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I currently don't have any international funds and I need to choose one of the following International Funds: OAKIX (Oakmark International), TBGVX (Tweedy Browne Global), THDIX (Thornburg Developing World), or do you have a better recommendation? Thanks for your help!
If I may ask why one of these 3 funds to start? Where will you purchase these funds from such as direct from the company or a brokerage house such as Fidelity? Do you only want one fund to cover the international area or are multiple funds an option? How much of a % of portfolio are you allocating to International.
Seems like a lot of ?? but my answer depends on your answers.
My top choice would be FMIJX which is NTF at Fidelity. Although this fund is very young, the FMI team is top-notch and disciplined, and this fund has a reasonable net ER of 1.00%. We own FMIHX managed by the same team.
We do not own a dedicated diversified foreign fund, as I prefer to get our foreign equity exposure from our global funds: PQIIX, MSFAX, ABNIX and TOLSX.
1. Available NTF at Fidelity. 2.No load 3. Manager tenure greater than 4 years. 4. Top 20% in category for 1,3 and 5 years. 5. Open for investment.
Artisan International-ARTIX Oakmark Int-OAKIX Pear Tree Polaris Foreign Value-QFVOX Wasatch Int Growth-WAIGX Driehous Emerging Growth-DREGX Fidelity Int Capital Appreciation-FIVFX Matthews Asia Dividend-MAPIX Wasatch Int Opportunities-WAIOX Fidelity Pacific Basin-FPBFX
I personally have Oakmark (OARIX) and Driehous(DREGX). I suggest these 2 funds along with one of the Wasatch funds.
I will second FMIJX, it is a relatively new fund from a shop that rarely offer new funds. This one was launched on 12/10, 9 years after the previous one. There is an experienced management team at the helm. The ER=1% is actually pretty good among managed funds. It could be a solid fund mainly covering large companies. I own FMIJX in my Roth, IRA and 401k accounts along with ARTKX (closed).
OAKIX, ARTIX are good funds to consider. But they are more likely to be higher beta.
FIGFX is a fund to consider from Fidelity's own lineup if you want something from Fidelity. Very good track record since launch.
Since you said one International fund, I just offered you the ones that I think is core.
Carefree: I would not argue with anything further up. TBGVX is heavily into Europe's bigger, giant corporations, which might help to insulate the fund from much of Europe's troubles. I mean to say that BECAUSE those companies are so huge, they can withstand the craziness in Europe. I believe it will take a generation or two for Europe to get back to normal. Just as it took them from the 1950s until very recently to come up with this thing called the European Union. There's a ton of different jurisdictions that need to sign-off on stuff. ....... Having said all that, I used to own TBGVX, way back in another lifetime. It is solid. Click on the ticker symbol, and you'll have a menu come up, and you can check it out from different angles. It has been around for many years, with a great reputation: TBGVX.
HOWEVER, I want to recommend one that's already been mentioned, and another, that's not been mentioned: MAPIX, doing very well. Several years old, now. It's invested in ASIA. There is a fund manager, Andrew Foster, who has branched out on his own, away from Matthews---where he did very well with MACSX. He's started-up SFGIX. It's had a rocky road to deal with lately, but I do believe it will go places. A rather new fund, just started-up in the last year or two. It is more globally invested. But I dunno if you can get it with no transaction fee via Fidelity? It pays dividends twice a year, in June and December. The MAPIX fund pays quarterly. "Break a leg" with all this!
The three funds you mentioned cover different part of foreign exposures: developed versus emerging markets. Here is how they differ from each other.
Tweedy Browne is the tamest one of the three that historically invests in developed markets. Oakmark International invested in both developed and emerging markets. Its portfolio are concentrated and it reflects in its short term volatility. Both TB and Oakmark funds are managed by experience teams. Thornburg Developing Market is fairly new (started in 2009) and has done very well since inception relative to the EM benchmark. All three are solid funds.
However, I would second Kevindow's and Investor's recommendation on FMI International, FMIJX. A young fund managed by an exceptional team, very reasonably ER, small asset base, and is leading the pack this year among diversified international fund.
