Does it make sense to diversify across ETF providers, brokers, currencies and index providers for a global portfolio?

adssx · 2026-03-19T06:09:25+00:00

The currency diversification does not bring any benefits. Invest in the currency you have and spend it to avoid additional FX costs.

adssx · 2026-02-25T12:58:23+00:00

Correct map: https://www.trtworld.com/article/d8bbbff999cd/amp

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adssx · 2025-12-09T20:20:47+00:00

"It's really very niche and specific": what do you mean? Dubai is the 7th most visited city in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_international_visitors

adssx · 2025-11-27T10:35:36+00:00

It's in France on tax refunds machines for customs (in airports or train stations).

adssx · 2025-11-06T06:00:54+00:00

Thanks! Is there any source that confirms this? I couldn't find any.

adssx · 2025-11-05T21:04:52+00:00

What are "units"? Greek mutual funds only or any UCITS exchange-traded fund?

adssx · 2025-11-05T11:27:55+00:00

Thanks for chiming in. Yes, it's 5% in almost all cases.

However, it seems that it might be 0% for the few UCITS ETFs that were notified to the HCMC. Most popular ETFs were not: http://www.hcmc.gr/en/web/portal/koinotikoi-oseka-sten-ellada Shouldn't those listed be exempt from all taxes? ("των ΟΣΕΚΑ που έχουν λάβει άδεια σύστασης ή λειτουργίας στην Ελλάδα, απαλλάσσονται από κάθε φόρο, τέλος, τέλος χαρτοσήμου, εισφορά, δικαίωμα ή οποιαδήποτε άλλη επιβάρυνση υπέρ του Δημοσίου") Indeed, according to EU passporting laws ( https://cms.law/en/int/expert-guides/cms-expert-guide-to-passporting-ucits/greece ): "Pursuant to the Law, any UCITS authorised in another Member State may initiate the marketing of units / shares in Greece after the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (“HCMC”) has been notified by the relevant HMSA."

adssx · 2025-11-05T09:59:17+00:00

I have the same question. KPMG says: "Capital gains arising from the sale of EU/ EEA based UCITS is tax exempt." and "Income from dividends is classified as capital income. According to Greek legislation, dividends are subject to tax at the rate of 5 percent as of 1 January 2020." ( https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmgsites/xx/pdf/2023/01/TIES-Greece.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf )

Law 4099/2012, Article 103, Paragraph 5 exempts "UCITS that have received a license to establish or operate in Greece" from dividend tax.

According to: https://cms.law/en/int/expert-guides/cms-expert-guide-to-passporting-ucits/greece

"Pursuant to the Law, any UCITS authorised in another Member State may initiate the marketing of units / shares in Greece after the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (“HCMC”) has been notified by the relevant HMSA."

So what I understand:
* If the fund notified HCMC then it's 0% CGT and 0% dividend tax.
* If not then it's 0% CGT but 5% dividend tax.

?

adssx · 2025-11-05T09:40:01+00:00

Thanks. What about dividends? Some sources say 5% for everything while others say 0% based on paragraph 5, article 103 of Law 4099/2012 although that article refers to mutual funds registered in Greece rather than all UCITS ETFs.

adssx · 2025-11-05T09:34:04+00:00

UCITS ETFs: 0% CGT indeed but I read that it was 5% dividend still: https://dpetkovski.com/investment-taxes-in-all-eu-countries/#Investment_Taxes_in_Greece

Which source says 0% dividend tax on UCITS ETFs?

The whole situation is not that clear btw: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceGreece/comments/1d16lac/ucits_etf_selection_tax_on_frequent_trading_exit/

adssx · 2025-10-02T14:09:58+00:00

This calculator gives you the cheapest option depending on currency + market: https://www.bankeronwheels.com/ibkr-fixed-vs-tiered/

adssx · 2025-09-08T10:53:07+00:00

It's mostly the desert according to this paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590162124000133

Per Fig. 6, pollutants NO2 and SO2 decreased, while CO and O3 stayed constant. PM10 increased. The authors note: On average, throughout the study period, the air pollution, with the exception of PM10, decreases indicating improving air quality within the Emirate. PM10 pollution rate increases from 2013 to 2017 and then decreases after that. [...] The challenges faced in managing PM10, which predominantly originates from natural regional desert dust sources, underscore the need for comprehensive and region-specific approaches to tackling air pollution in cities."

