Big Bets on Emerging Markets Can Bomb

Financial adviser Dawn Bennett said in a Barron's article this week that she was getting out of U.S. stocks and putting everything in "emerging markets, gold and natural resources."

She says "policy and habits" -- government spending, Federal Reserve actions and consumer debt -- will be huge obstacles for stock markets in the U.S. and other developed nations. The voices of the "3.5 billion to 4 billion consumers" in emerging countries are beginning to be heard in the world economic order, she says. In other words, the middle class is expanding in these nations.

Bennett makes a compelling case that's been echoed elsewhere. She favors Peru, China, Brazil and India, in that order, because their economies are poised to grow as the U.S. outlook remains dismal. Based on the interview, it sounds like those countries account for more than half of her portfolio, with the rest invested in gold and other natural resources.

She doesn't say how she reaches this allocation, but there are stocks and exchange traded funds that can help investors follow this strategy. But investors shouldn't try her approach without considering the dangers of such concentrated bets.

The first chart compares the Shanghai Composite Index, India's BSE Sensex Index, Brazil's Bovespa Index and Compania de Minas Buenaventura(BVN Quote), the largest component in the iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index ETF(EPU Quote). In the middle of last year, the S&P 500 Index dropped 39% as these indexes lost more than 50%.

Bennett's favored markets in 2008 Source: Yahoo

The second chart below illustrates a bad month in 2006, the middle of the bull market. Around this time, emerging markets had a short violent spasm while the S&P 500 went down only 4.9%. Neither decline changed the long-term outlook for these countries, but panic selling ensued.

Bennett's favored markets in 2006 Source: Yahoo