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John Waggoner: Is It Time To Go International ?

TedTed
in Fund Discussions
FYI: (Click On Article title At Top Of Google Search)

The question for advisers now: When will the hurting stop? More importantly, if international investing is worthwhile, what do you need to tell clients?

No less a personality than John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, has expressed skepticism about the value of crossing the border to invest.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=Is+It+Time+to+Go+International+?

Comments

  • JJM58
    Never underestimate the impact of currency translations on a portfolio of
    international stocks, if the investor wants to add alpha with international
    exposure.

    IMO ''diversification'' in not a reason to invest in non-US stocks.
  • bartab
    edited May 2017
    I understand why J. Bogle is not into International funds. There aren't a lot of Vanguard International Funds that I would want either. I do own VMVFX, along with GLFOX and GGSOX which are global funds, and FMIJX is my only truly International fund sans U.S.
  • msf
    Bogle is an independent thinker and quite critical of Vanguard when he feels it is doing something wrong. I seriously doubt that he would dismiss international funds because they weren't available at Vanguard.

    If you saw my post on the cited article (at IN), you know that Bogle has been saying the same thing since at least 1993, when he was still running Vanguard. If there's any cause and effect relationship, it seems likely that it runs the other way.

    It's more likely that Vanguard didn't even have international funds until the 1990s because Bogle didn't like them than the other way around.

    Curious that most of the funds you listed, including the only international fund, are currency hedged. Design or accident?
  • Mona
    edited May 2017
    bartab said:

    I understand why J. Bogle is not into International funds. There aren't a lot of Vanguard International Funds that I would want either. I do own VMVFX, along with GLFOX and GGSOX which are global funds, and FMIJX is my only truly International fund sans U.S.

    You mentioned VMVFX which is a nice global minimum volatility fund with an ER of 0.25%, VWIGX with an ER of 0.32% and that is up over 18% YTD and if your want to index broadly, VFWIX or VGTSX are very good inexpensive funds.
  • bartab
    Thanks very much for the recommendations. I appreciate it. I should not have been so down on the funds as it has been a poor few years for holding International.
  • Sven
    Increased asset class correlation in the past decade makes it harder to benefit from diversification in international markets. In the case of 2008 all equity markets went down with emerging market performed the worst. Higher risk debts including high yield and emerging market bonds also performed poorly.
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