The MSCI EAFE acronym stands for Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australasia, and Far East.
The five year annualized returns were mostly negative with the MSCI EAFE index down 4.72%.
These choices should outperform the MSCI EAFE index of foreign stocks, historically as high as 5.56% annually.
Do you swing with the EAFE or do you sit on the fence between Europe and the Pacific Rim?
Vanguard MSCI EAFE shares are currently trading off about 2.2% on the day.
For the period prior to Total International's April 1996 inception, I used returns data for the MSCI EAFE Index.
Over a 9.5 year period ending this past December, the overall MSCI EAFE Index gained 63.9% in total return.
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The ten year annualized returns were positive with the MSCI EAFE index up 4.67% and the United States up only 2.93%.
He said he is particularly concerned about the iShares MSCI EAFE Index, which has held clients' money for nearly three years.
The MSCI EAFE index fell 12.14% while the emerging markets dropped 18.42%.
Since mid-1999 the U.S. and Japanese markets and the Morgan Stanley Capital International EAFE Index of European and Asian stocks are all off between 13% and 22%.
The Vanguard Group manages index funds and ETFs that track the MSCI EAFE and its two components, the MSCI European Index and MSCI Pacific Index.
Japan accounts for the largest country weighting in the MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australia, Far East) index, a global stock index covering more than 20 countries.
Since June 1, the iShares FTSE Xinhua China ETF is down 4.95%, underperforming the MSCI Emerging Markets index and the MSCI EAFE, both down around 2.9%.
The iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund ( EFA) is designed to track the performance of publicly traded securities in the European, Australasian, and Far Eastern markets.
In fact, the majority of SRI funds in each class outperformed their respective benchmarks, with the exception of the U.S. mid cap and international equity-EAFE class.
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He points out that more than half the managers of actively managed European and Far Eastern funds beat the EAFE index between January 1990 and the present.
Since the March 9, 2009, market bottom, the OIGAX growth fund is up 119%, OIDCX is up 127% and iShares MSCI EAFE Index (EFA) is up 110%.
The U.S. also outperformed foreign indexes like the EAFE for the trailing 12-months through November 30, but foreign indexes have done better over the trailing six months.
China Mobile is a member of my Validea Professional 10-stock Asia portfolio, which is up 15.8% this year while the MSCI EAFE index is in the red.
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The three year returns were very good for the global markets but the MSCI EAFE index was only up 7.65% while the emerging markets index was up 20.07%.
Stocks in Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain are all in positive territory, while MSCI's widely followed EAFE index of developed European and Asian markets has plunged 14% year-to-date.
The Laudus Rosenberg International Small Cap Equity Fund is up an annualized 9.3% in the past five years while the Morgan Stanley Capital International EAFE Index gained just 3.2%.
Therefore, if you hanker to put new money in the market but also want to take the summer off and not worry too much, you might look at the iShares MSCI EAFE Index.
Where he really separates himself from the MSCI EAFE Index of developed world stocks are in two sectors highly sensitive to the economy: technology and industrials with weightings nearly double those of the index.
The iShares EAFE exchange-traded fund (amex: EFA - news - people ), for example, tracks the performance of 829 companies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region and has a rock-bottom expense ratio of 0.35%.
In our infographic, the returns of the MSCI EAFE Index show that a falling dollar serves as a tailwind pushing greater returns on foreign stocks, while a rising dollar functions more as a headwind, cutting back on EAFE returns.
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