China and the I fund

[Brett]

I wish we had more of China in the I fund. Hong Kong makes up less than 2% of the fund. I would like to see the fund made up of at least 25% Chinese investment. China is now the fifth largest economy in the world and is growing at a whopping 9%!!

 

[Wizard]

China's stock market performance is actually pretty horrible the last 10 years.

We want Latin American. Some of those countries are up 500% plus in the last 5 years.

I love ETFs.

 

[FundSurfer]

It isn't about today...

The Latin markets may have done well the past few years but what will they do over the next few years. On China, I still would not put much into that basket. The Chinese have a bad history of politically making big changes that screw things up. I'd agree that China has huge upside potiential but also has risk. The Chinese will also begin to consume more themselves as their middle class grows and so companies that are selling to that middleclass will do very well IMHO without as much risk.

I think the holdings of the I-fund (MSCI EAFE) get readjusted annually? Mainly it is based on the G-10 nations. Maybe we should get a 3rd world fund? That would be interesting.

 

[Ichiro]

I really hope that the I fund in the near future would include India, Indonesia plus South Korea. Both India and Indonesia are doing great this year!!!

 

[Wizard]

Philippines, Thailand and Malayasia are getting our jobs and huge corporation investment - makes sense we chuck those into the I fund too.

 

[Brett]

One thing that has contributed to the rising value of the I-fund is the falling dollar in the last few years, investing overseas shelters us from a falling dollar. With China's currency tied to ours, there wouldn’t be such a benefit, not that that would preclude them from being a fine investment option.

 

[roguewave]

One thing that has contributed to the rising value of the I-fund is the falling dollar in the last few years, investing overseas shelters us from a falling dollar. With China's currency tied to ours, there wouldn’t be such a benefit, not that that would preclude them from being a fine investment option.

If a "falling dollar" is a big contributor to increasing the value of the I fund, how do you explain last year's performance when the dollar rose against the various currencies that make up a part of the fund?

 

[Brett]

Point taken

 

[cowboy]

If a "falling dollar" is a big contributor to increasing the value of the I fund, how do you explain last year's performance when the dollar rose against the various currencies that make up a part of the fund?

I don't think it's so much the dollar rise against the various currencies as to what the dollar does in the day to day and that an interfund exchange is completed. So if dollar is down the I fund holds up better but if dollar rises than watch out as profit is cut. The dollar can rise against the other currencies and if the other currencies go up too it doesn't make much difference.