iShares MSCI Israel Capped Investable Market Index Fund (EIS)
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- All Comments on EIS
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- International ETF Update: Israel, Russia, Turkey [view article]
- Country Funds En Masse Could Be the Answer [view article]
- Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
- iShares Launches the First 'Real' Israeli ETF [view article]
- New iShares Israel Fund; Heavy On Teva, But Worth a Look [view article]
- Single Country Middle East & Africa ETFs and Closed-End Funds [view article]
- Single Country Emerging Markets ETFs, ETNs and Closed-End Funds [view article]
- iShares Launching 5 New International ETFs Including Israel, Thailand and Turkey [view article]
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- International ETF Update: Israel, Russia, Turkey
- Country Funds En Masse Could Be the Answer
- Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets
- ETF Watch: New Listings
- New iShares Israel Fund; Heavy On Teva, But Worth a Look
- Latest iShares ETF Launch Interesting on 3 Levels
- iShares Launches the First 'Real' Israeli ETF
- iShares' Latest: All-World; Ex-U.S.; Israel; Turkey; Thailand
- iShares Launching 5 New International ETFs Including Israel, Thailand and Turkey
- Single Country Middle East & Africa ETFs and Closed-End Funds
- Full List of Articles »
Peterson,
PhD.
International ETF Update: Israel, Russia, Turkey [view article]
RNE is a closed-end fund, not an ETF, but yes, it should be mentioned along with Templeton Russia Fund (TRF), another closed-end fund. RNE and TRF are more Russia-based than CEE, the only closed-end fund mentioned in the article.CEE has a lot more than 27.7% in Russia. Its largest holding, Gazprom EDR, trades in the UK so it's not listed as Russia, but clearly it's Russia. Some other CEE unclassified holdings are Russia holdings. CEE is more like 50% Russia. Reply
International ETF Update: Israel, Russia, Turkey [view article]
RNE must be included in Russian based ETFs ReplyCountry Funds En Masse Could Be the Answer [view article]
I would like to see country funds that go short the index, too. ReplyCountry Funds En Masse Could Be the Answer [view article]
I regularly look at alternative ETFs to further diversify my portfolio. I often wonder whether country funds or regional funds offer better results when viewed from a practical sense. The 1 year daily correlation is over 80% between most country indices and their respective regional and/or type indices. Shorter term correlations can diverge significantly however, during brief spurts of country specific event driven volatility. These correlation characteristics imply that a short term rebalancing regime would be needed to capture relative price dislocations among similar country funds found within a broader index. Longer term, these price disparities should be arbitraged away thus providing little if any additional return. Thus, I believe country specific funds are only beneficial to portfolio methodologies that are short term oriented.As an aside, what should be the goal when constructing a diversified portfolio; should it be a weighted net correlation of 0% (based desired investment timeframe), or maybe + or – 10% or something completely different?
Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
"theidiotperspective" (your handle, not my opinion)You are right. Those are emerging market ETFs for India. I just listed one for each country generally, but those are options available to investors. Reply
spective
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
India now have 3 ETF not in your list. EPI, PIN and i think another one almost out!Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
Ed Morgan,I am aware of GAF and VTOPF and chose not to mention them for good reasons.
I will humor you with the refutation you request, with the understanding that I find your approach unnecessarily harsh. There is no reason to suggest that the author of an article lacks competency or subject matter knowledge, because some question you have was not answered by an article. You could have asked the question in helpful way without suggesting that you are informed and the author is uninformed. Seeking Alpha is not a contest, it is a community sharing ideas, not insults.
To your comment/question:
VTOPF (Vietnam Opportunity Fund) is not available on an exchange in the US. That was one of the criteria I mentioned in the article. It is a Pink Sheets company, and I never recommend or comment on Pink Sheets stocks. I never will recommend a Pink Sheets stock. They are OK for those who want to play in that arena. I do not.
The fund is available in London in a more liquid form, but that is not reasonably available to US retail investors. The management fee is 2% + 20% of return over 8% per year.
You can read more about the Vietnam Opportunity Fund at:
www.vinacapital.com /
Vietnam is an exciting opportunity, but for general publication purposes, VTOPF is outside of the bounds I would chose for general consumption articles such as this one, because it is a Pink Sheets fund.
TRAMX is not on an exchange either, but mutual funds have liquidity. It is a frontier markets fund, although regionally limited.
GAF is not a frontier market fund as you suggest. It is an emerging markets fund, as SSGA says in the product description. Frontier markets and emerging markets are not the same thing. It is 56% South Africa and 22% Israel (78% total). Both are emerging, not frontier market countries. The balance of 22% that is in frontier markets, is far too little to commend the fund as an frontier markets play.
