Future for investors/Intn'l investing

[Toejam]

Here's an interesting article on Jeremy Siegel's new book, "The future for Investors: Why the tried and true triumph over the bold and new". I have been thinking about adding more international diversification to my portfolio, and Siegel has provided some timely information based on his research.

In the last paragraph of this article, it says investors should also consider stocks in the S&P Global Index and the Dow Jones Global Titans Index as a way to get some additional international exposure. Does anyone know if there is actually an ETF or mutual fund that covers these 2 indexes? I couldn't find any ticker symbols for them. :-/

Here is the website for the article: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1157.cfm.

 

[Brat]

Try posting your question here: http://www.fundalarm.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html

Any chance you are located between Country Club and South Beach?

 

[Toejam]

Hi Brat:

Thanks for your advice. I just posted my question on the Fundalarm board.

You asked if I was between Country Club and South Beach. No, I'm not - not as far as I know, anyway. (I assume these are the names of streets, not cities.

Toejam

 

[Hyperborea]

In the last paragraph of this article, it says investors should also consider stocks in the S&P Global Index and the Dow Jones Global Titans Index as a way to get some additional international exposure.

That seems to be his reccomendation for investing the US portion of a portfolio.  A couple of paragraphs up from that he is recommending the same thing that Sharpe does and the approach that I use.

"To avoid putting too much money into any one region or country, Siegel recommends allocating a stock portfolio with an eye to each country's share of world equity values".

 

[Spanky]

http://www.ishares.com/
S&P Global 100 Index Fund (IOO)

http://advisors.ssga.com/etf/fund/etf_detail_DGT.jsp
Dow Jones Global Titans Index Fund.

 

[Toejam]

Spanky: Thanks for the websites! I called Schwab yesterday and found there's another good website for ETF's: www.amex.com. This site also has extensive ETF listings in all of the major categories as well as detailed info such as expense ratios, investment returns, holdings, dividend histories, etc. for each ETF.

Hyperborea: I re-read the article and I think you're right that Siegel considers the S&P Global and the DJ Global Ttans indexes to be primarily investments for the U.S. portion of one's portfolio, seeing that a lot of the companies in these indexes are American- like GE, XOM, MSFT, AIG, JNJ, PG, etc. - stuff that I already hold as individual stocks in my own account.

On the other hand, I have an acquaintance, an elderly man that I met at Schwab, about 12 years ago. We get together every so often to talk about finances, investments, and the economy in general. This man, who has been living off his investments for many years, does not have a pension due to working only a limited number of years for some company in the remote past. It seems the bulk of his investments are in large, dividend-paying U.S. stocks. He is the first and only FI/RE person I have personally met and known. He is a voracious reader of Barron's, Forbes, WSJ, etc. and is a much more knowledgeable and sophisticated investor than I am. One day I asked him what he thought about international mutual funds and foreign ADR stocks. He said, as far as he is concerned, he gets all the foreign exposure he needs through his positions in the large multinational U.S. stocks he holds. So, this is where I got to thinking that the aforementioned Global Indexes could be considered "additional international exposure".

 

[charlie]

Hi Toejam,

One argument against using large US companies
with multi-national operations as an international
substitute is that most hedge against foreign
currency variations. IMHO, currency risk is
desirable for your international exposure.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[unclemick]

I believe Charlie is right - if you are a Slice and Dicer.

Unhegded improves your ability to capture long term expected return of your selected asset classes. Memory fails me as to the nuts and bolts of why that is true - but that's what I remember.

My Lifestrategy mod contains a small amount of international. In individual stocks - multinational or otherwise - I tend to key off div/div growth at eleven yrs into ER(age 61).

More Boglehead than Bernstein - but I have my lapses in purity.

 

[Toejam]

Hi Charlie and UncleMick:

I agree with your above post regarding currency risk. That's why I have decided to forego the global indexes and instead continue to add "pure" international mutual funds and/or International ETF's to my account.  Thanks for your comments.  

Any additional info or knowledge on this subject is welcome.

Toejam