Your Investments: How to profit from global growth

Your Investments How to

By AARON KATSMAN
With the continued economic crisis in the United States, the tumbling dollar and the prospects of the US losing its sole superpower status, more and more investors are looking for alternatives to the traditional US-based investment portfolio. Classic asset-allocation models call for 70 percent to 85% of a portfolio to be invested in the US. But there is a whole world of investment possibilities - even local ones - just as, or even more, intriguing than solely investing in America. The world has changed economically, and to ignore the change could be potentially costly. In fact, the US market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, is at the same level it was at 10 years ago. Ten years with no growth in a portfolio would not be considered a great return. SPANNING THE GLOBE According to a recent article in Fortune magazine, 14 of the world's 25 largest companies are headquartered outside the US. The growth rates of the Asian, Latin American, Eastern European and Israeli economies far outpace those in the US and Western Europe. "According to IMF statistics on actual and predicted shares of global GDP, the share of GDP attributable to advanced economies has fallen significantly, from 64% in 1996 to 54% in 2008, and will dip below 50% for the first time in 2014," IMF World Economic Outlook reported. Commenting on this report, Fidelity Investments adds: "In other words, there has been a fundamental shift in the economic landscape in the last 20 years, which has completely altered what was previously a cozy status quo between the 'haves' and 'have not' spheres of the global economy. Emerging markets have gained an increasing share of global GDP; however, the gains in emerging markets have not been evenly distributed. Developing Asia has been the stellar performer and key beneficiary, seeing its share of GDP rise from around 7% in 1990 to 21% in 2008 (with a 24% share predicted in 2014)." HIGH RETURNS Led by the rapidly expanding economies of China and India, as well as countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, investor appetite for higher-return investments has led to a newfound interest in emerging markets. The economic structural reform that has taken place in the regions mentioned above (and in Israel as well) has only increased investor interest. The continuing policy of lowering taxes, privatizing government-run companies and giving incentives to entrepreneurs has been instrumental in the rapid economic growth in these regions. In fact, while the last 10 years have led back to where you started from in the US, the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) returned 153%, and Latin America came in with a whopping 450% return. That stellar performance includes a drop of 60% during the middle of 2008. THE RISK FACTOR Investors looking to invest in higher-economic-growth markets need to be aware of the risks involved. Two of the most common risks are political (the stability of the country's government) and currency risk (shifts in the local currency's value in relation to the dollar's value). HOW DO YOU INVEST ABROAD? There are three main ways to invest in foreign markets: • Mutual funds are actively managed portfolios that invest according to specific strategies. International funds vary from the very broad strategies of investing in the 50 largest non-US companies, to very specific funds that invest in small companies in Taiwan, for example. • ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) are shares in foreign companies that are deposited in an institutional bank account in the US. Receipts of the deposit are issued and traded on the US exchanges. Those receipts represent the underlying shares held on deposit. Most importantly, as they are denominated in dollars, ADRs allow investors to buy shares in overseas companies without the costs associated with dealing directly in a foreign stock market. This means that the average small investor doesn't have to worry about the various currencies involved. • ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are securities that track an index, a commodity or a basket of assets, like an index fund, but trade like a stock on an exchange. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold. There are plenty of ETFs on specific countries as well as geographic regions. Ten years is a long time to invest and see no return. Speak with your financial professional to see how you can potentially capitalize on the new economic reality. aaron@lighthousecapital.co.il Aaron Katsman is a licensed financial adviser in the United States and Israel and helps people who open investment accounts in the US.