The U.S. equities market has made an impressive run but it only makes up a portion of the total picture. Investors can branch out into overseas exposure with exchange traded funds as a way to diversify a U.S.-centric portfolio.
At the ETF Virtual Summit on January 15, the featured panel on “Simple Global Strategies in a Sophisticated ETF World,” with experts from ETFGI, WisdomTree, Deutsche Asset Wealth Management and MSCI, will highlight ways to navigate the global marketplace.
To start off, an investor would begin with developed or emerging market exposure.
A fund such as the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (NYSEArca: EFA), which tracks developed market stocks in Europe, Australasia and the Far East, provides adequate exposure to most developed countries, excluding developed North American economies U.S. and Canada.
Within the developed markets space, Japan has stood out as the Bank of Japan aggressively fights deflationary pressures and stimulates the economy with an unprecedented bond purchasing plan. Consequently, the db X-trackers MSCI Japan Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBJP) and the rival WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DXJ) were among the top-performing single-country ETFs, buoyed in large part by the tumbling yen. [It’s in the Charts: It Could be a big 2014 for Japan ETFs]