If you want South Africa exposure you can buy EZA. If you want Israel exposure, you can buy ISL. To learn more about GAF, you can read the fund information and fact sheet at:
www.ssgafunds.com/etf/fund/etf_detail_GAF.jsp
I repeat my assertion that TRAMX is the only good current frontier markets option, not on Pink Sheet or minimally exposed frontier markets within some other category of countries.
So their is the refutation of your criticism. I hope you find that satisfactory for the inadequacies you find in the article. Next time, try a little sugar to get more information before using vinegar.
Richard Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
How about GAF and VTOPF? The author should be aware of all entry mechanisms if for no other reason than to refute their validity. ReplySatchu
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
Dear Richard,Thanks for the compliment. It made my morning.
I came home three years ago, having been in London for many years. What has really struck me in Kenya is the scale of the domestic shareholder base. It is widely expected to be 2m at the end of our current and biggest IPO Safaricom. This is an extraordinary outcome and actually a phenomenon. Today, Nigeria has 6 banks in the top 100 in the world. I really expect the African landscape to be something completely different in a very short space of time. Extraordinary things are happening and its all being compressed into a very few years.
Ex South Africa, I feel SSA is the last frontier. It was a previously very fragmented Continent with small pocket sized markets. The Mobile phone was the catalyst that triggered the aggregation of these small units into scale.
Lot of folk talk of Commodities etc but the next sharp trigger is coming from the Continent being plugged in to the global superhighway.
There might very well be a great arbitrage in identifying those markets that are set to get into these various new indices.
Take care
Aly-Khan Satchu
rich.co.ke Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
Hello Mr. ShawI have been following your recommendation of TRAMX and it seems its growing at a reasonable click ($1 since your last piece) my question is why is this fund focused heavily in the financial sector and industrial materials sector and not much else, could this be a future problem for the fund if the financials are in a situation similar to the one US is experiencing. Also do you think there will be more funds launching for the middle east area?
Thanks
P.S. Sorry if I was rude in my last post to your "Leaving in the Dust" article Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
Football Geek,Yes, Canada is important.
Not only is it energy rich, but the energy reserves and energy production and distribution are not subject to the geopolitical risks of so much of the oil in the rest of the world, which is subject to nationalization, effective nationalization by huge increases in royalties, war, sabotage, terrorism, political manipulation of supply, and in worst cases end user need to defend maritime transport of oil.
Canada was about 3% of world market cap as of mid-2007. Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
Aly-Khan Satchu:Good question.
I used the term "tradable" and perhaps should have used the word "investable", which is the term used by MSCI in constructing their indices.
Your home country of Kenya is included in the MSCI "investable" frontier markets index (and South Africa is in the emerging category), but most of the non-Gulf region Africa countries are not. MSCI has criteria which they broadly describe this way:
"The MSCI Frontier Markets Indices are designed to track the performance of a range of equity markets that are now more accessible to global investors. The MSCI Frontier Markets Indices Methodology follows similar principles to the methodology of the MSCI Global Investable Market Indices (GIMI), but takes into account the specific market capitalization structure and liquidity constraints that characterize these markets."
A good place to start looking at how MSCI defines investable is on their December 2007 release about their Frontier Indices found at:
mscibarra.com/products/indices/fm/MSCI_F...
We are not making any determination as to investablity in this article, but are following the lead of MSCI in stating what is and is not investable. Their determination is similar to, but not exactly the same as, that of Standard and Poor's.
I chose the word "tradable" versus "investable" partially to avoid confusion between direct investment opportunities which cannot be "traded" (such as a company building a factory or setting up a distribution system) and buying and selling stocks or bonds on a exchange with certain characteristics which is the "investability" idea MSCI is referencing.
By the way, you have a handsome website.
Thanks for commenting
Richard Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
John from Osaka,Thank you for the complement and also for the note of our proofing error. It has been corrected on my blog and SA will be making an image substitution shortly.
Richard Reply
Satchu
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
Dear Richard,What is your definition of tradeable stock markets in relation to Africa and particularly in SSA?
There is a whole lot going on which appears not to be captured by your map?
Aly-Khan Satchu
rich.co.ke
Reply
Investing in Non-U.S. Stock Markets [view article]
Greetings. I always enjoy your posts.The world map appears to have an incorrect key. It seems the emerging and developed non-U.S. markets are switched.
Cheers from Osaka,
john Reply