Why Howard Marks Loves Emerging Markets

In the previous part of this series, we discussed Howard Marks’ latest views on FANG stocks and saw that he is concerned about high-growth technology stocks and the risk to the equity market (SPY). In this part, we’ll look at Marks’s latest views on emerging markets.

The billionaire investor shared a particular interest in emerging markets. He believes these economies have been “unloved.” He said, “The real big money in the investment world — the dependable money, the safe money — is made not betting that the things that have gone up a lot will continue but on betting that the things that have gone down and become unloved will rebound.”

Emerging economies have been showing substantial improvements in recent years. Better domestic demand, changes in demographics, and improvements in consumer spending have been boosting investors’ confidence. According to Marks, it’s an important time for investors to look after these economies.

The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) and the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) rose 34.6% and 28.3%, respectively, in 2017.

In the next part of this series, we’ll look at Howard Marks’s view of Bitcoin.