By: Joseph Hogue of Street Authority
The days of dartboard investing in emerging markets are over.
Over the two years ended April 2008, a basket of these markets, as represented by the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSE: EEM), surged an impressive 60%. You could have invested in any number of these economies and seen solid returns.
This group of markets eventually swooned and rebounded, but it's increasingly clear that the days of heady returns are gone. In the two years to 2015, the fund lost 11% and individual country funds are posting huge disparities in returns.
As an emerging markets analyst and an expatriate living in South America, I see the shifting economic environment first hand and it's not just down here. The Russian market is crumbling and stocks of African countries have not done any better.
Yet you can't paint these markets with a broad brush. Some markets, notably China and India, have done very well over the last year. The iShares China Large-Cap fund (NYSE: FXI) has risen 14% and the WisdomTree India Earnings ETF (NYSE: EPI) has zoomed 38% higher in that period. Continue reading "The End Of BRICs... Here's How To Profit"
