Vangrd European E.T.F. (VGK-N)

(Past Top Pick Oct. 10, 2017, Down 7%) What was I thinking? He's been in and out of this a few times. Europe is such a morass with all kinds of trouble. This ETF itself is fine, but Europe is a mess.

He likes Europe, but not in love with it, and is doing this for diversification purposes. Doesn’t see anything horrific in Europe, but it is always a basket case, but not the way it was 2 or 3 years ago. He is in this one tentatively.

This holds the largest cap companies in Europe. It is developed countries. There is no Greece. A huge ETF, something like $24 billion. Extremely cheap. If you want to play Europe, it’s a great way to go.

FEZ-N vs. VGK-N. Europe is cheap, in relative value terms, but he thinks there is another leg down so is not putting new money into Europe right now. He is defensive over all. He likes the ZEW-T because of hedging and covered call.

(A Top Pick July 18/14. Down 2.81%.) Sold this last November, because it is not hedged. A really good ETF, well diversified, low cost and it paid a really good dividend of about 4%. His concern was the euro, so he got out. Also, the performance was a little bit lacklustre.

How to invest in Europe? Thinks Europe is growing, coming out of the recession they were in. Euro is down because of the Greek situation, and if US interest rates go up it will weaken the euro, which will help the Europeon exporters. Suggests investing in an index like Vanguard.

(A Top Pick July 18/14. Down 1.69%.) Sold his holdings at around $54-$55. Had been paying almost a 4% dividend, but his concern was Putin going into the Ukraine and also about the euro.

(A Top Pick May 16/14. Down 1.49%.) Sold his holdings because of the vulnerability it had to the euro. It is unhedged. Also, the performance wasn’t very good.

European indexes have been benefiting because of low oil prices, some pickup in their economies and the introduction of quantitative easing. A lot of money is rushing over there so there has been a little bit of a benefit. However, there has been a pullback recently, which would give him a little concern. Europe has the same seasonality as North America. He would expect this to pull back to about $52 or so.

(A Top Pick March 20/14. Up 1.31%.) This was frustrating because he thought Europe was going to go higher. Russia going into the Ukraine created problems for Europe. Still has a small part of this, but switched into the Wisdom Tree International Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ-N).

(A Top Pick March 20/14. Down 0.29%.) Sold his holdings because he was worried about the European currencies.

Currency has the biggest impact on investment returns. This one is in US dollars and exposes you to the Euro. He thinks the Euro will go to parity over the next year. You should use ZEQ-T, or EUR-T with currency hedging to get exposure.