From Chris Mayer, Analyst, Bonner & Partners:

There’s a critical factor many people overlook when investing overseas…

If you want exposure to foreign markets, you have to buy companies that do business there.

It’s so simple. And yet, investors pour billions of dollars into foreign stocks and funds without checking it.

Consider Singapore…

Over the 19 years ending in 2014, Singapore’s economy grew 225%.

What do you think Singapore’s stock market returned?

About 50%.

Take a look:

How can Singapore’s benchmark index (STI) deliver a return that was a quarter of the economic growth rate?

Because most Singaporean companies did most of their business outside of Singapore.

I just finished reading a privately printed collection of essays (“Compendium Compilation 2015″) by Murray Stahl – a money manager at Horizon Kinetics.

Stahl cites the Singapore example, among others, to illustrate that the characteristics of stocks have little to do with…