Internationals & US Investing Strategic Approach!!! (4 Stocks To Buy)

Good day, fellow investors. In this video, I'm going to argue that international and US investing is the best way for your long-term wealth accumulation. Why? Because when it comes to investing, it is about comparing price, reward, and risk. And we're going to discuss the best way I see to compare those opportunities globally over time. The reason why I'm making this video because I see a lot of comments as soon as something is international or emerging markets, disregard it as complicated, it might not be that difficult, and it might be very valuable. So, stick around and you'll learn a lot in this video. We'll start with a comparison, US markets, international markets. Those are always undervalued, but when they are undervalued enough to invest in those is the key. We'll discuss the strategy, and we'll discuss four international stocks I am personally considering to buy. Before we start, let me start with the disclaimer, the sponsor, Interactive Brokers. If you look at my links in the description below, there is only one affiliate link, and that is Interactive Brokers. Because whenever people ask me about brokers, that's the only one I'm completely switching towards that all my buys now are Interactive Brokers because you have a very complex trading platform if you want. You have an easy platform if you prefer that. They have a global approach, global markets, immediate reach. They have the best yields out there, the lowest fees. Many globally have joined. Also, they have this specific local knowledge and compliance situations that other brokers don't have because the other brokers just give the job to somebody else. That's very important to know. The stock did well. We did look at it 2 years ago. I said it was to watch. Stock split there, so it did tremendously well because the business is doing also well. So, if you click on that link in the description below, you support the channel. I get a small fee for the click. And now that we have solved that disclaimer, let's get down to business. And before we start comparing, let me say something immediately. The S&P 500 with a P ratio of 15 or 20 is better that whatever emerging market international with a P ratio of 10 to 15. That's just slight relative cheapness. That's not what I am interested in when it comes to international markets. But when we are talking of S&P 500 P ratio of 30, CAPE ratio above 40, second most expensive market in the last 150 years, compared to emerging markets with P ratios of 10, below 10, 5, 6, and still growing, that's absolute cheapness, and that's what I'm focused on whenever I'm looking at international markets. Another very important situation to explain, most people simply chase returns. They see the Chinese market or Europe going up, and they start buying because they see stock prices going up. That's a terrible mistake. Here we see it again as the Chinese ETF started exploding on AI, deep seek what it was in August, September 2025, there were huge investments in China. Just a month ago, 2 months ago, when it started to look uglier, people hugely at lower prices went away from that. 2020 was the boom of Chinese stocks, Chinese internet companies. And then people just rushed away. We bought big here because it was too cheap to be true. And then you have these cycles. This is for example again China boom, boom, bust, a small boom, and we are here again towards something that all these businesses over more than a decade have been growing significantly even globally. Their stock prices on average went nowhere. So, now it's time to look at China as cheap because nobody wants to look at it. And when I'm saying international investing, I'm not saying being long whatever happens. I'm just saying watching it, comparing it, and then taking advantage of those few opportunities in a decade where it's very unlikely you'll lose money, and then whatever is left is upside. If you remember just a few years ago, 2024, China was considered uninvestable, terrible, crisis this or that. Then 12 months later, China was loved, outperforming the S&P 500. All those companies were growing fast. And this is from the Bloomberg article. We had Donald Trump returning trade war, and then came deep seek, then stocks boomed. Now they are busting again, but for a short period, that market even outperformed the S&P 500 by nine or even 20 percentage point at some point in time. But we are not here to relatively outperform. We are here to build wealth through buying or owning businesses that are so cheap, so valuable, that it's unlikely that we lose money. And then when there is a boom, if the business hasn't improved that much, we might even sell. But, that's a great counterweight to, let's say, the other, more standard options you might have in your portfolio. Let's now discuss a little bit more US versus international investing. If I look at the S&P 500, since