Korea vs. Taiwan: Fight!

We're digging deeper into South Korea and Taiwan, particularly Samsung, but apparently they aren't traded in the US. That said, you can get some Samsung if you go with a fund. We were thinking about  EWY (S. Korea fund), AAIT (regional tech fund), and EWT (Taiwan).

We did a bit of research into Samsung, and they have had some troubles with impropriety, however they do seem to be doing well. The article from the independent mentions the idea that Samsung is so very important to the Korean economy that it may be able to weather any troubles. What we're wondering is if this makes it a good investment.

So it shakes out like this, we are looking at increasing our tech sector holdings. We are both looking to diversify country holdings and balance our sector weighting. We don't have anything in Asia and we have two individual country funds and a regional tech sector fund. Investing in any of these fulfills our objective of further balancing the portfolio. So the question becomes, which will be the most profitable. Isn't it always? Which one is the best fit for us may be a better question.

It may be helpful to consider the volume of each fund, since that will determine the ease of unloading it when the time comes. Additionally, smaller funds may be in danger of closing and being liquidated.

Here are some criteria to consider for further analysis of each:

1. Volume

2. How does it balance our portfolio?

3. Where is it in its cycle? That is, is it on the up- or down-swing?

There are a lot of things that don't look good for AAIT. One, the volume is low. Two, it basically at a 52-week high. However, it is not as heavily in either Samsung or Taiwan Semiconductor, which makes the holdings more balanced. Since EWT and EWS aren't 100% tech, they do bump up our tech sector holdings, but not disproportionately. AAIT would represent a larger
shift in our sector weighting.

For next week, we continue this.

Profit!