It's been tough-going for international investors. A stronger U.S. economy has led to more investment dollars flowing to U.S. equities than foreign companies, resulting in significant under-performance for foreign issues. For instance, the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA) has lagged the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) by 9% this year, 4.2% during the past 52 weeks, and 8.1% per year over the past decade.
Source: Limelight Alpha and Yahoo Finance.
That track record is discouraging but returns are often cyclical, and a decade of extreme under-performance means many companies overseas