LA Times: Foreign Stocks: Good for a Long Run?

[La_Serpiente]

Foreign Stocks: Good for a Long Run?

Every January, many investors find themselves looking back at the previous year's biggest financial winners and wondering why they didn't own them — or more of them.

This year, that exercise would highlight the fat 2003 returns of mutual funds that own foreign securities.

The average international stock fund soared 39.2% last year, according to fund tracker Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. That was more than six percentage points above the 32.9% average return of U.S. stock funds.

Funds that focus on stocks traded in so-called emerging markets, such as Mexico, South Korea and Poland, scored even bigger returns: 55.3%, on average, according to Morningstar.

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Foreign Stocks: Good for a Long Run?

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1. this is a no-brainer

with the decline in the USD a continued guarantee, it's a no-brainer to shift more investments overseas.

however good the us stocks and economy do, foreign stocks will do better simply because their currency is more valuable, nevermind if the foreign stocks themselves actually go up.