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Dodge and Cox International (DODFX) is a value oriented fund. So the two strategies are different to begin with. I don't know if there are any value-oriented indexes for the international developed market.
I don't care to go with international indexes because they don't account for national and regional issues. I'm thinking about stability, demographic trends, shareholder rights, corporate governance, rule of law, and so on. I'ld rather have someone keeping an eye on that for me.
And I don't care to own ETF's, which I understand to be derivatives designed for trading. Avoiding indexes, and ETF's, is one of the ways left to be a contrary investor.
M* lumps VEA and FMIJX into the international large blend category, while Lipper puts VEA in multi-cap core and FMIJX into multi-cap growth. FMIJX does not limit itself to developed markets. So they don't exactly swim in the same pool. But that's not important to me.
Using mfopremium I can compare the two funds over the nine years that FMIJX has been in existence. Its APR is 8.2 to 4.9 for VEA. Maximum draw-down over that time period was 13.7 for FMIJX to 23.3 for VEA. And all of the usual risk factors favor FMIJX.
SWISX, Schwab’s developped markets index fund, is good. You get a lot of Japan and no EM, so there is a bias built in. I prefer to use global funds for large cap international and hit the EM and S/Mid in separate funds. Maybe international will out perform one of these years, but the wait has been long. If you had put money into VEU 10 years ago, you’d have made a bit more than 5% per annum for your pain.
This group, esp Ted, helped me with this category. In my mind, there's too much junk out there to round up in a world index. No thanks. The global fund that's been rock solid for me, and certainly not a value fund, is MGGPX. That guy is keen on weeding the dead weight, but let's see if it continues. Good luck!
Comments
I don't care to go with international indexes because they don't account for national and regional issues. I'm thinking about stability, demographic trends, shareholder rights, corporate governance, rule of law, and so on. I'ld rather have someone keeping an eye on that for me.
And I don't care to own ETF's, which I understand to be derivatives designed for trading. Avoiding indexes, and ETF's, is one of the ways left to be a contrary investor.
M* lumps VEA and FMIJX into the international large blend category, while Lipper puts VEA in multi-cap core and FMIJX into multi-cap growth. FMIJX does not limit itself to developed markets. So they don't exactly swim in the same pool. But that's not important to me.
Using mfopremium I can compare the two funds over the nine years that FMIJX has been in existence. Its APR is 8.2 to 4.9 for VEA. Maximum draw-down over that time period was 13.7 for FMIJX to 23.3 for VEA. And all of the usual risk factors favor FMIJX.
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