It's Time to Go Global
By Graham Summers
July 23, 2007  

At first I thought I was misreading the fund prospectus. "Maybe I'm looking at gains year to date," I thought. Nope. There it was:

Average annual gains since inception: 35%. 

I looked up at Michael Brighton's smiling face across the conference table. Seeing my look of surprise he laughed, "Oh yes, we've got some lovely products."

Michael is the senior VP of client relations for Global Investment Bank's Dubai Office. Michael was kind enough to sit down with me to discuss Dubai and the investing opportunities therein during my recent trip to the emirate. 

Sitting in Michael's conference room located on the 13th floor above Dubai's main drag, the Sheikh Zayed Road, I once again found myself amazed at the investing opportunities located outside of the U.S. Most U.S. investors would never consider putting their money into the Middle East. It's their loss. 

You'll never hear Global mentioned on MarketWatch or CNBC, but it's been ranked the "Best Equity House in Kuwait" three years straight by Euromoney. Looking over some of Global's fund prospectuses, it's not surprising. Where else in the world can you find a mutual fund that has averaged 35% a year for seven years straight? 

Put another way, if you'd invested in the fund at its inception in November 2000, you'd have already made six times your money. 

If you've been investing strictly in the U.S. over the last five to six years, you've missed some of the biggest investing opportunities out there. By index alone, you've missed out on more than 300% gains in Russia, 39% a year since 2002 in Kuwait, and more than 70% in Vietnam last year. 

Individual companies have done even better. 

There's a Brazilian steel company that's up more than 1,900% since 2003. A Swiss cement company has more than tripled since 2003. Kuwaiti mutual funds, such as Global's, have averaged upwards of 30% a year since 2000. 

You get the general idea. 

But if you're focusing on U.S. opportunities, you're missing all of this. More and more countries are shifting toward free-market based economies (Russia, Brazil, China, Turkey, etc.). Formerly government-owned companies have been sold off (Telmex in Mexico, Swisscom in Switzerland) resulting in numerous monopolies being available to international investors for the first time. 

However, I know 90% of U.S. investors who hear about these kinds of opportunities will immediately dismiss them as soon as they realize the companies are foreign. With few exceptions, U.S. financial coverage seems to end at the coasts. And while investment banks and U.S.-based companies are piling into places like Russia and Dubai, Joe America is content to keep his money domestic.

I don't understand this. We're in a global economy, after all. Every time you go to the gas station or clothing store, you're dealing with foreign goods. The No. 1 car producer in the world is Japanese. Our watches are Swiss, our shoes Italian...  

Stansberry & Associates (the company that publishes Growth Stock Wire) is launching a new globally focused newsletter called International Strategist.

I'll be traveling all over the world researching investment opportunities that you would normally never hear about.

I've already found a mutual fund that averages 33% a year, a one-year AAA-rated bond that yields 17%, the most profitable cement company in the world, and a real estate fund that is moving toward becoming the largest owner of retail space in Eastern Europe. 

I hope these opportunities excite you as much as they do me. And as soon as we go online with International Strategist, you'll be the first to know. 

As Michael would say, "There are some lovely investments to be had, my friend." 

Good trading, 

Graham