| Sponsored Is The White House Terrified of the "Secret $200 Retirement Blueprint?" If you've already retired, or want to retire soon, I urge you to watch this video presentation before we have to pull it down.
This "Secret $200 Retirement Blueprint" shows you step-by-step how to grow a monster-sized nest egg with a little time and a tiny grubstake.
Click here to watch this video presentation now.
| | Don't Ignore This Emerged Market | by Marc Lichtenfeld, Investment U Associate Investment Strategist
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 | | This previously labeled emerging market is now the seventeenth most developed in the world. It has grown its GDP by 7% per year over the past 10 years, and has an unemployment rate of 6.6%.
In 2013, its GDP is projected to grow 3.8%, versus 2.5% in the United States. It spends more on education as a percentage of its budget than the U.S. and gets results. And its stock market has outperformed the S&P 500 by over 200 percentage points over the past 13 years.
Since January 1999, the S&P 500 has risen 19%. This country's market has climbed 248%.
Furthermore, the nation avoided the mortgage meltdown that affected dozens of other countries. Its central bank has been called one of the best-run in the world.
All this, despite a population of less than eight million - and being surrounded by enemies.
The country is Israel.
The Israeli economy is vibrant. Its energy, technology and healthcare industries are among the best in the world.
It's a hotbed of technological innovation. In fact, it has more startups per capita than any other nation. And here's why...
As you probably know, Israel's military intelligence is elite. The technology created to aid the Israeli Defense Forces is the stuff of science fiction. Flying robots the size of insects that capture audio and video and tanks with invisible shields around them are just a few. Not to mention the medical advances geared to save lives on the battlefield that translate to civilian patients.
But what you may not know is that one reason so much incredible technology comes out of the Israeli military is because the soldiers keep the patents on these inventions once they are no longer in active service. | Sponsored They Won the Nobel Prize for WHAT??? Two University of Manchester professors recently came up with perhaps the most shocking scientific development of the past three decades. In fact, their breakthrough won them the Nobel Prize for Physics. But you'll never believe just how simple it all was. And our research shows it could push one company's $9 stock into the stratosphere. Find out the whole story behind this unusual discovery right here. | In other words, if a soldier invents a new chip used in communication devices by the army... When the soldier gets out, he or she takes the patent and can launch a startup to try to capitalize on this intellectual property.
Furthermore, there are Israeli intelligence units whose main focus is to invent new technologies... which the inventors can then take with them once released from duty.
This creates an entrepreneurial culture that is second to none. As a result, Israel has more companies listed on the Nasdaq than any other besides the United States.
There are many Israeli companies with incredible technologies that are already publicly traded:
- Check Point Software Technologies (Nasdaq: CHKP) - One of the leading computer security companies in the world. It was started by a former member of one of Israel's elite intelligence units.
- Given Imaging (Nasdaq: GIVN) - Inventor of the pill cam, a camera encapsulated in a pill that is swallowed. Much more pleasant than a colonoscopy.
- Nice Systems (Nasdaq: NICE) - Analyzes internet transaction data, to increase business performance, improve efficiency and stop financial crime.
You'd think that, surrounded by enemies, Israel might be a scary place to invest. But that didn't stop Warren Buffett from making his first investment outside the U.S. in 2006... right in the middle of a skirmish between Israel and Lebanon. At the time, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) invested $4.5 billion into ISCAR Metalworking.
And as you saw from the chart above, Israel's stock market crushed the results of the S&P over the long term.
In 2013, Israel's economy should get a further boost when production begins on the Tamar gas field, which holds nine trillion cubic feet of gas. The Leviathan gas field, which will start production in a few years, contains 16 trillion cubic feet.
With its emphasis on technology and health care, Israel is one of the key places I'm focusing on searching for great investment ideas.
That's why I'm so excited to be taking a small group of investors to Israel in late April, to scout out some of these small companies with breakthrough technologies. The idea is to find them before they become household names in the United States.
We already have meetings lined up with companies with technology that will revolutionize farming, cardiac care and how drugs are discovered and created.
On our last day, we also have a very special meeting with the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel. This is the equivalent of meeting with Ben Bernanke's number two, Janet Yellen.
Of course, in between company visits, we'll also see the sights, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and ancient ruins in Caesarea.
If you're interested in learning more, click here or email Barb Perriello.
If you're unable to join us, be sure to check my column later in the year when I share some of the ideas I pick up while in the Holy Land.
Israel is the market's best-kept secret. With robust energy, technology and healthcare industries, its economy, businesses and stocks should continue to outperform most of the rest of the world over the coming years.
Good Investing,
Marc
   
Market Metrics Another Reason to Like Israel's Market For generations, the people of Israel dealt with a terrible curse. Moses, said Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1973, took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil.
But that was nearly four decades ago. A few things have changed since then. It turns out Moses knew what he was doing.
Over the last 36 months, Israel has transformed from a country highly dependent on imported oil and natural gas, to a country that has more energy trapped beneath its contested soil than it knows what to do with.
Current estimates show the country has some 250 billion barrels of crude locked in its shale. Investment U's Mike Kapsch detailed what the number means back on June 28:
To put this into perspective, Israel could soon be the world's third-largest nation in terms of proven oil reserves... behind Venezuela - which took the top spot last year - and Saudi Arabia.
To get an idea of the scope of these massive reserves, it would potentially be enough to cover the United States' entire oil needs for the next 35 years. As you can see below, Mike's suggested "safe play" on Israel's budding energy industry has performed well in the past six months. And it's still trading at just 10 times cumulative earnings, with a yield of about 2.5%. - Andrew Snyder 
Click here to view the full chart. |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.