How to make the best out of the BizNews Share Portfolio – a chat with Barry van Zyl

I'm Alec Hogg from BizNews.com, chatting to musician and friend Barry van Zyl. When we launched the BizNews Share Portfolio in December 2014, I had little idea of the fascinating journey that it would take us on. The idea was sparked by a conversation with Standard Bank online shared tradings head Brett Duncan, who was looking for innovative ways to launch his operation's new Webtrader product. The portfolio was always meant to be a model rather than a product into which money could be injected and then forgotten and we agreed that we'd update it monthly in a webinar, which in those times was quite novel so that those investing could hopefully earn while they learned. As we approach the sixth anniversary of the BizNews Share Portfolio, the performance has been spectacular.

We've had compound annual growth of over 20% in US dollar terms and 30% in Rand. Some of those early investments have done incredibly well, particularly Amazon, which has delivered an almost tenfold return in those six years. That brings a new dilemma, particularly for those who want to jump aboard today. Among them is my friend Barry van Zyl, he's a Henley MBA and a world-class musician who for decades was the drummer in the late Johnny Clegg's band. Barry is new to offshore investing, but he wants to start soonest. When he looked at the portfolio, though, he wasn't sure how he would be able to replicate it, given the different changes that have occurred in the weightings over the years. He asked me how and with his permission, we recorded this conversation, which helps him and others in the same position to see how to make the best out of the BizNews Share Portfolio and its monthly webinar updates.

Firstly, thanks for the intro to Webtrader. They've been very helpful, very patient with me. I'm probably, possibly not at the investment level they are used to. I don't know what kind of investment level they usually deal with, but it doesn't seem to be a base entry, it seems to be like EasyEquity, pretty much anybody can jump on board. The one thing I found was that the Webtrader website, in the demo account that you can play with is perhaps a little bit daunting for a newcomer like me. I'm determined to get my head around it and to figure it out but the easy equities model is much more user-friendly and intuitive and I guess it was designed that way, for people with very little investment experience. Right up front, I found the Webtrader interface a little bit difficult to get my head around, but I'm getting better.

It might also have something to do with the partnership they've got with Saxo Bank. It is a global partnership and they also have every stock exchange on there whereas Easy only have a number of shares. Easy also designed it for retail investors and fractional share purchases and they've done a fantastic job. Whereas Standard Bank and Saxo Bank as a partner are a little bit more upmarket. From even before they launched these… that the philosophy always was that they want to keep it open to everybody and then grow with them.

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