March of 2009, it is up 12 times. That's crazy performance. That is the best bull market in history. If it continues for another 2 years, 3 years, it will be a 20-year double-digit, 15% per year bull market going for, if it doubles again, that will be a 25x in 20 years. And consequently, US stocks have outperformed international stocks for a very, very long period up to mid-2025, 2026. And now again, international stocks are weakening a little bit, depending on how you look at it. However, there have been many cycles where international stocks did better, US stocks did better. And so, it is important to understand that cycle. Plus, if you look at the situation on markets, US markets did great, which means those markets now are 64% of global markets. If you look at the lower part of that chart, China, that is included in emerging markets, is just 12% of the global stock market capitalization. Think about that. The world at 8.2 billion people, everything is emerging markets, and just this population of a billion makes 64, if you put Europe, 74, 80% with the UK and everything, of the global world stock market capitalization. So, perhaps if things are really cheap, it is smart to get some exposure in a smart way to this 5.5 billion people and growing. Further, if we look at the P/E ratio, when it stabilized a little bit in the early 2010s, for the S&P 500, it was 15. Now, we are close to 30. 2x of the S&P 500 is just based on valuation. The historical average that led to great returns is 15. If that whenever returns to the historical average, that's a minus 50% in the S&P 500. And you can see here, only during the dot-com bubble have stocks been more expensive than now. If we go to GMO, that looks at the fundamentals, at the valuations, the likely return based on historical data for US companies is 5, 6, 7 negative per year. That's minus 50 for the next 7 years that they are projecting this. A little bit better in emerging markets, but again, we are not buying emerging markets as a whole, as we'll discuss in a second. We are specifically looking for stocks. And I have discussed this that emerging markets ETFs will crash likely even more than US S&P 500. Why? Well, yes, US markets are relatively more expensive than emerging markets. These markets are the AI bubble with most of the companies with huge exposure to all the AI bets that are going on. However, if we look at emerging markets, the market capitalization weight is crazy. TSMC, that's again connected to the AI bubble as the provider, is the huge side. There's Samsung also, SK Hynix, again the crazy Korean chip company. Most of the ETFs are also AI. ASML in Europe, all AI AI AI. And that is a big risk because if it doesn't work, then this will crash even more emerging markets than the US. If you look at it from the current perspective, it all are great businesses, but it's a huge bet on AI. We are likely long AI in many ways, economies, whatever, everything is connected. I looked at the recent earnings from these hyperscalers. It's so intricate, giving money to your customers so that he buys back. And if Anthropic and OpenAI don't deliver, it will look very, very ugly. For me, that's a huge risk not to compare to perhaps other opportunities. Then we look at, "Okay, what is overlooked?" We don't do ETFs. Even if one will mention, we read the annual reports, we make analysis, slow, we understand what we are buying, we take advantage of volatility, and slowly we try to value invest in a way that we lower risk and increase returns. We discussed Berkshire as safety. That should be better safety than the S&P 500, but the company is also 4x 3x over the last decade, which means that the likely long-term returns will not be that stellar. The dividend yield of the S&P 500 is 1% compared to to historical 4%. I'm not predicting a 75% crash, but if we just go to 2%, which is let's say a minimum, that's a big deal. And then people say, "Yes, Sven, but what about buybacks?" Buybacks are performed at extremely high historical prices. If there is the AI crash, all these buybacks over the last few years will be wasted money or gains only for those selling those stocks. So, let's look into the strategy, the yield, the growth, the value. How are we going to build long-term wealth, our portfolio, our goals? How are we going to be more certain of reaching those by investing in emerging markets? Now, consider this idea. I'm not saying sell everything and buy this. I'm just saying if you have a portfolio, it is set, you're long, you have done great like most of us have done, then I'm just saying consider building another pillar slowly over the next two decades. A pillar that is low risk, high reward when the opportunity knocks. As you invest each month a small sum, you compare the risk and reward of your developed market pillar to the value investing perhaps emerging market pillar. And then you make your decision. And that's slow and steady, small