TradingMarkets Everything You Need to Know About Trading ETFs
Looking for opportunities to trade and invest in stocks from the other side of the Atlantic?
The iShares family of exchange-traded funds provides ETF traders and investors with a wide variety of country ETFs that make international investing and diversification both easy and transparent. From France to Germany and from Switzerland to the United Kingdom, country funds based on European stocks let traders and investors everywhere to not only get exposure to a diversified mix of global companies, but also to diversify their portfolios, making them less U.S.-centric.
While stock markets in Europe and the United States tend to move in tandem over the longer term, there are often periods of time where markets in one country may outperform another.
Additionally, currency changes that make one nation’s currency more valuable and another nation’s exports less expensive increasingly play a role in the fortunes of stocks. Being able to take advantage of these scenarios is something that has only recently been possible – thanks to country ETFs like those offered through iShares.
Exchange-traded funds like the iShares MSCI Germany Index ETF, EWG
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FP |
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EWG is most heavily weighted toward industrial materials and consumer goods stocks. EWQ is dominated by financial services companies, which make up more than 18% of the ETFs sector weighting. Energy companies are the largest component of the EWU.
ETF traders and investors interested in these or other European ETFs can visit the ishares website at www.ishares.com.
Coming next: Our TradingMarkets Everything You Need to Know About Trading ETFs column continues its world tour with a look at ETFs linked to the stock markets of the so-called BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China!
According to a recent report, eight out of ten securities traded are exchange-traded funds. Want to learn how to trade them? Click here to find out what traders are saying about Larry Connors’ new book, Short Term Trading Strategies That Work: A Quanitified Guide to Trading Stocks and ETFs!
David Penn is Editor in Chief at TradingMarkets.com.