International mutual funds invest in markets outside of the United States and across the globe. These funds can be good for diversifying and adding balance to a portfolio. Generally, international funds are more volatile than their domestic counterparts. However, the rewards of investing in foreign markets can be many, allowing investors to fatten their wallets with more than just local opportunities.

1. Understand the difference between international funds and global funds. International funds typically focus on investing outside the United States; global funds invest both inside and outside of the United States.

2. Recognize that investing in international mutual funds provides a way of breaking into foreign markets without the risks brought on by investing with little applicable knowledge. Professional mutual fund managers bring experience and in-depth research to the table, boosting your chances of profiting from your investment.

3. Carefully evaluate the level of risk you can take and your investment time horizon.

4. Determine the portion of your assets you can afford to invest in international mutual funds.

5. Understand that international mutual funds may invest in stocks and/or bonds from markets around the world. An international fund may focus on a particular market or a combination of markets.

6. Recognize that you may need to sit out some rough times in order to realize an international fund’s full potential.

7. Consider the fact that international funds may help you to lower your overall investment risk. As the world’s markets do not move exactly in tune with each other, you could capitalize on a thriving market in one region, even while trouble brews in another country.

8. Research and compare international mutual funds online, using MorningStar.com.

9. Visit the websites of the funds that interest you and request or download prospectuses.

10. Contact a financial adviser to discuss the portion of your portfolio best allocated to international mutual funds. With the adviser’s help, invest in the mutual funds best suited to your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon.

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This is part three on our discussion about the basic principles of investing in the stock market. Previously, the first three principles of investment was discussed. The first principle given was that you must realize that the stock market is just another vehicle of investment. The second principle dealt with realizing that investing in the stock market is a roller coaster ride. The third principle talks about determining what type of investor you are. In this article the next 4 principles will be discussed. Please visit my blog should you wish to view the entire article.

4.) While investing in the stock market does not take a lot of cash however having lots of it will obviously have an impact on how much you earn. – It is true that you don’t need hundreds of thousands of pesos or millions to invest in the Philippine Stock market. For me personally you only nead about P 20,000.00 to start trading. This was the initial amount I began with. You don’t exactly need P 20,000.00, you can even start trading if you have P 10,000.00. But personally, I believe that is too small an amount. To show you what I mean let me cite Jollibee (JFC), one of my favorite stocks as an example. Jollibee shares cost only 51.50 per share as of today. In order to invest in a stock you need to purchase a minimum number of shares which is called the board lot. The board lot for Jollibee is 100. If you do the math you will only need P 5,150.00 (51.50 x 100) to be a stock holder of Jollibee Food Corporation. Let us presume that a year after you purchased the stock it climbed to P 100.00 per share. This means that you have gained P 5,000.00 more. However if you had invested 200 shares you could have gained much more.

5.) Be consistent in your investment – Start small but do not stay small. You must have the discipline to consistently invest a certain amount of your income to the stock market. This way you can have more capital thereby growing your portfolio. Over the years, I have slowly added to my investment. I did not stay at P 20,000.00. The act of investing should become your habit, and I say it is a good habit to develop.

6.) You must learn to minimize your losses and maximize your profits – If your stock goes down, remember that the loss is only on paper. There is no actual loss until you sell your stock at the “losing” price. Hence the best way is to never ever sell at a loss. That is why it is important that the money that you invest in the stock market is considered as really “extra money” and not your emergency fund. If you invest your emergency fund or your savings you will be forced to withdraw sell your stock at a loss. Similarly if you sell your stocks and you profited from the sales, or you received dividends, utilize the profit or the dividend to buy more shares of stocks.

7.) Want to get rich quick ? Don’t even think about investing in the stock market. – The stock market is not a get rich quick scheme. You should never ever expect to get rich overnight here. Investments always takes time to grow. If you hear about investments that give you shocking rates of return in a very short length of time, beware of those ! In the stock market, especially the Philippine stock market, it may take you several months or even years before you could say that you have made it big time. On certain rare occasions, there will be a time that it will only take weeks or days perhaps wherein you can make a killing, but again these are only rare occasions. This might occur when there is a consistent bull run or when there is an unusual going up or going down of prices within a certain period.

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