Slight Change In Plans

GXG rallied (as of mid afternoon), but I entered a stop at $41.90 anyway.  Given this chart, taking a profit seemed prudent.  This pattern often results in additional losses and wouldn't I regret losing money on a stock that was up 55% for the year just a few days ago.

There's another reason for placing a sell order now.  Here's a chart showing the stock price of the ETFs GXG (Columbia), ECH (Chile), EPU (Peru), and EWZ (Brazil).

The larger economy's ETF is lagging the smaller economy's ETFs.  To be fair, EWZ had a nice run prior to this year.   Peru, the late starter, is gaining traction.  And while all have dropped recently, GXG has fared worse than the others. 

The holdings of these ETFs are quite different and, upon review, GXG is not my favorite.  GXG is the most concentrated as the largest five holdings comprise 60% of the portfolio.  EWZ the least concentrated.  EWZ has a dividend yield of nearly 4%, GXG only 1.2%.  ECH has by far the largest exposure in the consumer services sector, but EPU has none.  If you're trying to limit your exposure to financials, ECH has the least at 19%.   

Despite my past and erroneous inclination to lump these South American ETFs in one basket, aside from a shared continent, they are remarkably different.  Perhaps GE compared to Whole Foods different.  Whenever GXG gets sold (today?), I'll keep an eye on ECH and EWZ as potential replacements.

Though I can't identify a specific post, I am sure Random Roger Nusbaum's writings prompted me to look into these ETF holdings a bit.  A little extra knowledge can't hurt.