Subject: Re: Foreign exposure
Whats everyone think? Anyone taking a meaningful stab at foreign markets?

From a macro point of view, maybe there isn't much point till there is a clear change of relative direction. i.e., non-US holdings start doing better.

My main concern is that most of the world's companies with the best business economics, no matter where their clients are, are listed in the US. So you have to work that much harder to make sure your ex-US listed investments are of at least equivalent quality.

I have heard that there is an exception: smaller listed firms in Europe are superior, in some ways, to smaller listed firms in the US. But gosh that is going to take a lot of reading.

You could dabble. Novo Nordisk (NVO at $87.37 in New York) is certainly a lot cheaper now than it was, cheapest since middle of last year.
The big booze companies (Diageo, Campari, Pernod Ricard and Rémy Cointreau) as a group have sold off quite a bit, mainly the unwinding of the post-pandemic bump, but to the extent that they are now cheaper than usual. Cheapest in a decade or more, on some metrics. I think an allocation to each of them might do well.
DEO at $126.93, DFDCF at $6.20, PRNDY at $22.90, REMYY at $6.05.

A rule of thumb of mine: when venturing outside the US, family and insiders get first dibs on the money. Make sure you are getting a decent dividend, so you know at least some of the benefit is coming to you. For bonus points, if it's a conglomerate with several listed entities, buy the one that is paying a high dividend that is the main investment vehicle of the controlling people...they generally need the income, so they will generally make sure that share class gets the sweetest deals and no dividend cuts. This is particularly true in (say) Korea and France, but many other places too.

Jim