As the US economy struggled to free itself from the grips of the worst recession in nearly 80 years foreign investment began to look very attractive. Buying stocks in foreign companies is an effective means of investing. It can be profitable and it does not require directly doing business in foreign lands and in foreign languages. Two basic means of investing in stock as a means of foreign investment are to purchase foreign stock or to purchase stock of US companies doing business overseas. Both can be done by investing in the US stock market . Many US multinationals offer foreign investment opportunity albeit by proxy. Investing in American Depository Receipts of foreign companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange allows stock holders to participate in foreign investment and not need to speak German, Japanese, Chinese, or any other foreign language. Investing in and trading stocks listed in the NYSE or NASDAQ commonly provides one with more and better information for fundamental analysis than if one tries to invest directly offshore. Trading electronically in US stock markets also allows traders and investors to use stock technical analysis tools such as Candlestick analysis in order to profitably anticipate stock price changes.
Why foreign investment? Long term investment in growth stocks can be very profitable. It may well be easier for an average stock to be a growth stock if its business is in a growing economy. By investing in stocks listed on US markets investors do not have to deal with unclear information, foreign language reports, or market manipulation that the SEC typically discourages in US markets. The same Candlestick stock charts that work well for trading or investing in a home grown US stock will work just as well for trading ADR’s of European stocks such a Roche, Nestle, or Siemens, the Indian conglomerate, Tata, or Petrobas, the Brazilian oil and gas giant. These stocks are amenable to day trading or long term investing . Their fundamentals are available as the SEC requires Level II and especially level III ADR’s to adhere to reporting requirements similar to those required for US stocks listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE .
Buying and selling stock in US companies that do business overseas gives investors a wide exposure to foreign investment. Companies like 3M, Cisco, Microsoft, and Proctor & Gamble do business across the face of the globe. Investors and traders can follow stock fundamentals of these companies looking for intrinsic stock value and a margin of safety . They can also follow technical aspects of these companies’ stock prices in order to profit by buying at the bottom of a price curve or selling before a market correction. Considering how volatile the markets have been recently there is a lot of potential for profit in foreign investment by those using Candlestick charts to guide the way.