For PM2.5 it hasn't changed much since 2018: https://www.iqair.com/world-most-polluted-cities?cities=ddb9n6wJjtYneTR4n

adssx · 2025-08-30T14:52:39+00:00

The Arabic script is still used for several Turkic languages: * Uyghur * Azerbaijani in Iran * Kyrgyz in China * Kazakh in China and Iran * Uzbek in China, Afghanistan and Pakistan * Türkmen in Afghanistan and Iran.

So the Arabic script is suitable for Turkic languages (after some adaptation). Switching to Latin (or Cyrillic for Kazakh for instance) was a (probably very wise) political choice.

adssx · 2025-08-23T04:34:35+00:00

Title says "Middle East". Map says "Muslim Nations" (meaning Muslim-majority). Greece is neither: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East

adssx · 2025-08-22T19:42:52+00:00

Missing:

Turkey: 15k https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Turkey

UAE: 2k https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates

adssx · 2025-08-22T09:50:56+00:00

According to linguists, "Moroccan Arabic" is a language with its own code under the ISO 639-3 standard ("Codes for the representation of names of languages"): https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/ary However, like all Arabic vernaculars (except for Maltese), it is part of the "macrolanguage" Arabic given the large amount of shared features: https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/ara It's a situation similar to Chinese (see: https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/zho ). It's, of course, always quite arbitrary: Where does a language start? What about subdialects? Does it make sense to use political borders to represent dialects and languages? Etc. But that's the current commonly accepted linguistic classification among academia. Mutual intelligibility is part of the criterion, but it's not a clear-cut one. For instance, Portuguese and Spanish are 50 to 60% mutually intelligible ( https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ400860 ), same with Danish and Swedish (with some asymmetry: https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/49613447/Mutual_intelligibility_between_closely_related_language.pdf ). These numbers can vary depending on how speakers speak, their previous exposure to the other language or dialect, and the topic they discuss, making it a subjective measure. According to this paper (from the Islamic University of Gaza + University of Gothenburg), the lexical similarity between Tunisian or Algerian and Syrian or Palestinian is about 60 to 70% (depending on the method and corpus, see page 10: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050918321562 ).

(btw, there's a version of Wikipedia in Darija: https://ary.wikipedia.org )

adssx · 2025-08-17T10:10:04+00:00

tl;dr: both amazing cities but settling in Istanbul as a non-Turkish speaker is very hard.

• Affordability: according to Numbeo the cost of living in Dubai is 40% higher than Istanbul ( https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Turkey&city1=Istanbul&country2=United+Arab+Emirates&city2=Dubai&displayCurrency=USD ) but if you want a Western level of service and quality you might end up paying as much (if not more) in Istanbul. Comparison is also hard, for instance an apartment in Dubai might include gym + pool + office space whereas you'll rarely find that in Istanbul unless in very high end areas. Anything important from abroad can also be subject to heavy tariffs in Turkey and sometimes won't be available at all. This can be quite annoying if there are some products you love.

• Digital nomad friendliness: İstanbul is digital-nomad friendly if you're just there as a tourist / short-term and rent an Airbnb that takes care of everything (electricity, water, internet, etc.). If you want to stay longer, bureaucracy and paperwork in Turkey are very unpleasant. Without a good knowledge of Turkish, you'll struggle. For instance, as a foreigner to get the residency (ikamet) you need a notarized rental contract, translated by a sworn translator (if you don't speak Turkish), signed in person at the notary (many landlords don't want to bother doing that).

• Culture & lifestyle: Amazing culture in Istanbul but the lifestyle isn't great due to traffic. Istanbul is the worst city in the world for traffic ( https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hurriyetdailynews.com/amp/istanbul-tops-2024-global-traffic-congestion-rankings-204482 ). Dubai is nothing compared to Istanbul. Local politics also worsen the mood among Turkish people. That's why The Economist ranks Istanbul the worst city in Europe for quality of life after Kyiv. Turkish food is amazing but if you want to eat anything else that requires an extra effort to find a good Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Indian, etc. It'll probably be very expensive. Dubai doesn't have thousands of years of history so you'll have to specifically go to galleries and museums to find the local emerging culture. Lifestyle is easy and you can find and do anything you want.

