I don’t see much of a difference. I thought it would have been worse. I"m doing something wrong for sure.
I think we need to be careful not to draw too many conclusions
US has dented the trust other countries have in USA - yes
US bond yields are rising - Yes
CHF is gaining versus USD - Yes
But this doesn’t equate to the fact that USD is losing reserve currency status yet. But this also doesn’t mean it wouldn’t lose that status.
In 2000 USD accounted for 71% of global currency reserves. Today the number is close to 58%. This means it’s already under slow decline over the years and if trend continues some other currency might overtake. Who knows.
Some of the US policy actions have maybe accelerated the change. Specially the one in 2022 when Dollar was weaponised against Russia. Now new administration’s style is adding to the decline but it would take many years for something else to take over
You can use SSAC.SW as a proxy for this. It’s a world ETF traded in CHF & accumulative
This eliminates the discounting of dividends that reduces the NAV of VT over time & also currency impact
52 week high is 85
Today it’s about 68 (-20%)
SSAC and VWRL for VT proxies are about -7.5% YTD in USD, -14.5% YTD in CHF, so one currency weakening while the other is strengthening is having this affect - you’d get less CHF if you were to sell now vs 10 days ago, but the absolute value of the ETF is the same in any currency, is this what you’re looking for?
Yes thank you. I use my small table where I put the cost I’ve paid that year for buying VT vs the value on the following years to see how much is growing each yearly investment. It’s in USD but I might have to do the same in CHF. In CHF would be either imprecise or boringly long to do. Either I take the FX of a specific day (31.12 ?) or I should get the FX of the day I bought them. Since it’s just to get an idea of the situation, I might do it with a single FX per year.
On a side note: if Powell get fired, should I sell all my US assets? ![]()
Every time I tried to think this through I concluded that it’s not something you can have any control over so don’t stress about it. The FX is what it is, and the more expert people here tell us that hedging - which I don’t understand how it works - doesn’t work in the long run - for reasons I don’t understand - so I say “it is what it is” and get on with life. Having assets in CHF feels better to me, but that’s just “feels”.
Right now my table is just to tell myself “yes, the 6% p.a. rule is true”. Adding CHF might show something similar. It’s just for the feelings.
The thing about Powell instead is a bit serious. I’ve seen what happened to the Turkish lira.
True, it’d mean the robust separation of powers which were part of the US’s success has eroded a lot, and economic policy cannot be trusted, which’d shake off a lot of the premium in the long term, and cause a nosedive in the short term. It’s not just economics, it’s the general erosion of the society and country when countries relapse to autocracy, Turkey is a victim, hopefully not for long though. Nobody lives forever.
Yes but…
funding costs for the US budget deficit are on the rise already, fueled by (1) trust in the US being actively undermined by arbitrary rulings, largely justified with BS arguments, on short notice (2) anticipation of less demand for US treasuries as the US trade deficit is reduced (fewer dollars seeking investment) - both the work of the current administration.
I am not saying current admin is not causing issues. Of course they are.
But we should expect USD will go down in currency reserves share to 20% next month.
And I am saying it will get painful early on the way.
Hedging currencies is unfortunately expensive for Swiss investors because of the interest rate differential. The US FED rate is at like 4.3% while the SNB rate is at 0.25%. So holding CHF bears an opportunity cost of about 4% vs holding USD. This is reflected in futures and options pricing used for hedging.
Just to be clear.
I think the evidence on hedging is inconclusive either ways.
So common wisdom is that if you hedge or not hedge and if you stick to it for long term, you will be fine. Minus costs
Apparently the combo move of US10Y yield (now 4.5. %) rising & USD falling seems to indicate foreigners are moving their money out of US.
If this continues, this might create a bull run in other geographies simply due to supply demand
As a still rookie in investing but with real skin in the game, these last weeks have been a godsend in emotional training and detachment, just glanced that the S&P500 did 1.8% yesterday, a number that’d get me excited 3-6 months ago, yet now it was “yawn”.
This is nothing. Wait for a 40% drop and a continual grind down for over a year and then you can shed your rookie stripes.
Yep, pays off that I spent a sizeable number of nights poring over the graphs from 2000 and 2008 to internalise that crashes don’t happen in a day, as many people think they do, but over months/years.
Just to make you more chill, we need to grow 25% (CHF terms) to get back to ATH. Would need multiple such yawns ![]()
Unless it’s a V shaped recovery. I guess we are set back couple of years.
Oh yeah, fully aware, and believe it or not I don’t want a quick recovery, I want more accumulation.
