Warsaw Poland - stock market investment?

Just curious does anyone here invest in companies listed on the polish/warsaw exchange? If so what companies? Please share your experiences id love to hear more.

To my understanding the Warsaw stock exchange is the former polish workers party building. Ironic if you ask me...

Also what's the correct terminology when referring specifically to the Warsaw exchange. I know the stock market is generally known as gielda so would the Warsaw one be called warszawska gielda or something?

Giełda Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie SA - GWP

The trading platform on the WSE (GPW) has been very modern from its very beginning in the 1990s. Electronic trade was introduced all at once, so the WSE hadn't known any paper trade before that. The trading technology was bought from the stock exchange in Lyon (France).

I have been on the market from the very beginning and witnessed its first greatest bubble burst. The speed at which the giełda was moving upwards before that was more than breath-taking and I experienced it myself when the shares I bought (in major part on leverage) had gone up fourfold (they were probably the best performing stock on the exchange then) in just three months. If you have ever experienced such a raid, you will never forget it and in particular how difficult it is to decide when to quit the market.

Now the Warsaw Stock Exchange is totally different form what it was at that time of its childhood. There are much more companies listed on it, but the bussiness is as uncertain as usual. Are you planning to start investing on the WSE?

@Wulkan

Thanks for the correct nomenclature. Rather long proper name..

@Ziemowit
Thanks for all this info. Wow that's a heck of an roi. Bit risky with leverage but good to hear it turned out okay. I do plan to educate myself more on the companies listed in the exchange as I plan to move to Poland in the relatively near future. I currently have investments in real estate, stericycle (short at the moment, I use to work for this company and received a 10% discount but could only purchase 2x a year on a specified date which usually got leaked out driving up the price), walmart, bank of america (bought in November 2012 and has nearly tripled but I'm still holding), a small cap mutual fund, bitcoin (I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on ethereum too) and a small amount of physical gold and silver. Most of these are long term holds with the exception of bitcoin but I still tend to check up on them a few times a day during hours. As far as bitcoin I have a chart running on my phone all the time. Its on another rally again I wonder if it'll break $3k.

I would like to buy some shares once I move to Poland and get more familiar with the business and corporate environment there. Yes I do expect the polish market and its indices to be more volatile than its us counterparts but that's not always a bad thing. With only 300 some companies on the exchange it wouldn't be too hard to get familiar. I did read some brief history on the gwp and apparently the day it opened there were only 5 firms listed with about 2k USD turnover. Crazy how things changed since then.

Also when did this bubble burst? Was it around 2007 or the years following? In hindsight as a whole Poland took the recession quite well although I bet the traders and brokers were rather anxious during that time.

Also is the volume dominated by HFT like in US?

Most interesting as I was not aware of the WSE.
I remember how shocked I was when I found out that the New York Stock Exchange didn't even make up 10% of the worlds stock exchange.

Asia is where it is at when it comes to world markets.
I have found it is not healthy to trade stocks without using trading charts


Kimble Charting Solutions had a very good article about gold and silver awhile back.
What kind of physical gold and silver will you be selling........coinage ?
Do you have to be a Polish citizen to trade on the WSE ?
Maybe we could start a charting company in Poland for the WSE and start selling computer programs Ziemowit.
My latest hits here in the U.S. in the last year have been SMPIX and OBMCX.
I have never thought of moving to Poland to retire trading stocks on a Polish stock exchange.
Thanks for starting such an interesting thread Adrian and Z for your knowledgeable input.

Yeah thats what i was thinking.. Perhaps establishing a hft firm in Poland or even buy some software and a super fast connection to a flat or office right by the gwp. I haven't been able to find a whole lot of info on high frequency trading in Poland so I'm wondering how widespread it is and how much volume it accounts for. I3n the us estimates range from 97-99% of an average trading days is all hft firms.

Yes the gold and silver I have is bullion specifically krugerrands (south africa). I don't really have much left though a couple grand worth that ill probably keep well into my old age and give some to my kids or nephews and neices.

Also I haven't heard of any citizenship requirements to buy and sell securities on any exchange if its your own money. But if you want to work as a trader or broker in Poland id imagine you have to get a work permit/visa and be licensed.

Speaking of which... How did polish society take the whole amber gold scandal? It wasn't all that much money in the grand scheme of things but I'm sure that it undermined the confidence of some individuals that perhaps aren't too familiar with the workings of a market and entrusted savings to a broker.

I have found that if you don't have at least a million invested with a broker they could give a crap about your portfolio.

They make their money on commissions so a small investor is not worth their time as they only have so much time in a day to take care of so many accounts.

The big boys will get their attention/time as a priority and they may check someone with a couple hundred thousand twice a year and give them a little lip service and a smile.

Who cares more about your money than anyone else ? You do so that is why I do my own investing/trading now.
Zacks free online membership/information is most informative but usually is a week/month late on the real money to be made.
It is a good guide to what is out there though and has helped me invest.
If someone started something like a Zacks for the WSE it may be quite profitable for them.
I have not the knowledge or time to even think about it but a couple of young bucks like you and Z just might.

Yea it depends on the brokerage firm. Some won't even take you on a client if you don't have a certain net worth or invest a certain amount. When I worked as a broker our minimum was $5k but most people held between $25k to $100k although we had a few that were 500k to 1 mil. There's a 10% commission half going to brokers half to the house. About half my clients were wealthy farmers and ranchers. Some of these guys had a 7 or even 8 figure net worth yet no internet connection.

This was my first 'real' job and the way I tried to distinguish myself from the more experienced brokers is through customer service. I was happy to get anyone though and ill never forget when one of my clients put in a huge buy order for silver and I made a $40k commission check. The whole reason why I became a broker is because I thought it was the best paying job for me at the time without a bachelors and I needed money to pay the remainder of my tuition. I basically made a year tuition with what was my largest order there.

Right now bitcoin is at a new high. I plan to sell within the next hour its starting to get into bubble territory again. Sell, wait for correction, buy, and repeat... Easiest $3k profit on an $11k investment in two weeks I've ever made.