Emerging market ETFs

jimmyfingers · #1 12-01-2006, 09:38 AM

i'm wondering what the best ETF is to get a good exposure to emerging markets. i'm Canadian if it matters, although of course i can buy off US exchanges. is there a "standard" emerging markets ETF like there are standard US/Canada (SPY/XIU) ETFs?

jaym · #2 12-01-2006, 12:10 PM

I own EEM.

gull · #3 12-01-2006, 02:23 PM

If you don't have access to DFA funds, then VWO, the Vanguard emerging markets ETF, is probably the best choice. EEM has an unncecessarily high expense ratio and I know it used to have a big bid-ask spread. VWO has an ER of .3% and EEM has an ER of .75%. Another concern about VWO is that it's not a true ETF (it's basically a share of their fund VEIEX) so may not be perfectly capital gains efficient like real ETFs. However, it hasn't distributed capital gains since 1997. Ignoring DFA funds, I would say that EEM is the second best emerging market fund. ADRE might look attractive because it only has a .3% ER, but it isn't as well diversified and its spread is large (or was last I checked).

Preem · #4 12-03-2006, 02:59 AM

According to the comparative charts, ADRE beats VWO over just about any time frame.
Yahoo comparison chart

The interesting thing about ADRE is that Samsung is not among their top 10 holdings. Most other emerging market funds have Samsung as their #1 holding.

gull · #5 12-03-2006, 05:31 AM

Past performance does not predict future returns.

That, and ADRE is behind in the 5 year time frame.