This is part two of the Bermuda Hypothetical Investment Portfolio, a continuation of last week’s article where Moneywise introduced the concept for selecting and tracking a pretend portfolio of stocks, bonds, and cash once a month for year, ending with the Global Investment Week end of October 2020, supported and publicised by our own Bermuda Stock Exchange. We invited readers to consider participating in this fun project — running stock market portfolio exercise, but so far no takers. Perhaps, you’ll reconsider this week. We can even make it easy for you. Instead of having to research a group of securities, time consuming for sure, all one has to do is download the Bermuda chart of stocks and companies that influence our daily lives, listed in The Royal Gazette, on October 12 2019, “Why Bermudian investments matter to you” (https://tinyurl.com/y5drqnh6). Your portfolio can be 100 per cent stocks, a mix of stocks and bonds of any size company, and they do not have to be US registered. A variety from US, UK, Canada, Australia, etc, can be derived from any areas of interest to you. Trouble finding enough information, write to me for help. On the first Saturday of each month, Moneywise will feature two or three security choices in this portfolio with a discussion of their company attributes, valuations, advantages and disadvantages, how they function within the market, what their financials look like, their credit ratings, free cash, liquidity, profitability, debt liability, reference sources, and more details. All facts that will relate to how attractive they may be as a personal investment — or not, for you. We won’t cover mutual funds and ETFs (exchange-traded funds) in this series, or other more esoteric investments such as futures, options; those are useful and dynamic, but require feeling comfortable with the fundamental firsts. Our Moneywise selection is comprised of 12 stocks, six fixed-income (bonds) and two money market funds. We have deliberately not chosen the most visible giants, for example FAANG — the acronym for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google.Everyone is aware of the FAANGs, but use or own their products. You might want to include them in your hypothetical portfolio. Why not learn more about how these giants operate.Most of the stocks were picked right out of the line-up of the S&P 500 Index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The S&P 500 Index is part of S&P Global, a company with 150 years of experience in high-quality market intelligence in credit ratings, research, universal benchmarking, and regulator expertise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_%26_Poor%27sMoneywise stock choices are focused on representing as many sectors as possible of the US business environment in our shortlist, and are directly or indirectly relevant to our lives. The size of these largely capitalised global businesses is extreme: $1 trillion, to multiple hundreds of billions, downward to the smallest on the list at around $60 billion. Two much smaller capitalised business are included, for contrast. And there are a variety of bonds, some sovereign debt including a Bermuda Government bond, yes, they are out there fluctuating in value every day just like stocks, US Treasuries, corporate bonds, emerging market debt and another bond of interest. Two money market funds are included, but constructed differently to reflect the US security law changes from the implosion after effect of the 2008 market downturn and recession. The list is not yet complete and will be fully inclusive for the November 30, 2019 issue. So, we have a busy year ahead reviewing these securities each and every month! One featured company next month will be rather obscure to most, but of real importance all who participate and contribute to the written word, the communication sphere, the printed and social media, authors of all magnitudes, and the integral world of journalism — now under the greatest threat that has ever been seen in our lifetime. Communications today are so broadly distributed, disassembled, so susceptible to alteration, complete distortions, fabrication, out-of-context interpretations, barraged with alternative facts, so much media cacophony that the ordinary individual can no longer distinguish between the really relevant and the totally fake, without significant, independent research in time and energy. In our current, stress-filled lives, fluffy, short snippets of articles and accompanying video providing light entertainment, are easy to absorb. So, it is somehow understandable, too, that such stuff is more often viewed, or has to viewed to distinguish fact from fiction. Legitimate news media and factual, ethical journalists are all lumped together with the rest of those willing to upload any news, regardless of content or verification. What social media generators have learnt that if a story is circulated enough, it becomes truth, regardless of its content, whether truly legitimate or complete fabrication. Regrettably, the investigative journalists courageous enough to continue to present the truth face politician derision, reputation assassination, castigation, and can be bullied, threatened with livelihood decimation, and even worse scenarios, too horrible and sad to describe in this column.Global companies have far-reaching influences, far more than most of us realise, including me. Where a company name used to stand for a few like-type products, today, the diversification, research, forward planning, collaboration with governments and monetary management is spectacular. So, read on, research if you are up to it, and in the end, know that you will have a better idea of what is contained in your personal investments (if you choose to invest) and in your mandated Bermuda National Pension Investment asset allocation spectrum. Sources and references:S&P 500 Index. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S%26P_500_companiesWikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_%26_Poor%27s• Martha Harris Myron CPA CFP JSM: Masters of Law — international tax and financial services. Dual citizen: Bermudian/US. Pondstraddler Life, financial perspectives for Bermuda islanders and their globally mobile connections on the Great Atlantic Pond. Contact: martha.myron@gmail.com