While most Canadian investors tend to focus their portfolios around domestic securities, more than 97% of global economic output and over half of the word’s equity market capitalization comes from countries outside of Canada.* In fact, international IPOs now lead U.S. capital market growth, and emerging economies—while historically more volatile—are forecast to grow faster than their developed counterparts.** Investing internationally can provide access to companies, technologies, and even entire industries that do not exist in domestic markets.

A strategic allocation to international securities may enhance a portfolio's risk-adjusted returns, provide portfolio diversification, and offer opportunities to seek higher performance. And when those securities are not hedged, international investing can offer pure exposure to local equity and currency returns.

*Source: Data on world GDP from World Bank 12/31/08; data on world market cap 6/30/09
** Source: Wall Street Journal, 7/20/09.
Past performance does not guarantee future results.