In the long run you will want to have sizable exposure to developed and EM. Key is to identify good management team that will help you to navigate the ups and downs.
Unfortunately some top options are not available NTF at Fidelity (SGOVX, CIGIX, IGIIX). But you do have some good managers from which to select: ARTIX, FIGFX, WAIGX, WAIOX, PIPDX, OAKIX for large cap. For emerging markets, it is hard to beat WAEMX. And HEMZX and GTTDX are good options for Fidelity NTF. If you can get THIGX at NTF that might be an ok option.
I rarely see Scout UMBWX mentioned but we are pleased with it. Lower ER, long time manager and decent performance. Another to consider is a Schwab ETF-SCHF, no fee at Schwab.
Reply to @ron: I haven't owned Scout Int'l since 2007, but one thing that speaks well of the fund is that it seems to have always had fairly significant positions in Scandinavia, ~ the most financially stable & sensible region of Europe, IMHO.
I second Max Bialy. With investing, a major parameter must be risk management and his choice of two funds MAPIX and TBGFVX mirrors my thinking. Both have the lowest betas in this irrational field. The other funds others are too risky for my aged bones.
After owning TBGVX for 15 or more years, I split half into the unhedged TBCUX, which has done better since it was offered (according to my TDA reports). Same management team, but less dependent on the dollar's strength. Depends on your view of the currency issues. When GPGOX opened, I transferred all my Wasatch international holdings to them (27% since inception, 17% one yr - so far so good. I know it's "global", not international, but I'm willing to trust good managers to find good companies regardless of location, and I hope they will shift funds back to the US when it seems appropriate. The Wasatch pedigree did sway me. Just confusing the issue.
With all the endorsements of FMI Int'l (FMIJX), I took a closer look at the fund. It has some distinctive attributes that may make it more or less appealing to various people.
First, the mechanical stuff - it does currently sport a low 1.00% ER, but that's because of a fee waiver in effect "at least through Jan 31, 2014" (quoting the prospectus). After that, unless the waiver is extended, there's another waiver in effect that "is expected to continue indefinitely." That's 1.75%. However, since the total expenses are now 1.45% without a waiver, I expect a 1.45% ER going forward.
As others have noted, this is managed by the same fine team that manages FMI Common (FMIMX) and FMI Large Cap (FMIHX). They seem to do a good job at managing risk, which is impressive given their very narrow portfolios (Large Cap and Int'l are explicitly non-diversified, per prospectus, and Common holds only 40 stocks). This fund is particularly concentrated, with only 29 stocks (per M*).
This fund appears to be the first international one for the management team. Mitigating that is a focus on multinationals (again, per prospectus), which may tend to give the fund a bit less of an international flavor than other funds. M* reports that the fund has no investments in emerging markets, and the prospectus confirms that EMs are not a focus of the fund.
Along the same lines they may make extensive use of hedging (see "currency hedging risk" in the prospectus), which would tend to make it similar to Tweedy Browne, but otherwise uncommon.
This fund has a two year record - top 1% for 2011, 49th percentile for 2012. That seems to be consistent with the other funds the team runs - some excellent, some okay, rarely below third quintile.
Personally, some aspects of the above appeal to me, others do not. This fund has no EM exposure, which may explain its category leading performance in the first quarter of this year. As mentioned in an article linked to in another thread EMs are trailing developed markets by their largest margin in 15 years. So not having EM (not because of stock selection, but by design of the fund) has worked to the fund's advantage this year. If you go with this fund, you might want to complement it with an EM fund.
Reply to @msf: thanks for the write up on FMIJX. The fund has done well but no emerging markets explains some of the performance in comparison to other funds.
Reply to @msf: This is one fund managers like to get EM exposure through multinational companies. They are not alone in this quest. OAKIX has almost 0% in emerging markets as well.
If you want EM you probably should get exposure though specialized funds like WAEMX.
Reply to @Investor: WAEMX is closed to new investors but as mentioned Wasatch does offer a couple other options in the EM space especially in small companies.Since taking over as co-manager in May 2011, Ms Geritz has done very good with the below linked fund and also with WAFMX.
