Are foreign funds coming back into favor?
Some respected market analysts believe that after eight years of a strong US trend, markets are finally shifting away from the US and toward overseas markets. But remember that even experts can’t always predict market trends in advance.
If you want to capitalize on foreign and emerging markets trends, here are four tips to help you adapt to changing markets and avoid common mistakes:
1. Rely on a proven strategy
If you’re going to try to take advantage of market trends, you’ll need a clear, evidence-based strategy, like our momentum-driven Upgrading approach, to help you determine when to own foreign and emerging markets funds and when US funds are a better bet.
A solid strategy can help you avoid making common mistakes, like continuing to hold US funds during a clear foreign trend because you’re convinced that they’re going to bounce back.
2. Make gradual changes to your portfolio
Trends build over time, and even within a confirmed trend, there are often short-term reversals, so try to buy into new leading funds, like foreign funds, gradually.
As foreign and emerging market funds began to do well, we introduce these funds to our portfolios, and as these funds continued to do well, we add to our positions. This way, if foreign markets were to reverse course only a part of our portfolio would be affected, and if foreign continues to lead, we’ll participate in the gains.
3. Stay diversified
Whether foreign or US markets are in favor, you should be primarily invested in core diversified funds. Don’t get tempted to take shortcuts, like making a big bet on a few concentrated funds. Rather than investing in an emerging market fund, for instance, get your emerging market exposure through broadly diversified global or international funds.
4. Manage risk by taking smaller positions in riskier funds
More speculative funds, like single country funds or emerging markets funds, can seem like a quick way to boost your returns, but these funds can fall out of favor just as quickly, and they can have steep losses.
If you are going to invest in more volatile foreign funds, like single country funds or emerging markets funds, keep your positions small. This may help limit the damage if one of these funds suddenly drops. We might invest 10% in a broadly diversified fund, but just 5% in an emerging market fund, and we’d probably invest just 2% in a single country fund.
Here's the takeaway
Whether you are investing in the US or overseas, you still need to think about how to manage potential risks and build a solid portfolio that can help you stay invested through the market’s usual ups and downs.