This seems like a good time to be in international stocks/funds. Is there any general agreement as to what percentage to allocate to international in one's portfolio?
I think having funds in international has made sense over the last year, but international is already 2x over the S&P YTD return. Is it too late, not sure. Is it time to make a big move? I would be careful.
In Global equity market, US:Non-US ratio is approx. 55:45. So if someone wants to be uniformly invested, 50:50 is a good split.
I think I saw a report somewhere that the performance of 50:50 and 70:30 are very close (in terms of cumulative return and average volatility). IMHO, 70:30 works better than 50:50 for investors who want to go all out.
Most people have more confidence with US stocks, compared to the ex-US counterparts, especially in emerging/frontier markets. This is a natural feeling since we have most visibility into US, and also have some say in US (through democracy, opinion-poll, etc.). So some go as low as 90:10, or overweight developed countries and go a little higher exposure. I doubt if less than 10% exposure makes any meaningful difference. My personal target is 80:20, but I'm at 85:15 right now.
I think that 10-15% seems about right, based on what I'm reading.
I am invested 5% emerging market, and 15% developed.... in a up or down market
Personally, I am 15% international stocks in my equity portfolio. That represent 6% of my entire securities portfolio as I have the greater part of my investments in bonds (43%).
I have been told that 15% is not enough and I should shoot for 30% (or more) of my equities in international stocks with the rationale that the US represent only a portion of the equity universe. I followed that advice some time ago when International was in a decline. My conclusion -It all depends on several external factors beyond your control and one internal factor, i.e. your comfort level.
All of my International exposure is via Funds - no individual company. I am good with that fund approach.
The contrarian in me begins to get concerned when I read not only here, but on the other financial forums that I read that international is now the place to be. It was the place to be last summer after the Brexit vote. I think people see those 15% - 20% returns and think, wow I want that. Is there still life left in international, maybe, but I fear the herd is chasing returns instead of being ahead of it.
I have 10% (of total invested assets) non-US exposure but its all emerging markets equities.