Interesting article by Mebane Faber. It presents a strategy option which requires limited moves and speaks directly to EAFE. Not that I'll follow but everything bears watching....
http://seekingalpha.com/article/78755-asset-class-rebounding-after-bad-months
Back in January I examined some of the worst months on record for 5 main asset classes in a piece titled, "
Time to put money to work". The summary:
What are the key take-aways?
- It does not pay to buy an asset class after a really bad month for the following 1 month.
- 12 months later the return is not much different than average.
- 3 and 6 month returns, however, are stronger. You pick up on average about 3-4% abnormal returns buying after a terrible month. That annualizes to about 10% per annum.
A simple strategy would be:
After an asset class has a terrible month (i.e. MSCI EAFE in January), wait a month then take a 2 month position, i.e. buy March 1 with a two month hold.
How did that perform, buying March 1 with a two month hold? Using the iShares Trust MSCI EAFE Index Fund (
EFA), I show a return of 5.9%, not too shabby! The other two poorly performing asset classes were foreign developed - iMCSI Emerging Markets Index Fund (
EEM), which would have done about 5%, and foreign REITs - SPDR DJ Wilshire International Real Estate (
RWX), which would have done about 4.9%.