Liz Young, Head of investment strategy at SoFiiShares MSCI SouthKorea E.T.F.EWYBUYApr 15, 2026

South Korea is the real emerging market to watch after Brazil has rolled over. EEM is seeing a slight pullback now, but is up 240% in the past year. EEM is a proxy for semis and semis equipment.

Whatever happens in the US affects the rest of the world. He wouldn't recommend emerging markets, as they tend to underperform if/when there's a recession. 

Investors would be better off buying the best companies in the German market, rather than the whole German market. Germany's the 4th-largest economy in the world, but it's had a bunch of issues with its own deficit and economic slowdown. He owns specific stocks in Europe. 

South Korean stocks are undervalued. The economy is resilient, having endured Covid well and totally integrated into world supply chains. It's benefitted from some supply chain shift away from China. South Korea is attracting more foreign capital flows. Samsung is EWY's biggest holding at 22%.

The future is Asia ex-Japan. This is the most direct way to do it. The #1 holding, Samsung, is 22% of the fund. Country funds tend to have a premium on the MER. Better way would be to just buy Samsung. Once you deconstruct the ETF, you see that it relies on just 1 or 2 stocks.

One of the most liquid ETFs out there and a great way to get exposure to South Korea, and Canadians are underexposed to the Pacific Rim.