Chances are you may have seen the title of this piece and shook your head side to side in knowing discouragement. You may now be expecting me to launch into a rant about ISIS, terrorism, world economies or geopolitics in general. Did you forget I am a financial writer? As such I don’t do politics (in fact the only thing I hate more than politics are politicians, but I digress).
My only interest (in terms of writing) is the financial markets – stock markets primarily. And like a said, the world is an ugly place right now.
I follow several “Regional” indexes that I created using ETFs within AIQ TradingExpert.
Consider Figures 1 through 4 below
Figure 1 displays my own ETF composite index for the “Americas” region. The tickers included are: ECH – Chile; EWC – Canada; EWW – Mexico; EWZ – Brazil; IYY – USA
Figure 2 displays my own ETF composite index for the “Asia Pacific” region. The tickers included are: EPI – India; EWA – Australia; EWH – Hong Kong; EWJ – Japan; EWM – Malaysia; EWT – Taiwan; EWY – South Korea; FXI – China; IDX – Indonesia; RSX – Russia; THD – Thailand; VNM – Viet Nam
Figure 3 displays my own ETF composite index for the “European” region. The tickers included are: ECD – Sweden; EWG – Germany; EWI – Italy; EWK – Belgium; EWL – Switzerland; EWN – Netherlands; EWO – Austria; EWP – Spain; EWQ – France; EWU – United Kingdom; VGK – Vanguard European VIPER
Figure 4 displays my own ETF composite index for the “Middle East” region. The tickers included are: EGPT – Egypt; ESI – Israel; EZA – South Africa; TUR – Turkey;
Now take a look at the ugliness contained in Figures 1 through 4.
(click to enlarge)Figures 1 through 4 – Clockwise from Upper left (Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia/Pacific (Courtesy: AIQ TradingExpert)
Notice anything these indexes ll have in common?
For the record, as of 12/31/2015:
World Region – Americas -32.6% off of 2014 high
World Region – Asia Pacific -23.3% off of 2014 high
World Region – Europe -19.0% off of 2014 high
World Region – Middle East -30.7% off of 2014 high
Like I said, the world is an ugly place right now.
(See also JayOnTheMarkets.com: The World is an Ugly Place Right Now (Part 2))
Jay Kaeppel