an tSionna {04.13.15}

Below you will find a basket of international country ETFs.  Specifically you will see the S&P 500 for comparison sake, Japan,China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Spain, the Unitied Kingdom, and Ireland.  The list is meant to be comparative but not exhaustive.  I've said for a long period of time {now going back a few years} that I thought international markets would at some point outperform the US.  That prognostication looked somewhat silly back at the end of the year.  In the performance chart below {chart is from Stockcharts.com} you can see with the exception of India, the US smoked it versus the international scene last year.  You leave India out of the list below and that international basket was down a bit over 8% last year on a price basis.

The tables have turned in 2015.  Below is the same list year to date.  All with the exception of Brazil and Mexico are beating the US major markets.  Returns are even better in most of the world's home currencies.  

Three year returns have also started to normalize.  Again Brazil and Mexico are the exceptions.

Probability still suggests these markets will continue to perform well going forward versus the US as most of these markets valuations ares still cheaper versus the US.  Not saying these are going higher in a straight line or that there won't be a correction at some point.  Also folks need to note that some of these markets have much higher volatility than the US and you need to take that into any investment calculation.  You need to therefore know your tolerance for volatility and higher levels of individual market risk.  Given that, I am saying that I believe you need to have a certain percentage of your assets abroad if you want some growth in the coming years.  ETFs make that an easy task to accomplish.  I am out either tomorrow or Wednesday so there will be only one post between now and Thursday.  Will get to that post on Spain this week.  Promise!

*Long ETFs related to the S&P 500, Brazil and China in certain investment strategies and certain client accounts.  Long representations of most of these countries in international and regional ETFs in client and personal accounts.  Please note these positions can change at any time.