The United States has had an impressive return in the stock market over the past decade, but it's unusual for one country to be hot two decades in a row. That said, I don't want to take flyers on markets with unstable governments where coups and anti-capitalistic policies are likely to happen. I want to be in places that are stable and aren't trending in the wrong direction. I also don't really want to be overly exposed in countries that aren't diversified and rely too much on a single export such as oil. Hence, I'm looking at countries like Switzerland for lots of my investments. The Swiss stock market has drastically underperformed the United States over the past decade, but I when I look at the metrics of the two economies I wonder why. It's hard for me to find a measurement in which the United States outperforms Switzerland. Economic Freedom Index (2nd vs. 25th): https://indexdotnet.azurewebsites.n...aehewzermhphphgxojzp8xurzmsu6bqmaas2zealw_wcb Inflation (2.9% vs. 7.1% in November): https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/switzerland-inflation-rate/ Debt to GDP Ratio (41% vs 107%): https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-by-national-debt Innovation Index (1st vs. 3rd): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Innovation_Index Wealth-Inequality Bottom 50% Share (22.63% vs. 13.31%): https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/world-inequality-ranking Crime Index (21.62 vs. 47.81): https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country Four Year Degrees Ages 25-34 (49% vs. 36%): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tertiary_education_attainment Public Corruption Index (7th vs 27th): https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi...M6AVdJF5-c0xEeWqiT9qiU4P2dCKotAsaAvO3EALw_wcB So Switzerland is considered more economically free, has lower inflation, lower debt, higher innovation, lower wealth inequality, lower crime, more highly educated, and less corrupt. Furthermore, I look at Switzerland and I see a country that avoids war and is not reliant on fossil fuels like many wealthy countries (UAE, Qatar, Norway).
have a friend that just moved from Switzerland to Dubai - he said Switzerland was going downhill fast.
Why is that? Didn’t they unpeg the Franc from the Euro? That should give them more stability as I think they are way better run than the EU as a whole.
I'm from Switzerland. Did you compare total returns and currency ajusted? Swiss franc is about as strong as it gets a currency in the long run
Switzerland iShares ETF: https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239685/ishares-msci-switzerland-capped-etf United States iShares ETF: https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239724/ishares-core-sp-total-us-stock-market-etf In the last decade the U.S. has had an 11.31% return while the Swiss ETF has had a 6.6% return. The Eurozone ETF has only had a 3.25% return. In my opinion, the United States stock market was significantly inflated over the past decade through monetary policies.
Since you referenced great links, here is one for your collection: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_credit_rating Switzerland is a AAA one, so it should behave as you are expecting.
Fees are 0.5% vs 0.03% That's basically the performance difference. Switzerland stocks are dominated by a few big ones, nestle, novartis, Roche basically
One more link here for you in case you missed it: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/riskadjustedreturn.asp