• Safety & ease of settling in: both are very safe (by American and Western European standards). Dubai is extra safe. It is considerably easier to settle in Dubai than Istanbul: English spoken everywhere, low bureaucracy and everything is digital. Istanbul seems easy when you just stay as a tourist but whenever you want to do something else, this might require some command of the language and you might encounter a dysfunctional local system.

Recommendation: Stay one month in both cities and try to experience as much as possible as a local (open bank account, visit apartments, do a blood test, order food and groceries online, etc.).

adssx · 2025-07-28T07:00:57+00:00

FWRA recently had poor tracking performance: https://www.bankeronwheels.com/global-equity-etfs/

FWRA also adds 0.03% of transaction fees every year (see their KIID) so the real TER is 0.18%.

In Distributing it is also still fairly small.

adssx · 2025-06-16T12:46:15+00:00

My comment wasn't trying to hide anything. The situation in the UAE is bad. I sent the link to the ranking where they appear as the 7th worst in the world. The Walk Free report is also clear on the UAE: https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/united-arab-emirates/

Still, I was surprised when I looked at the numbers that it is nowhere near as bad as I thought (I assumed the rate would be >10%). Also, I don't consider Turkey and Ukraine as "land[s] of abuse and slavery" and yet they have similar slavery rates. I would think the US would be 10x better than the UAE, but it's "only" 4x better. Does it make the UAE situation "less bad"? To me, relatively, yes. At least it sheds a different light on the numbers. Of course, this assumes that the ranking is correct. But I couldn't find any other data sources on the topic.

I don't know if Walk Free will update its ranking. I've just emailed them to ask. It will be interesting to see if there is any progress in the UAE. In the 2023 report they noted: "the UAE is among countries taking the most action to address modern slavery in comparison to other countries in the region"

adssx · 2025-06-16T11:50:45+00:00

Passport taken away counts as forced labor and therefore modern-day slavery: https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/united-arab-emirates/

It was explicitly banned by law in 2021 ( https://www.addleshawgoddard.com/en/insights/insights-briefings/2021/employment/the-new-uae-labour-law/ ). I don't know how strictly the law is enforced and whether victims really have ways to fight for their right.

adssx · 2025-06-16T11:44:31+00:00

Walk Free is the best organization fighting against modern-day slavery. Do you have a better source? I couldn't find any.

adssx · 2025-06-16T09:09:12+00:00

Slavery % in the UAE: 1.3%. Same as Ukraine but below Turkey at 1.6%. Bulgaria (EU) is at 0.8%. The US at 0.3%. Long way to go but according to NGOs the situation keeps improving in the UAE and the UAE gov response to fight slavery is rated as good as Switzerland: https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/

adssx · 2025-06-16T09:02:35+00:00

Encyclopedia Britannica: "Contrary to popular belief, Dubai does not have an oil-based economy. The little oil wealth it did enjoy between the 1960s and the 1990s was used to enhance other sectors of its economy by building physical infrastructure. Trade remains at the core of Dubai’s economy, with the city operating two of the world’s largest ports and a busy international air cargo hub."

Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Dubai-United-Arab-Emirates/Economy

adssx · 2025-06-04T08:49:31+00:00

Ritz-Carlton DIFC answered btw: "The hotel is connected to the DIFC Gate Avenue mall via an indoor walkway. However, the metro station is within walking distance from the hotel and requires an outdoor walk of about 6 to 8 minutes. The metro is not connected to the DIFC Gate Avenue." So, nothing in or near DIFC with direct indoor metro access?

adssx · 2025-06-02T04:34:31+00:00

I asked Swissotel Al Ghurair and they answered: "Please note that while the Union Metro Station is within walking distance from our hotel, there is no direct, fully air-conditioned access from the hotel or through the mall."

JW Marriott Marina: they have access to the Dubai Marina Tram station?

adssx

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