# Equity - Geographic asset allocation - Your current portfolio percentage %



## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

Time for another one of my polls. I'm always curious about how others structure their asset allocations.

How are your Equity assets broken down by geography?
Do you stick with Canada because that is where we live and what we know. Or do you have equity ETFs or stocks from many regions. 

For this poll, I only want to know about the *equity* portion of your total portfolio (pension, RRSP, RESP, TFSA, non-registered)

Please *exclude* the following from your calculation: Cash, Fixed Income (Bonds, GICs), Gold (and precious metals), your residential properties.
Please make sure you *include* the following: Stocks, Equity ETFs, and don't forget to include your REITs (they are equity investments too).

*What is your equity asset allocation by Geography?*


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_Previous Asset Allocation poll threads:_
CASH - Your current portfolio percentage %
REITs - Your current portfolio percentage %
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## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

I'll go first,

38 % Canada
32 % USA
14 % EAFA (Europe, Far East)
16 % Emerging Markets


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Here we go again on the geographic allocations...it is _so_ hard to do.
If only it were as easy as which exchange the stock ticker is listed at.

How do you account for companies with wide international diversification.
RIM, Suncor, Potash, etc?

What about companies that are listed here, but the majority of their business is abroad - Uranium One, Silvercorp, Sino Forest (  ) etc.


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

I liked humble_pies earlier response. Canada gives you all the diversification you need. If commodities are strong, the world economy is strong, so our economy is strong, our currency is strong. If commodities are weak, complete opposite and people are going to park their cash in the safe haven de jour.

I'll likely keep it simple and only stick to US/Canadian equities in the near term, hopefully by the time the amount of money I work with grows there will still be opportunities in LatAm globals and volatility has come down a bit. Not big on EAFA.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

CDN Equity: 100%


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

Revised goal:

- 60% = CA/USA 
- 15% = EM
- 25% = MM [misc.]

Always taking into account the international diversification of selected companies & that applies regardless of country of origin.


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## Soils4Peace (Mar 14, 2010)

17% Canada Large
17% Canada Small-Mid
12% US Large
12% US Small-Mid
10% EAFE Large
10% EAFE Small-Mid
6% Emerging Large
6% Emerging Small-Mid
10% Canadian REIT

All the individual securities I own are sold in Toronto, and count as part of the Canadian holdings.


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## Rysto (Nov 22, 2010)

25% Canada
37.5% US
37.5% Intl./Emerging Markets


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## dotnet_nerd (Jul 1, 2009)

80% Canadian
20% US

But my US holdings includes Micky D's so that gives me global diversification.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

where does a true multinational hang its hat these days ?

sometimes one can only tell which nation/state offers support to the co by looking at its board of directors & management, not to speak of its largest shareholders.


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## lewin (Jan 10, 2011)

50% Canadian
25% US
25% International (~18% EAFE, 7% Emerging markets)


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## GalacticPineapple (Feb 28, 2013)

ddkay said:


> I liked humble_pies earlier response. Canada gives you all the diversification you need.


Bump.

Humble_pie or others: could you point me to the thread(s) that discuss all-Canadian asset allocation?


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

100% short US


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

lonewolf said:


> 100% short US



wolf u are such a riot each:


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

GalacticPineapple said:


> Bump.
> 
> Humble_pie or others: could you point me to the thread(s) that discuss all-Canadian asset allocation?



several threads over several years, sorry i have no records, just mumbling from the bottom of the scullery in the kitchen.

but the drift goes that a great strength of canadian corporations since WW II has been their business acumen in global markets. Canadian multinationals tend to be talented & strong.

for example, most of our big energy & mining companies are 60-70-80-90% or more outside canada now (please note i mean big companies, not small localized oil or gas plays.)

banks & insurance companies are going multinational now, although sometimes they encounter difficulties where foreign countries have reciprocal foreign investment restriction regulations.

engineering companies go global; even our small research pharmas know they must find global markets if they manage to develop a successful new drug - either that or poise themselves for takeover.

i also believe that individual companies independently analyze & manage sovereign risk for the offshore countries where they operate far more attentively than fund managers or administrators offering international funds.

lastly, i find it's difficult to manage an offshore investment. Information is harder to come by. I do have a few: a dutch bank, a big US pharma, a spanish telco, an australian miner. I've held similar things in the past. On the whole, i don't find them performing any better than the overall portfolio. The one exception has been merck the US pharma in the RRSP, where a good part of the whopping gain has come from appreciation in USD.

i think the situation is vastly different for persons who have roots in other countries, who are connected to news & remain in a good position to monitor their investments.

i don't recall any thread that ever embraced a rigid concept of all-canadian asset allocation. This would be going too far imho. What i do question is the blind couch potato 25% allocation to *international* etfs, with their usually-higher MERs.

i believe that if the etfs in a standard couch potato were unbundled & if all the stocks were examined, it would be found that a fair number of canadian stocks in the "canadian" allocation plus a fair number of US stocks in the "US" allocation are publicly-traded corporations with heavy involvement in overseas markets. Thus the actual percentage of invested business in overseas markets would be far higher than the quoted 25%, goes my argument. Which an investor might want to think about, i sez to myself.


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

Hi:

Don't really know, nor do I much care.

Only direct foreign holdings are GE and JNJ, both nominally USA but quite international.

Canadian stuff that is also very international: MX, NBD, BNS, BMO, CAE, SNC, BBD, ...

So nominally 90% Canadian, but reality, what 30%-50%.

hboy43


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

potash - mostly selling to china & india - plus methanex & agrium are 3 more examples of canadian head-quartered companies that are essentially multinational


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