Investing is no longer limited to domestic markets and those investors wanting to take advantage of attractive opportunities have popularized global investing. In recent years, international investing has become both the norm and the necessity for a truly diversified portfolio that could help minimize overall portfolio risk. An increasing number of individual and institutional investors have been increasing their global markets exposure to pursue their investment goals.

In the past several decades there has been a shift from investments in U.S. markets to foreign markets. In 1970, foreign markets represented 34% of the world’s investment opportunities and by 2008 foreign markets represented 56% of the world’s investment opportunities. It is estimated that by 2030, the U.S. market will only account for 25% of the world market and investments in global markets will increase substantially.

The two main driving factors that can explain the shift toward international investing are the investor’s quest for diversification, reduced risk, and larger returns. At first, when U.S. investors began opening up to foreign equities, it was primarily to maximize diversification in their portfolios. Because international markets don’t necessarily move in tandem with each other – some could go up while others go down – global diversification may potentially offset the effects of a downturn in the U.S. market.

The minor difference in returns can be attributed to many economic and market factors in countries around the world. But as a diversified bunch, the overall risk of any individual international market is lowered. For example, throughout the 1990s, the Japanese market experienced a market recession. Subsequently, Japanese stocks became heavily undervalued, leaving investors with attractive opportunities. Several years after, the Japanese market bounced back producing gains north of 60%.

One way to increase international exposure into your portfolio can be simply a plain investment in an U.S. company that gets most of their revenue from foreign markets. In fact, most of the companies on the S & P 500 Index collect most of their revenues from overseas operations.

Getting into the international markets space can be daunting for investors especially since they have to consider many factors that do not affect them such as the regulatory, political, and economic environments of those markets. Another way to invest internationally is to buy mutual funds or exchange-traded funds, which invest exclusively in foreign markets. Or consider a global fund which can have a mix of both foreign and U.S. stocks. These funds provide you with more diversification because they invest in an array of foreign equities.

Investing in foreign markets does carry its own set of risks. A foreign investment’s return depends on the currency exchange values between say the U.S. dollar and the local currency of the foreign investment. For instance, for U.S. investors, currency exchange values could come about from a rise in the dollar’s value against the foreign currency they are investing in. Nevertheless, investing for the long-term and diversifying with many international investments can help minimize currency exchange and other risks.

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