Single-country exchange traded funds (ETFs) can be a good investment for portfolios, however, picking which country is a hard decision. There are many factors to consider like reward-to-risk, performance comparison, pullbacks and time frames, as well as local politics and economics. Matthew D. McCall for Seeking Alpha analyzed 25 single-country ETFs and came up with four that were worthy of the reward-to-risk setup. The winners are, in order of reward-to-risk opportunity:
- iShares MSCI Spain (EWP) gained 48% in 2006 compared to 13.6% for the S&P; up 22.8% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is down 0.8%%.
- iShares MSCI Germany (EWG) gained 32% in 2006, and is up 26.9% year-to-date.
- iPath MSCI India ETN (INP) year-to-date up 65.4%, and only began trading in December 2006.
- iShares MSCI Malaysia (EWM) returned 33% in 2006, and is up 32.3% so far this year.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.