For many countries, there exists an ETF that tracks the stocks domiciled in that country. Most ETFS are cap-weighted, which leads to this problem. To buy the fund is sometimes to bet on just the three or four stocks that make up as much as half the fund’s weighting. Hence, if there are ADRs for the country, one might be better off trading them instead.
We who live in the US are told our country is the freest, bravest, richest, and best. But if “best” is measured by performance of the ETFs that are supposed to be proxies for the various country, the US is a pretty sucky market and ranks near the bottom of the list in terms of gains made YTD
Note. I haven’t used the cap-weighted version of the SP500 index, SPY, as a proxy for the US stock market, because the cap-weighted version is truly deceptive and meaningless. Instead, I used two equal-weight versions, RSP and EUSA (whose differences I haven’t yet explored.
Symbol YTD %Chg Name EPU 82.0% Peru All Ishares MSCI ETF EWY 80.3% South Korea Ishares MSCI ETF GREK 76.3% GX MSCI Greece ETF EWP 72.7% Spain Ishares MSCI ETF AFK 71.2% Vaneck Africa Index ETF EPOL 68.7% Poland Ishares MSCI ETF EWO 67.6% Austria Ishares MSCI ETF EZA 64.1% South Africa Ishares MSCI ETF COLO 62.8% GX MSCI Colombia ETF VNM 62.1% Vaneck Vietnam ETF ECH 58.9% Chile Ishares MSCI ETF EWI 50.8% Italy Ishares MSCI ETF EWW 49.4% Mexico Ishares MSCI ETF EFNL 45.8% Finland Ishares MSCI ETF EIS 45.4% Israel Ishares MSCI ETF EWZ 37.6% Brazil Ishares MSCI ETF EWC 34.4% Canada Ishares MSCI ETF EWG 33.1% Germany Ishares MSCI ETF EWK 32.8% Belgium Ishares MSCI ETF EWD 30.7% Sweden Ishares MSCI ETF EWL 30.4% Switzerland Ishares MSCI ETF EWH 29.9% Hong Kong Ishares MSCI ETF GXC 29.8% S&P China SPDR EWU 29.2% UK Ishares MSCI ETF EWN 28.1% Netherlands Ishares MSCI ETF NORW 27.6% GX MSCI Norway ETF EIRL 26.2% Ireland Ishares MSCI ETF EWQ 25.3% France Ishares MSCI ETF EWS 25.3% Singapore Ishares MSCI ETF EWJ 19.9% Japan Ishares MSCI ETF EWT 19.7% Taiwan Ishares MSCI ETF KWT 19.5% Ishares MSCI Kuwait ETF UAE 18.2% UAE Ishares MSCI ETF IDX 13.6% Vaneck Indonesia Index ETF EWM 11.7% Malaysia Ishares MSCI ETF ARGT 10.9% GX MSCI Argentina ETF RSP 10.5% S&P 500 EW Invesco ETF EUSA 9.8% USA Equal Weighted Ishares MSCI ETF EWA 9.6% Australia Ishares MSCI ETF EDEN 5.8% Denmark Ishares MSCI ETF QAT 5.1% Qatar Ishares MSCI ETF THD 0.5% Thailand Ishares MSCI ETF ENZL 0.0% New Zealand Ishares MSCI ETF EPHE -0.3% Philippines Ishares MSCI ETF TUR -3.5% Turkey Ishares MSCI ETF PIN -5.6% India Invesco ETF KSA -10.5% Saudi Arabia Ishares MSCI ETF GLCR N/A Glaciershares Nasdaq Iceland ETF
The gains are as reported by Bar Chart.
Postscript. Originally, I had intended to devote 2026 to tracking and trading country funds and to flesh out this thread in much greater detail. But I’ve decided to drop the project in favor of something else, namely, learning to become a precious metals investor.
This isn’t a spur of the moment decision. I’ve been edging my way into precious metals for the past two years But with prices exploding due to demand/supply imbalances, the opportunity to become more actively involved is too good to pass up.