According to Dow Theory - Bear Market

[kimchi]

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Investing in The US for foreigners over the last 5 years has been about taking on the risk without the return. As you can see, UK investors would have been better off leaving their money in high-interest savings accounts for 5 years than investing in the US despite recent market highs.


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Yeah unless you happened to choose RIMM, GOOG or 100's of other stocks up from 100% to over 200% in the last 12 months. I think these generalizations are useless, after all, who has all their money in an index fund?

Jimbo

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That was a slightly strange post. I think my 'generalisations' are very telling when comparing investing in the US compared to overseas. If I were picking stocks, I'd much rather be doing it in a market and currency doubling every few years than one bobbing around amongst the high-interest savings rates leagues. Are you saying it's useless to know whether the market you are picking stocks from is struggling to keep up with CDs or doubling every few years?

Anyway, how many people can successfully pick stocks? Without getting into the old Index fund yarn, they are the +EV way to invest for 95-99% of people.

Most investors (US and non US) who have had most of their money in US stocks over the last 5 years have had a seriously underperforming portfolio.