International Exposure with ETFs

Broad and Regional International exchange traded funds (ETFs) cover multiple countries’ stocks in a single ETF, including emerging and developed markets. Typically, they are based upon market-cap weighted indexes and are dominated by large cap stocks. Foreign stocks have become part of any well-rounded, diversified portfolio, and the easiest way to integrate them is via ETFs. Because developed and emerging markets have different attributes, they have different asset classes that are included in separate ETFs. These funds are wide and liquid, so they are cheaper than a single-country ETF. In most instances, they are less expensive than foreign-stock mutual funds. See the Seeking Alpha article for a list of Broad and Regional International ETFs .