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Considering moving some money from asian funds to Latin America
I have some general internatonal funds and also some sector funds in asia . I would like to diversify the latter into some latin America funds such as T rowe price Prlax and Fidelity Flatx. Are there better choices. I am keeping my general international funds such as hains exwax and oakix.
Because Latin America funds tend to own much of the same stuff (and let's be honest, these funds are pretty much Brazil funds with a smattering of Mexico, Chile, and Peru), we have gravitated to iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index - ILF. The performance is better than Fidelity, Price, and BlackRock, expenses are less than half, and risk/reward stats are better. While this goes against much of what we know about efficient markets in emerging economies, since the funds all own much of the same stocks (3 or 4 of which will make up 20-30% of the holdings in each fund), the index wins out in this instance. I suppose that if a few of Price's picks that are not part of the index were to take off like rockets, the actively-managed fund could do better for a while.
My suggestion - use ILF if you can. Otherwise consider BlackRock or Price.
I'd consider keeping a good portion of money in Asia. In terms of specific names, I think Coca Cola FEMSA (COCSF.PK or KOF) and Arcos Dorados (ARCO) are interesting consumer staples stocks for Latin America that may be more conservative plays. Coca Cola FEMSA is Coca Cola in a number of Latin American territories, while Arcos Dorados is the largest McDonalds franchisee in Latin America (and I believe the largest fast food operator in Latin America, although I could be wrong on that.) Bob's index fund suggestion is also a good idea, although these two stocks - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH FIRST - are examples of potentially more conservative (by comparison) plays on the area
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My suggestion - use ILF if you can. Otherwise consider BlackRock or Price.