International funds.....pick a country, any country...

[bigred]

Except maybe the U.S. :cool: Really, "international" mutual funds (eg non US) are just booming these days. Any thoughts on which provide the best risk/reward ratio longer term?

[balrog666]

Except maybe the U.S. :cool: Really, "international" mutual funds (eg non US) are just booming these days. Any thoughts on which provide the best risk/reward ratio longer term?


Most of them are booming because the dollar is still falling.

But how long is long term? And how many funds do you need to diversify over?

Anyway, look at any decent Eastern European fund as one of your mix.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Personally, I don't have any. Just about any decent mutual fund these days qualifies as "international". I don't have the time or the interest to try to guess which country is "hot" right now.

[bigred]

Actually I stated this somewhat misleadingly...if you look at YTD, a great many of these funds are doing poorly. I find this odd given the dollar's problems-?

To me "long term" is, well, years. I'm no speculator in any sense of the word.

T Rowe Price's Latin America stock is amazing in recent years: http://www.troweprice.com/common/indexFundFacts/0,0,ticker=PRLAX,00.html

[Vigilanty]

Looks like the dollar is going to continue downward. What does it all mean?

[bigred]

It means I won't be buying a steak dinner in Europe any time soon. :(

[Damien Evans]

It means I won't be buying a steak dinner in Europe any time soon. :(

However, the rest of us may be buying one in America.:)

[Francesca R]

Except maybe the U.S. :cool: Really, "international" mutual funds (eg non US) are just booming these days. Any thoughts on which provide the best risk/reward ratio longer term?As others have said, a major reason for the popularity of non-US funds to US investors is the prior depreciation of the dollar. It's the reverse of the situation in 1999-2000 when international funds were out of favour. But the dollar is very weak already and I see no overwhelming reason why it should continue to fall and several reasons why it should recover.

Actually I stated this somewhat misleadingly...if you look at YTD, a great many of these funds are doing poorly. I find this odd given the dollar's problems-? . . . because (stock) markets are negative YTD and this more than offsets the FX gain.

However, the rest of us may be buying one in America.:)I'm buying USD, partly because GBPUSD is still rather high. The negative carry is a slight problem, but not if the pound eventually dumps to 1.70. What's it doing up here anyway?

[bigred]

Good points, although most internationals I'm looking at have had a very favorable return going back as far as 10 years...