against the coronavirus and its mutations will fulfill all hopes placed in them and ease the burden on the economy. Accordingly, only then will the economic outlook be assessed much more appropriately.
You won't miss anything before the start of the year if you wait for a while with new commitments. But if you – while maintaining the old and eternal principle of broad diversification and longevity – sound out papers for 2021, you could take a closer look at those from the gold sector. The gold price, which has weakened somewhat since the all-time high at the beginning of August, also weighed on the shares of gold mine operators. In view of the money glut from the central banks, the increasing demand for jewelry and the declining supply of gold, the price is likely to have some upside potential. Correspondingly, industry stocks such as that of the largest producer Newmont Corporation (ISIN: US6516391066), which is quoted at the lower end of a sideways channel lasting several months. Positioning yourself there could be worthwhile. With gold prices still high and production costs low, the industry is facing some strong quarterly results.
In the long term, there could be a lot in the paper from the German battery manufacturer Varta (ISIN: DE000A0TGJ55), which is rapidly expanding its capacities, is supplying Apple with its microbatteries for headphones and has developed a product that could be used for batteries in e-cars .
The share of the German LPKF Laser (ISIN: DE0006450000) has opened up to new heights through the breakout. With a new, patented thin glass processing (LIDE), the laser specialist should compete with the more expensive silicon in displays, for example, and revolutionize the industry. Analysts see 30 to 40 percent potential for the share.
The discussion of securities and investments on this page is not a substitute for professional advice and is not to be regarded as a recommendation to buy. “Die Presse” assumes no liability for future price developments.
