President Putin’s arrest of the richest man in Russia has provoked a free fall on the Moscow stock exchange…and something like this spell opportunity to me! I’m wondering how an American can purchase Russian securities…take the Russian oil firm Yukoil for example…if there are no American traded ADRS, can you locate a broker in Russia to purchase shares for you? How do you hold them?
Anybody have experience in trading Russian stocks? This could be the opportunity of a lifetime…getting in on the birth of one of the world’s largets economies…or it could also be a dangerous trap.
Any opinions as to the future of Russian stocks as an investment?
If they’re not listed on the NYSE I wouldn’t bother with them. You never know what kind of regulatory problems you can get into trading “overseas” stock markets. I would put Russian stocks pretty low on my list of foreign stocks to invest in. After working with several Russian refugees, it seems to me the Russian government and Russian businesses change their rules daily as they see fit. YMMV.
Here’s a biased scenario for you. You send 10 grand to the Russian broker. Your money is taken and “invested”. Every time you try to contact the broker you get an answering machine. When you finally do get through, he tells you unfortunately all your money was lost and your investment is now worthless. And your recourse is?