ADR: Foreign Investment

It is a good practice to own some foreign stocks thus lowering your risk
with diversification and increasing your return. Investors still need to do
their homework well on any country and company in which they wish to
invest. However, ready access to such research is sometimes very hard to
get. Lower dollar in recent months have been favorable for some of the
stocks, but if the dollar starts strengthening itself for an extended period,
investors may find themselves in troubled water.

American Depository Receipts (ADR) have been a popular investment
tool in recent months. The bulk of these listings are from Europe, though
emerging markets are increasing in representation. ADRs from China and
India have been very popular and successful investments. We can tell
you so many names which have consistently produced good return, but,
as we know, we always hesitate several times before investing in any
individual stock.

If you think it is too tough to do research and keep track of these foreign
companies, our suggestion is to go with one of the Exchange-Traded
Funds (ETF) that track U.S. ADRs. The BLDRS funds, offered by
Nasdaq and the Bank of New York, include BLDRS Emerging Markets
50 ADR Index (ADRE) , BLDRS Developed Markets 100 ADR Index
(ADRD) , BLDRS Europe 100 ADR Index (ADRU) or the BLDRS Asia
50 ADR Index (ADRA).