It’s Time to Go Beyond BRICs

In recent weeks, I’ve urged readers to maintain positions in some of the potentially most volatile markets in the world, including emerging markets (see “Bullish on India” and “Access to Africa”) and crisis-wracked countries such as Spain (see “ECB Could Trigger Monster Rally in Spanish Stocks”).

My rationale was simple enough.  In a market being goosed by the largest coordinated central bank easing in history, it makes sense to err on the side of bullishness.  Unless you see strong evidence of a market breakdown, you want to be invested, and preferably in the most speculative sectors .  This is not a trend you want to fight.

Yes, the global economy is slowing, the United States faces a fiscal cliff, and the dithering of European politicians over the past two years has done damage to investor confidence that will likely take years to fix (if fixing it is even a possibility at this point).  All of these are major headwinds to a sustained bull market, and there will eventually be hell to pay.  But that day is not today.

Today, I recommend that investors snap up shares of the EGShares Beyond BRICs ETF ($BBRC).

This new ETF by EG Shares invests in promising emerging markets excluding the BRIC countries of India—which I recommended separately—and Brazil, China, and Russia, which have all lagged this year. Instead, it holds 50 stocks from a variety of other promising emerging markets that have attracted less hype, such as Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

If world markets continue to rally throughout the quarter, BBRC should be a top performer.

A word of warning: BBRC is a new ETF and is thinly traded.  DO NOT place market orders on this security; use a limit order, and keep your positions to a relatively modest size.

This article first appeared on TraderPlanet.