Part of my job as an investment advisor is to review new and prospective client portfolios. I like doing this, since it tells me how investors feel about the markets. One trend I’ve noticed during the past several months is the lack of international stock exposure in most investors’ portfolios.
This situation isn’t too surprising, considering the relative underperformance of international stocks vs. U.S. stocks. The chart here of the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU) shows that global markets have indeed struggled of late. While this international equity fund is well off its lows, VEU does remain below both its 50- and 200-day moving averages.
Compare this fund with the Vanguard Total Market VIPERs (VTI), an ETF that reflects the entire U.S. equity market. Here we see a big spike in the value of VTI since that mid-October slide. The fund now is well above its 50- and 200-day moving averages and trading right at its all-time high.
Read more about how coming changes to China’s market will affect the world at Eagle Daily Investor.
