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M*: International-Stock Funds Continue To Prosper

FYI: International-stock funds encountered generally favorable conditions in the second quarter of 2017, just as they did in the first quarter of the year.
Regards,
Ted
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=814415

Comments

  • Not sure why 3-month returns are of any consequence. Any fund can have a terrific quarter, but that is no reason to own it. ARTIX had a good quarter as noted, but it has struggled terribly the last 3 years. My concern is that the large number of trend followers will start piling in international funds at the wrong moment. Core holds for us are ICEIX, MAPIX, ODVYX, SIGIX, VEA, and BISMX depending on the risk level of the portfolio. We could not be happier that we first bought ICEIX (IVVYX) many years ago. It has been a star, flying under the radar, which is fine for us.
  • For me ARTKX has been a core international fund for last several years. I tempted to split it across ARTKX and FMIJX in the 1-2 years, but controlled that urge. I bought VWIGX in my daughter's Education IRA a few years ago and it made good money in that account, and I added Vanguard International Dividend Growth index in my retirement account a few months ago.

    SFGIX, ARTWX and GPEOX have been my EM funds. Though, sometimes I tempt to sell one of them and instead play with EM regions (Latin America, Asia and Emerging Euro) with TRow Price funds for a small part of my portfolio.
  • Hi @mrc70
    You noted: " my daughter's Education IRA"
    Do you mean a 529 "education" account or does your daughter have a Roth IRA that will be used for education?
    Thank you.
    Catch
  • edited July 2017
    Currently, I hold SFGIX and FMIJX, which have been very good. I've looked at MAPIX but it seems like a bit of overlap because SFGIX is heavy in Asia as well.
  • No, Education IRA, those with $2k max limit. Fortunately, I started the accounts for both kids around 2009 (the lowest point of market) and contributed for 3 years, and that 6 thousand has become approximately $12k in both accounts.

    Contribution to them is after-tax money, so as you mentioned, they are somewhat like Roth IRAs.
    catch22 said:

    Hi @mrc70
    You noted: " my daughter's Education IRA"
    Do you mean a 529 "education" account or does your daughter have a Roth IRA that will be used for education?
    Thank you.
    Catch

  • @mrc70
    Thank you for the reply, and good for you and yours for the investments.
    Congratulations.
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