Comments
Regards,
Ted
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/rankings/foreign-large-blend
Seems like a lot of ?? but my answer depends on your answers.
Art
We do not own a dedicated diversified foreign fund, as I prefer to get our foreign equity exposure from our global funds: PQIIX, MSFAX, ABNIX and TOLSX.
Kevin
1. Available NTF at Fidelity.
2.No load
3. Manager tenure greater than 4 years.
4. Top 20% in category for 1,3 and 5 years.
5. Open for investment.
Artisan International-ARTIX
Oakmark Int-OAKIX
Pear Tree Polaris Foreign Value-QFVOX
Wasatch Int Growth-WAIGX
Driehous Emerging Growth-DREGX
Fidelity Int Capital Appreciation-FIVFX
Matthews Asia Dividend-MAPIX
Wasatch Int Opportunities-WAIOX
Fidelity Pacific Basin-FPBFX
I personally have Oakmark (OARIX) and Driehous(DREGX). I suggest these 2 funds along with one of the Wasatch funds.
Art
OAKIX, ARTIX are good funds to consider. But they are more likely to be higher beta.
FIGFX is a fund to consider from Fidelity's own lineup if you want something from Fidelity. Very good track record since launch.
Since you said one International fund, I just offered you the ones that I think is core.
Tweedy Browne is the tamest one of the three that historically invests in developed markets. Oakmark International invested in both developed and emerging markets. Its portfolio are concentrated and it reflects in its short term volatility. Both TB and Oakmark funds are managed by experience teams. Thornburg Developing Market is fairly new (started in 2009) and has done very well since inception relative to the EM benchmark. All three are solid funds.
However, I would second Kevindow's and Investor's recommendation on FMI International, FMIJX. A young fund managed by an exceptional team, very reasonably ER, small asset base, and is leading the pack this year among diversified international fund.
In the long run you will want to have sizable exposure to developed and EM. Key is to identify good management team that will help you to navigate the ups and downs.
When GPGOX opened, I transferred all my Wasatch international holdings to them (27% since inception, 17% one yr - so far so good. I know it's "global", not international, but I'm willing to trust good managers to find good companies regardless of location, and I hope they will shift funds back to the US when it seems appropriate. The Wasatch pedigree did sway me.
Just confusing the issue.
First, the mechanical stuff - it does currently sport a low 1.00% ER, but that's because of a fee waiver in effect "at least through Jan 31, 2014" (quoting the prospectus). After that, unless the waiver is extended, there's another waiver in effect that "is expected to continue indefinitely." That's 1.75%. However, since the total expenses are now 1.45% without a waiver, I expect a 1.45% ER going forward.
As others have noted, this is managed by the same fine team that manages FMI Common (FMIMX) and FMI Large Cap (FMIHX). They seem to do a good job at managing risk, which is impressive given their very narrow portfolios (Large Cap and Int'l are explicitly non-diversified, per prospectus, and Common holds only 40 stocks). This fund is particularly concentrated, with only 29 stocks (per M*).
This fund appears to be the first international one for the management team. Mitigating that is a focus on multinationals (again, per prospectus), which may tend to give the fund a bit less of an international flavor than other funds. M* reports that the fund has no investments in emerging markets, and the prospectus confirms that EMs are not a focus of the fund.
Along the same lines they may make extensive use of hedging (see "currency hedging risk" in the prospectus), which would tend to make it similar to Tweedy Browne, but otherwise uncommon.
This fund has a two year record - top 1% for 2011, 49th percentile for 2012. That seems to be consistent with the other funds the team runs - some excellent, some okay, rarely below third quintile.
Personally, some aspects of the above appeal to me, others do not. This fund has no EM exposure, which may explain its category leading performance in the first quarter of this year. As mentioned in an article linked to in another thread EMs are trailing developed markets by their largest margin in 15 years. So not having EM (not because of stock selection, but by design of the fund) has worked to the fund's advantage this year. If you go with this fund, you might want to complement it with an EM fund.
If you want EM you probably should get exposure though specialized funds like WAEMX.
https://secure.wasatchfunds.com/Our-Funds/Overview.aspx?fund=WAIOX