More Top Emerging Markets ETFs

Entirely by accident, the theme of the last two charts of the week has been emerging markets. A week ago, in Chart of the Week: Rethinking Geography, I chose to highlight how Asian and European emerging markets ETFs had very similar performance charts, much more so than the relationship between each emerging market and its continent-specific developed market counterpart. Yesterday, in Chart of the Week: Irrepressible Colombia (GXG), I highlighted the 42% returns that the Global X/InterBolsa FTSE Colombia 20 ETF (GXG) has managed to post this year, tops among the geography-based ETFs.

As it turns out, there are four other country ETFs which have posted returns of over 20% this year. In the chart below I have highlighted these single country emerging market ETFs and added a fifth top performer for good measure. Ranked in terms of 2010 performance, these ETFs are for Thailand (THD), Chile (ECH), Malaysia (EWM), Indonesia (IDX) and Turkey (TUR).

On a related note, I had previously made two references to the Claymore/Zacks Country Rotation ETF (CRO) as one option for investors who might be looking for an ETF which took advantage of a third party “strategy-in-a-box” country rotation model. For the record, aftera disappointing run, Claymore Securities is set to close CRO in at the end of next week, with the last day of trading on September 10^th.

Even in a flat market, ETFs with 20% annual returns are out there. Sometimes it takes a little creative thinking to find them and get on board in time to capture a large portion of that move.

Related posts:

• Chart of the Week: Irrepressible Colombia (GXG)
• Frontier ETFs
• Chart of the Week: Rethinking Geography
• Chart of the Week: Market Vectors Gulf States ETF (MES)
• Chart of the Week: Emerging Markets

[source: ETFreplay.com]

Disclosure(s): long GXG, EWM and IDX at time of writing

Chart of the Week: Irrepressible Colombia (GXG)

While U.S. investors can be forgiven for thinking that stocks have been stuck in a fairly narrow trading range for the last 3 ½ months, those who are scanning the globe for investment ideas are likely to have seen an entirely different investment climate.

A case in point is the Global X/InterBolsa FTSE Colombia 20 ETF (GXG), which has regularly been showing up as one of the top geography-based ETFs in my weekly newsletter. GXG is up 42% in 2010, handily outdistancing the BRIC ETF, EEB, and the popular broad-based emerging markets ETF, EEM, which are down -4.8% and -1.8% year-to-date, respectively.

Whereas BRIC has been a popular emerging markets investment theme for the past few years due to the popularity of Brazil (EWZ), Russia (RSX), India (EPI) and China (FXI), some have suggested that the current decade may turn out to be the decade of so-called frontier ETFs, with countries like Colombia, Indonesia (IDX), Vietnam (VNM), Egypt (EGPT), Turkey (TUR) and South Africa (EZA) among the top performers. These frontier ETFs already have their own catchy acronym, CIVETS, in order to make them easier to recall.

In terms of economic firepower, don’t expect the CIVETS to displace the BRIC countries, but when it comes to returns, the CIVETS are already off and running. With the best performance of any country ETF so far in 2010, Colombia has been acting like the new lead dog and has earned the spotlight as this week’s chart of the week.

Related posts:

• Frontier ETFs
• Chart of the Week: Market Vectors Gulf States ETF (MES)
• The BRIC Bull
• Chart of the Week: Emerging Markets

[source: StockCharts.com]

Disclosure(s): long GXG, IDX and VNM at time of writing