International ETF exposure

[hendi_alex]

I generally prefer individual tickers to funds, but for foreign markets or difficult to understand securities, I'll usually opt for ETFs. A couple of months ago I decided to shift my portfolio to pick up some exposure to depressed foreign markets including the emerging markets. Valuations there are much more favorable than with U.S. equities. But knowing almost nothing about the array of stocks there, many of which can't even be bought on U.S. exchanges, I opted for ETF exposure. The indicated yields below are per my streamer, and are just approximations of what the actual yields will be. The biggest risk that I see in my picks are two fold. First there is dividend stream risk that many of the energy stocks will cut dividends in 2015. Second there is political risk, especially in Russian and Brazilian exposure. Funds were chosen to limit that exposure however. Here are the funds, their approximate yields, and weighting in the portfolio. I plan to eventually go up to about 20% weighting.

DEM Emerging market high yield (5.1% yield) 3.5% weighting
DLS International small cap dividend fund (3.7% yield) 2.8% weighting
FRN Frontier Market (4.7% yield) 2.1% weighting
IDV International Select Dividend ETF (4,7% yield) 4.5% weighting

ETF database is a great site to get an overview of ETFs.
ETF database

[Main Street Stock Investor]

Alex,

I have held and traded FEZ (Euro Stoxx 50) for several years. Beta = 1.26, P/E = 32, EPS = $1.19, Yield = 3.64%, 90 day trading volume = 2MM+. This ETF has been working well for me because I hold a core position and trade partial positions (try to collect dividends before a trade when possible). Other considerations for an ETF that I would hold and trade in my portfolio is trading volume > 1MM shares/day (90 day volume). Low volume affects the bid/ask spread when you trade frequently. The other consideration is the expense ratio.

M$$I