Investors who are seeking overseas exposure can take a look at exchange traded funds that track quality stocks with competitive economic advantages.
On the upcoming webcast, Improve International Stock Selection, Brandon Rakszawski, Product Manager at Van Eck Global, Dan Lefkovitz, Content Strategist for Indexes at Morningstar, and Michael Hodel, Technology Strategist at Morningstar, help explain how investing in companies with wide economic moats may help augment a portfolio.
For instance, the relatively new Market Vectors Morningstar International Moat ETF (NYSEArca: MOTI) expands on the popular Market Vectors Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (NYSEArca: MOAT), which has gathered $770 million in assets under management.
MOTI tries to reflect the performance of the Morningstar Global ex-US Moat Focus index, which includes 50 attractively priced companies outside the U.S. with sustainable competitive advantages.
Like its U.S.-focused counterpart, MOTI uses Morningstar’s proprietary methodology to identify companies with long-term, advantages, which allows companies to earn sustainable excess economic profits, as measured by the return on invested capital relative to the company’s cost of capital.