BRIC House: Owning Individual Stocks vs. Funds For Emerging Markets (ETFs: FXI, PGJ, EWZ)

Roger Nusbaum submits: Barry Ritholtz has an interesting post about the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) theme. He is not a fan of buying individual stocks in Russia or China. I take his meaning that an ETF or Index fund could be a good way to capture those countries, but not individual issues.

I own one Chinese stock for some clients but no individual Russian names. I own a stock to capture China because of the potential for a big dividend that an ETF would not provide.

There is only one NYSE listed Russian ADR that offers access to the country's resources, Tatneft (TNT). I am guilty of what I wrote about over the weekend with Tatneft. I owned it personally in 2003 and made about ten points. Since then I have watched it go up another 60 points.

Russian and Chinese stocks are not for everyone and may not be for you -- now.

I would advise continuing to watch and learn about these companies and stocks. In the coming years these will only become easier to understand.

Related -- click ticker for articles:

● ETFs for China: FXI and PGJ
● Indian ETF Will Follow Recent Launch of Halter USX India Index (HXI, IFN, IIF, PGJ)
● ETF for Brazil: EWZ