The Emerging Tech Companies Sitting on Australia’s Doorstep

It hardly seems fair.

Today it’s easy to invest in international markets.

It’s easy to open a brokerage account to buy revolutionary tech companies.

It’s easy to buy a UK biotech stock or a Japanese electronics stock.

And it’s super easy to buy shares in any one of the thousands of US-listed internet and tech companies.

That’s great, but don’t you wish you could have invested in Silicon Valley right at the beginning, just as the whole tech sector was lifting off from the ground floor?

If only it were possible. Well, as it turns out, it might just be. And you don’t need a time machine to do it either…

The concept of Silicon Valley as the home of technology is fairly new.

It grew to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. As a place, Silicon Valley is about an hour to the south of San Francisco. It includes the city of San Jose.

But as a concept, ‘Silicon Valley’ is borderless. It has generally grown to encompass any high-tech company, even if it’s not physically in the Silicon Valley area.

Today Silicon Valley is home to the likes of Google [NASDAQ:GOOG], Facebook [NASDAQ:FB], and Apple [NASDAQ:AAPL]. These companies are thriving. And there’s still a lot of growth in Silicon Valley.

But there is an alternative. And it could be even more lucrative than the current Silicon Valley.

A new ‘Silicon Valley’ on Australia’s doorstep

Yesterday’s Financial Times reports:

‘When the bosses of US video messaging app Tango were on the lookout for a strategic partner, they turned in the direction of Hangzhou, China – home of ecommerce company Alibaba.

‘Within weeks, Tango’s founders met Alibaba’s executive vice-chairman Joe Tsai, before selling a quarter of the company for $215m.

‘Deals like this, where Asian capital goes into a young tech company from another part of the globe, are becoming increasingly common.’

It almost seems too good to be true.

Could it really be possible that a new Silicon Valley is taking shape almost on Australia’s doorstep…right at a time when it has never been easier to buy and sell overseas stocks?

If this report from the FT — along with others we’ve seen, and the contacts we’ve spoken to — is right it certainly looks like it.

So, just how easy is it to trade international stocks?

Well, we’re not about to tell you it’s zero effort. Few things require zero effort. But if you’ve ever opened up an Aussie share trading account, the process is almost exactly the same.

The forms are pretty much the same, and it takes roughly the same amount of time to complete them. The best news is that there’s a good chance that your existing broking firm can set up an international account for you.

If your broker can’t do that, then find one who can. The Australian market’s biggest online broker, Comsec, offers an international share trading service, as does one of the country’s biggest advisory firms, Bell Potter. (That’s not an endorsement one way or the other, just an example; Money Morning remains independent and has no ties with either of those firms.)

Even so, you may wonder if it’s all really worth the effort. If the history of Silicon Valley Mk I is anything to go by, then yes, it’s definitely worth it.

How much do you really know?

Now, that’s not to say that you should only invest in overseas shares. We’re not saying that at all.

Any investor will always have a ‘home bias’. That is, investors will always prefer to buy shares in companies they feel they know best.

Read the rest of this article at Money Morning