“Weighting your portfolio accordingly gives you a well-diversified stock portfolio that has a high probability of withstanding the inevitable rise and fall of equity markets,” Kahler said.
While ETF investors have a number of region- and country-specific funds to choose from, there are also some all-in-one ETF options as well.
For instance, the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF (NasdaqGS: ACWI) tries to reflect the performance of the MSCI ACWI Index, which includes North America 54.8%, Latin America 1.3%, Greater Europe 24.9% and Asia 19.0%. Developed market exposure is 93.2% and emerging markets is 6.8%.
Additionally, the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (NYSEArca: VT), which follows the FTSE Global All Cap Index, includes 55.0% North America exposure, along with 1.4% Latin America, 24.3% Europe, 19.2% to the Asia Pacific. VT includes 93.2% developed market and 6.9% emerging markets. [A Gauge for Foreign ETF Exposure]
Investors may also notice the various appellations in differing fund products. ETFs described as “international” will usually include markets outside the U.S. while “global” or “world” funds will track everything.
For more information on the global markets, visit our global ETFs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.