International stock fund investors will find all the information discussed to this point helpful in evaluating a fund. However, two additional checkpoints are invaluable for evaluating these particular types of funds: a country breakdown of portfolio holdings, and a regional breakdown.
A fund may call itself "international," but this term reveals very little about where the money will be invested, other than it will be invested outside of the U.S. Without a detailed breakdown country-by-country, and region-by-region, it is impossible to determine just what is considered "international" to a specific fund. And as with domestic funds, it is important for diversification purposes to understand the geographic distribution of a fund's holdings. What is the mix of stocks in Europe, Asia, Latin America, emerging nations? Also, within Latin America, for example, what percentage of the portfolio value is invested in Chile or Brazil?
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