Japan is 16 percent, Switzerland 14 percent, France 8 percent. So funds that keep turnover low don't run the risk of selling out at the bottom. Also, low turnover means low brokerage costs, which tend to be higher for foreign than for U.S. stocks. Just make sure you don't load up too much in one area since it's nearly impossible to predict which will boom and which will languish. The truth is that we don't know what the future holds.
Foreign shares appear to be where the values are.
More important, financial research shows clearly that, by adding foreign stocks to your holdings, you cut overall volatility dramatically. Co. The lesson here is that you can't tell when foreign stocks will surpass U.S. stocks, or vice versa, but by owning both, you can take advantage of the good years of each. But to play this game correctly, you have to readjust all 10 holdings so that you enter 1997 with the same dollars in each stock.