I've just returned from the World Money Show, where some 10,000+ investors gathered to learn about global investing. I had a chance to meet with many of the advisors featured at the show, and I have been highlighting some of their favorite investment ideas. To view all of the stocks featured in this special global report, click here.

"As we head into 2007, some of the songs from 2006 will remain the same, chief among them the thirst for large-cap stocks in the established markets of the U.S., Europe, and Japan," says mutual fund and ETF expert Jim Lowell. "Of those three marketplaces, one stands out as not having participated in last year's global rally; Japan.

"Such a perspective isn't shared by any of its Pacific Rim neighbors or emerging market players, all of which have enjoyed nearly nonstop gains for several years in a row, and most of which are trading at recent or historical highs. Overall, that makes Japan interesting from both a valuation and a contrarian perspective."

Here, the editor of The Forbes ETF Advisor reviews his buy-rated Japan exchange-traded funds:

"Japan, the world's second largest economy, continues to recover nicely from its epic recession. It also continues to benefit from its location. The iShares MSCI Japan Index (NYSE:EWJ) covers nearly the entire market capitalization of the Japanese markets, but the ETF correlates most closely with the Nikkei 225 (Japan's equivalent to our S&P 500).

"Its top holdings include stocks such as Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) and Sony (NYSE:SNE). Blue chips in the land of the rising sun haven't always risen; but I think there time has come.

Continue reading Global gains: Favorite ETFs for a rising sun

Global gains: Favorite ETFs for a rising sun originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 17 Feb 2007 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For the past two decades, Jim Lowell developed an industry-leading expertise in analyzing mutual funds, with a particular focus on Fidelity funds. During that time he developed an annual feature known as his "Hot Hands" pick.

He explains, "Those who have followed my Fidelity Investor newsletter know that one trick in our proprietary playbook has been buying the previous year's best performing Fidelity fund and sticking with it for the new year. More often than not it turns out to be a big winner."

Given the growing popularity of exchange-traded funds, Lowell recently launched a new service, The Forbes ETF Advisor. And for the first time, he is applying his Hot Hands approach to ETFs.

He cautions that this strategy has not beaten the market every year. However, he says, "It has provided very healthy long-term result and I believe that many growth-oriented investors could improve their performance by putting a reasonable (5% to 10%) portion of their money to work following my Hot Hands strategy."

He explains, "Here are the ground rules for the strategy. First I looked at all of the diversified ETFs for each year between 2000 and 2006. I excluded single-sector ETFs, and on the international side, I excluded the geographically nondiversified (single country) international ETFs.

Continue reading Lowell's hot hands strategy: The #1 ETF for 2007

Lowell's hot hands strategy: The #1 ETF for 2007 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.