An Amusement & Diversion for The Genteel Cyclist. Daily.

Monday, March 3, 2008

So how can I buy stock on the Nikkei?


The economy here in the US may be going to heck in a handbasket, but one Japanese company is setting sales records. Can you guess which one?

Shimano posted a 44 percent increase in net income in 2007, on record sales of $1.9 billion last year.

I bring this up not for cheap, xenophobic reasons. On the contrary, this is awesome, and speaks to the global growth of bicycles as a serious alternative to the automobile.

Being an equal opportunity cheerleader, let me hereby offer a big BOO-YA to Campy, SRAM, FSA, Bontrager, Sugino, Ritchie, Fox, Chris King, Easton, Surly, Cane Creek, and all the other component makers that currently escape my sieve-like mind.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bicycles. Or fishing.

You could buy Japan. Got to your favorite finance site and search for "Japan ETF" or "Asia/Pacific ETF". There are a lot of them. Like: JYN EWJ PJO JPP JSC EWV DNL DFJ DXJ DNH DND

Or you could buy yen: FXY

Those are just some ETFs. There are a lot more Mutual Funds. Not sure if you could buy directly off the nikkei, but you probably can. It'd be an accounting nightmare, though, with the exchange rates.

I think Shimano is pretty closely held, though. It doesn't trade very often.