Latin American ETFs to Watch

GML's country mix and its sector percentages roughly parallel those of ILF (see above). But while the iShares S&P Latin American 40, as its name suggests, contains only a limited number of the largest regional stocks (recently it held only 35 stocks), GML's portfolio is more diversified, recently including just short of 100 holdings. The price of the diversification is a total expense ratio of 0.60% for holders of GML, 10 basis points more than ILF.

Geographically, GML's portfolio is 64% invested in Brazil, 21% in Mexico and 9% in Chile. Its sector mix is 25% materials, 17% financials, 17% energy, 12% consumer staples, 12% telecom and 6% consumer discretionary.

CurrencyShares Mexican Peso Trust(FXM) is set up to reflect the price in U.S. dollars of the Mexican peso. The shares are intended to provide institutional and retail investors with a simple cost effective means of gaining investment benefits similar to those of holding Mexican pesos. The fund is designed to track the price of the Mexican peso net of trust expenses, which are expected to be paid from interest earned on the deposited Mexican pesos

ProShares UltraShort MSCI Brazil(BZQ) and ProShares UltraShort MSCI Mexico(SMK) are for hedgers and speculators who need leveraged downside exposure to the respective markets of Brazil and Mexico.

While these funds are likely to match the inverse of twice the return of the target index during one given trading day, over time they are not likely to perform in such a manner. The costs of maintaining double-inverse postures as well as imperfections in the hedging process for exchange traded funds make these appropriate only for short-term hedging and speculation.

The WisdomTree Dreyfus Brazilian Real Fund(BZF) seeks to achieve total returns reflective of both money market rates in Brazil available to foreign investors and changes in value of the Brazilian real relative to the U.S. dollar.

-- Written by Rudy Martin in Jupiter, Fla.

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