ICEFIC
(preliminary thoughts)
Since many years investment clubs are quite common. But with the
globalization and millions of internet users it should be possible to form a
real club with members of different countries. As my favourite interest is closed-end
funds (CEFs) and most investors interested in CEFs are American it seems to
make a lot of sense to take the common regulations of US-clubs and adopt it to
the special needs of a club making intensive use of the internet. Members for
instance will not meet in person but could discuss the investmentpolicy for
instance in a chatroom. Depending how people are equipped even a
video-conference should be a possibility.
What is needed:
Three or more founding members
An account at an Internet-Broker
( I prefer DATEK but would appreciate a broker who also is able to trade in the
Investment Trusts listed in London or elsewhere)
A residence for jurisdictical reasons –why should it not be
possible to choose a tax heaven like the Bahamas, Bermudas
One ore more places in the internet to discuss topics and present
material that is of interest to any member (a Yahoo-club would be easy and a
forum like the one at ICEFI should be easy to make as it is based on the
freeware of … I would be able to provide room on my homepage feix.net or
another homepage I currently do not use at my provider t-online (10 MB).
I am sure that most problems and questions can be resolved by just
reading “Starting and Running a Profitable Investment Club. The official Guide
from the National Association of Investment Clubs” in the USA, written by
Thomas E. O´Hara and Kenneth S. Janke, Sr., Times Books, 1998 1st
ed. 273 p. for $12 at Amazon.com.
I have been a member of an investment club in Germany (http://www.wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de/mainhattan-invest/)
for some time. I enjoyed the exchange of opinions and other members approaches
very much. It would have been even better if the members had the same investment
universe. Mine is very much focussed on CEFs.
My club in Frankfurt consists of about 50 people mostly students and we meet every week to discuss investment-policy and other topics. From about 50 members only five show up regulary and a normal meeting is visited by about 10 members. One member is one vote and five members are necessary to make investment decisions. Everybody pays monthly Euro 25, or a multiple thereof, into the common account and the amount everyone has invested is quite different.
There are four or more board-members with special functions. The
president is presiding over the meetings and also the one who executes resolved
trades. Anotherone is in charge of research but this is also done by all
regular visitors of the meetings. Especially in the start up phase the member
doing public relations was important in informing and acquiring new members.
The most essential job is done by the accountant who is doing the book-keeping
of member accounts and calculating the value of one share. Once a year his work
is controlled by two appointed independent members.
The first draft of a Partnership Agreement for a club named ICEFIC is open to comments.
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Rainer Feix, Anlage- und Vermögensberatung,
D-61440
Oberursel, Dornbachstr. 11
E-mail: RFeix@t-online.de,
http://www.feix.net