The Importance of Diversification and Investing Globally

A title screen appears that reads: “The Importance of Diversification and Investing Globally”

The name “Ken Fisher” is listed on a banner at the bottom.

The title screen wipes to a man in a blue suit, identified as Ken Fisher, appears on screen and begins speaking.

Ken Fisher: Almost always, and almost everywhere, people get this wrong. They tend to prefer to own stocks from their own country. In America, the biggest and broadest stock market in the world, most diverse, but also in small countries. The fact is that when you think of broad categories of equity, the very long returns-- year returns of them--tend to be almost identical, if not identical, to other broad categories of equity, if the categories are calculated correctly.

Ken Fisher: There's a lot of incorrect ways to calculate equity returns. But calculated correctly, in the long term they get real similar, because in the long term, as I wrote about in my "Only Three Questions" book, shifts in supply seven, eight, ten years from now, are much more important in determining pricing than shifts in demand and can overwhelm any change in demand.

Ken Fisher: Demand fluctuates in the short term based on human emotion. Supply can be increased or decreased nearly infinitely to overwhelm any perception of superiority in category. And so, if you look at U.S. vs. foreign, and you go back close to forever, they go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, of U.S. doing better than foreign for a few years, foreign doing better than U.S. for a few years.

Ken Fisher: Right down the middle is the totality of global, since the world is a little more than half U.S. equities in money value. And what that means is you really get a smoother ride to that long term equity return if you don't focus on your local home country bias and instead invest globally, diversify globally, aim at the world market.

Ken Fisher: In some periods, you'll do worse than the American market, or if you're French, the French market, or if you're Japanese, the Japanese market. And sometimes, for a long time.

Ken Fisher: But in the end, it comes back to being the same. And if you're in one that underperformed for a long time, global helps you. If you're in one that outperforms for a long time, it's not too long before, if you're just in that country, you're going to have a disappointing time.

Ken Fisher: Think globally, invest globally. It really gets you to the equity return in the long term in the smoothest path.

A closing screen appears with further video suggestions.

A series of disclosures appears on the screen “Investing in Securities involves a risk of loss. Past performance is never a guarantee of future returns. Investing in foreign stock markets involves additional risks, such as the risk of currency fluctuations. The foregoing constitutes the general views of Fisher Investments and should not be regarded as personalized investment advice or a reflection of the performance of Fisher Investments or its clients. Nothing herein is intended to be a recommendation or a forecast of market conditions. Rather it is intended to illustrate a point. Current and future markets may differ significantly from those illustrated here. Not all past forecasts were, nor future forecasts may be, as accurate as those predicted herein.”