amounts compounding. Over a decade, you'll have two great pillars that will bring your finances closer to whatever your goals are. We look at risk first, what can go wrong, business ownership, and we invest in a way that whatever happens is okay. That's the key strategy. For that to happen, you must have the patience to wait for the right opportunity and apply the right strategy. Sizing, when to buy, when to buy a little bit more, know what's going on. Let me explain that a little bit more on the four examples. A few years ago, we discussed the Chinese internet ETF, KWEB, and at that point, China was uninvestable. I think we also bought for our diversified and YouTube portfolios. What was the situation there? Since March 15, went up a little bit, 50% I think then I sold, closed the position. It was a good gain over a few months or I bought here. I think I bought here and then it went up even more. That's good. Now, I made an analysis stock by stock. It is interesting. There are certainly value situations there. This is However, if this happens where the projected earnings growth happens 25% plus for China, for example, you will make money. If you look at the long-term chart, this is very interesting. Since 2013, for 14 years, the Chinese internet ETF has done nothing. Nothing. In the meantime, Tencent, Alibaba, and all these companies grew 10 20x. There are these boom periods. There are these bust periods when nobody wants to touch those companies and that is the time to look at it. We had one in 2022, 2024, then we had a small boom. You can rebalance then and now we are again compared to value at very cheap levels. And this is a friend's post recently. He says that I should go and make a trip to China. I think he is right, but just look at the stats. We can say whatever we want about China, but this has happened. Internet, electrical vehicles, electrification, solar, urbanization, high-speed rail, higher education, crazy stats. You cannot say anything against what has happened. Even forest coverage went up from 16% to 25%, which is staggering. Nevertheless, we are not just looking at emerging values as given because of DETF, we're looking for 10% more opportunities. And if you want to avoid China, here is a company I have to write a research report in-depth analysis for my research platform will likely come out also this week. Look at the P/E ratio, four, dividend yield 5%, this is an Indonesian company in the food, other holding companies across the Philippines, things like that. So, exposure to that growth we discussed at the temporary downturn can always go lower with emerging markets, but if that happens, this is food, electricity, telecommunications, there might be a margin of safety. Then we also recently discussed Tencent or the European version with a discount, Prosus or Naspers. So, you can also look at those businesses. What's the difference there? That is also all AI, but the P/E ratio is 15 for Tencent, still growing, nine for Prosus given the discount. Artificial intelligence, Tencent will apply it, as they say, with its bazooka on all its moat-worthy businesses, which is very interesting. We have another company that's interesting now, JD.com. They are building their logistics. They're now in a downturn, slower sales compared to last year that was a booming stimulus situation. Also, looks cheap, a lot of cash on the balance sheet. It's unlikely that over the next five years with a good strategy, you can lose money on this company. I will be personally looking at my diversified portfolio on my research platform and these are the four companies that I will strategically look to add to the portfolio over time. All covered stocks on my research platform. The message is always the same. Buy when others are fearful and be fearful when others are greedy. There are always risks, currency risks, ups and downs, but that's also related to sentiment. When there is bad sentiment, the currency is also bad. If you buy then, the currency recovers a little bit, you make money. A lot of these businesses are already global or globalizing. Many have dollars as a base currency. War in Taiwan, I hope it doesn't happen. If that happens, the last thing you're going to think about is your portfolio. Chinese currency has been stable. So, it is a process to consider having a value pillar, to understand the sentiment, to understand the true value, the knowledge, perhaps follow me for research ideas. And with this video, I really wanted to give you another option on how to build long-term wealth that compounds with as much certainty as possible. I hope you enjoyed this video. You can check what I do in the links in the description below. Check also Interactive Brokers. Thanks for your support. If you want to send me an email, send it at investwithsven@gmail.com. By the way, that's my only email. I'm not sending you emails. There have been some scams over YouTube. Be careful for those.