etf

SPDR S&P CHINA ETF $105.35 (New York Exchange symbol GXC; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) tracks the S&P China BMI Index, which includes all publicly traded Chinese stocks available to foreign investors.

Right now, the SPDR S&P China ETF holds 350 stocks....

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers about $4 trillion U.S., spread across 370 mutual funds and ETFs.

Generally speaking, Canadians are blocked from buying mutual funds that are registered in the U.S....

The most important qualities of the best ETFs to buy include low MERs and “passive” management

A: Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF, $142.61, symbol VCR on New York, aims to track the MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index. It’s an index that invests in U.S. consumer discretionary companies. These firms are in manufacturing and service industries that tend to be the most sensitive to economic cycles....

Realistic expectations and an eye toward diversification will help you develop the best retirement portfolio, and give you built-in security

ISHARES INDIA 50 ETF $35.29 (Nasdaq symbol INDY; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an ETF that tracks the Nifty 50 index—the 50 largest, most liquid Indian securities. It began trading in November 2009.

The fund’s top holdings are Housing Development Finance, 7.5%; Reliance Industries (conglomerate), 7.2%; ITC (conglomerate), 6.4%; ICICI Bank, 5.1%; HDFC Bank, 5.0%; Infosys (information technology), 4.9%; Larsen & Toubro (conglomerate), 3.7%; and Tata Consultancy (information technology), 3.5%....

VANECK VECTORS VIETNAM ETF $14.75 (New York symbol VNM; buy or sell through brokers) holds Vietnamese companies and foreign firms that get a significant share of their revenue from the Southeast Asian nation.

The ETF’s top holdings are Vingroup (conglomerate), 8.6%; Vietnam Dairy Products, 7.9%; No Va Land Investment Group (real estate), 6.7%; the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 5.9%; and Masan Group (a food, resources and banking conglomerate), 5.4%.

Investing in Vietnam still comes with aboveaverage political risk....

We think conservative investors can hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is by choosing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with an overseas focus.

The best ETFs continue to offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks.

Here’s a look at four international ETFs we see as buys, and two we feel you should continue to hold.

ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND $44.86 (New York symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

The fund’s geographic breakdown includes China, 28.9%; South Korea, 14.6%; Taiwan, 11.8%; India, 8.5%; Brazil, 7.3%; South Africa, 6.4%; Mexico, 3.6%; Russia, 3.1%; Indonesia, 2.3%; Malaysia, 2.2%; Thailand, 2.1%; and Poland, 1.3%.

Its top holdings are Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), 4.7%; Samsung Electronics (South Korea), 4.1%; Alibaba Group (China: e-commerce), 3.9%; Taiwan Semiconductor (computer chips), 3.5%; Naspers (South Africa: media and Internet), 2.0%; China Construction Bank, 1.5%; China Mobile, 1.4%; Hon Hai Precision (Taiwan), 1.2%; Baidu (China: Internet), 1.2%; and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, 1.1%.

iShares launched the ETF on April 7, 2003....

VANECK VECTORS VIETNAM ETF $14.75 (New York symbol VNM; buy or sell through brokers) holds Vietnamese companies and foreign firms that get a significant share of their revenue from the Southeast Asian nation.

The ETF’s top holdings are Vingroup (conglomerate), 8.6%; Vietnam Dairy Products, 7.9%; No Va Land Investment Group (real estate), 6.7%; the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 5.9%; and Masan Group (a food, resources and banking conglomerate), 5.4%.

Investing in Vietnam still comes with aboveaverage political risk....

Even though new products can be enticing, a lot of new ETFs mean higher prices and more risk