Chapter 3 Selecting Investments in A Global Market
Chapter 3 Selecting Investments in A Global Market
to accompany
Chapter 3
Selecting Investments in a
Global Market
Questions to be answered:
Why should investors have a global perspective
regarding their investments?
What has happened to the relative size of U.S. and
foreign stock and bond markets?
What are the differences in the rates of return on U.S.
and foreign securities markets?
How can changes in currency exchange rates affect the
returns that U.S. investors experience on foreign
securities?
Questions to be Answered
Is there an additional advantage of diversifying in
international markets beyond the benefits of domestic
diversification?
What alternative securities are available? What are
their cash flow and risk properties?
What is the historical return and risk characteristics of
the major investment instruments?
What is the relationship among returns for foreign and
domestic investment instruments? What is the
implication of these relationships for portfolio
diversification?
Three Reasons for the expansion of
foreign investment opportunities
1. Growth and development of foreign
financial markets
2. Advances in telecommunications
technology
3. Mergers of firms and security exchanges
The Case for Constructing Global
Investment Portfolios
1. Ignoring foreign markets can substantially
reduce investment choices
2. The rates of return on foreign securities
often have substantially exceeded those for
domestic securities
3. The low correlation between Canadian stock
markets and many foreign markets can help
to substantially reduce portfolio risk
Relative Size of U.S. Financial
Markets
1. The share of the U.S. in world stock and bond
markets has dropped from about 65 percent of
the total in 1969 to about 51 percent in 2003
2. Overall value of the total investable capital
market has increased from $2.3 Trillion in 1969
to $70.9 Trillion in 2003 and the U.S. portion
has declined to less than half.
3. Canada’s capital markets comprise
approximately 2 – 3% of total global markets
4. The growing importance of foreign securities in
world capital markets is likely to continue
The Case for Global Investments
1. Rates of return available on foreign securities
often exceed yields on domestic securities due to
higher growth rates in foreign countries,
especially the emerging markets
2. Diversification with foreign securities can help
reduce portfolio risk because foreign markets
have low correlation with domestic capital
markets
3. For a refresher on correlation & risk reduction,
review www.dualinq.com/sw/co
Covariance
i i j j Cov = covariance
COVij
N i = return for security I
Can be illiquid
Grading determines value, but is subjective
Investment-grade gems require substantial
investments
No positive cash flow until sold
Costs of insurance, storage, and appraisal
Historical Risk-Returns on
Alternative Investments
World Portfolio Performance
Reilly and Wright (2004) examined the performance of
various investment alternatives from the United States,
Canada, Europe, Japan, and the emerging markets for the
period 1980-2001
• The expected relationship between annual rates of
return and total risk (standard deviation) of these
securities was confirmed
• The systematic risk measure (beta) did a better job of
explaining the returns during the period than did the
total risk measure
Reilly and Wright’s 2004 Study
Correlations between Asset Returns
• U.S. equities have a reasonably high correlation
with Canadian and U.K. stocks but low
correlation with emerging market stocks and
Japanese stocks
• U.S. equities show almost zero correlation with
world government bonds, except U.S. bonds
The Internet
Investments Online
http://www.site-by-site.com
http://www.moneycafe.com
http://www.emgmkts.com
http://www.law.duke.edu/globalmark
http://www.lebenthal.com
http://www.sothebys.com