This interesting table supplied courtesy of the Financial Portal points out some of the folly of trend following and the merits of contrary investing.   When I was a broker at PaineWebber I used to train other stockbrokers. Every week we would have mutual fund wholesalers come in to the office, buy us lunch and show us their funds. One day while we were finishing up lunch and the wholesaler was just getting into his dog and pony show, I interrupted him. I said today we want to hear something different. You come here month after month and tell us all about the best performing funds your company has to offer. I want to hear about the worst performing funds. We’ve been selling the best performing funds to our clients, and they seem to turn into the worst performing funds.  So let’s just start with the worst performing funds. Now I said this with more than a touch of sarcasm, but there is a certain amount of truth to my statement. There is a reversion to the mean in both life and the markets. Just look at last year’s biggest winners in stock market and see how they are doing this year.

For starters, Venezuela is the best performing stock market in the world up year to date an astounding 104.5%.  Egypt of all places is #2 up 35%.  Contrast that with the US Market, 23rd in the list, up 6.67%.  The worst performing market Cyprus down 43% followed by none else than Spain -23.34%.  If I had to place a bet on the best performing market next year, it would be Spain but I wouldn’t buy until the Fall before the U.S. election.

No COUNTRY INDEX / STOCK EXCHANGE VALUE MOVE %Move
1 Venezuela Caracas Stock Exchange 239277.6 122241.60 104.45%
2 Egypt EGX 30 Index 4890.3 1267.95 35.00%
3 Pakistan Karachi All Share Index 9737.79 1880.97 23.94%
4 Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Stock Index 434.95 83.40 23.72%
5 Panama Bolsa de Valores de Panama General Index 392.88 54.44 16.09%
6 Iceland OMX All-Share PR 672.62 91.89 15.82%
7 Estonia OMX Tallinn  Index 614.3 83.13 15.65%
8 Kenya Nairobi NSE 20 Share Index 3699.69 494.67 15.43%
9 Colombia IGBC General Index 14393.48 1727.78 13.64%
10 Laos Securities Exchange Composite Index 1021.07 121.61 13.52%
11 Thailand Stock Exch of Thai Set Index 1154.44 129.12 12.59%
12 Lithuania OMX Vilnius Index 335.23 36.45 12.20%
13 Philippines PSEi – Philippine SE Index 4879.42 507.46 11.61%
14 Denmark OMX Copenhagen Index 362.28 37.09 11.41%
15 Turkey ISE National 100 Index 56935.76 5669.16 11.06%
16 Saudi Arabia Tadawul All Share Index 7099.9 668.01 10.39%
17 United Arab Emirates DFM General Index 1475.58 122.19 9.03%
18 Tunisia Tunis SE TUNINDEX 5117.01 394.76 8.36%
19 Ghana GSE Composite Index 1046.94 77.91 8.04%
20 Nigeria Stock Exchange All Share Index 22381.11 1650.51 7.96%
21 Romania Bucharest Exchange Traded Index 4653.51 316.56 7.30%
22 New Zealand NZX All Ordinaries Index 781.93 51.91 7.11%
23 United States NASDAQ Composite Index 2778.79 173.64 6.67%
24 China Shanghai SE Composite Index 2344.52 145.10 6.60%
25 China Shanghai SE A-Share Index 2455.62 151.51 6.58%
26 Germany DAX Index 6271.22 372.87 6.32%
27 Bermuda Bermuda Stock Exchange Index 1109.78 65.85 6.31%
28 Peru Peru Lima General Index 20501.81 1028.51 5.28%
29 Singapore Straits Times Index 2779.1 132.75 5.02%
30 India BSE Sensex 30 Index 16152.75 697.85 4.52%
31 Indonesia Jakarta Composite Index 3980.5 158.51 4.15%
32 Ireland Irish Overall Index 3014.26 112.44 3.87%
33 South Africa FTSE/JSE AFRICA All Share Index 33148.39 1162.69 3.64%
34 United States Standard and Poor’s 500 Index 1295.22 37.62 2.99%
35 Hong Kong Hang Seng Index 18951.85 517.45 2.81%
36 Botswana Botswana Gaborone Index 7146.59 175.65 2.52%
37 Namibia Namibian Overall Stock Exchange 858.27 20.03 2.39%
38 Chile Santiago Stock Exchange IPSA Index 20563.78 433.98 2.16%
39 Japan Nikkei-225 Stock Average 8611.31 155.96 1.84%
40 Tanzania Tanzania All Share Index 1323.24 20.01 1.54%
41 United States Dow Jones Industrial Average 12369.38 151.78 1.24%
42 Kuwait Kuwait SE Weighted Index 409.45 3.83 0.94%
43 United States Russell 2000 Index 747.21 6.29 0.85%
44 Austria Vienna  Stock Exchange 771 6.44 0.84%
45 Bahrain BHSE All Share Index 1151.52 7.83 0.68%
46 Latvia OMX Riga Index 373.05 1.89 0.51%
47 Malaysia FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI 1532.46 1.73 0.11%
48 South Korea KRX 100 Index 3880.91 1.79 0.05%
49 Norway OSE All Share Index 442.52 0.06 0.01%
50 Hungary Hungarian Traded Index 3267.89 -8.71 -0.27%
51 Australia All Ordinaries Index 4098.84 -12.16 -0.30%
52 Israel Tel Aviv 25 Index 1081.74 -3.85 -0.35%
53 Taiwan FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 Index 4943.91 -17.81 -0.36%
54 Croatia Zagreb CROBEX 1733.32 -6.89 -0.40%
55 Belgium BEL20 Index 2073.88 -9.54 -0.46%
56 Mexico Mexican Bolsa IPC Index 36875.33 -202.17 -0.55%
57 Oman MSM30 Index 5656.77 -38.35 -0.67%
58 Poland WSE WIG Index 37255.68 -339.72 -0.90%
59 Sweden OMX Stockholm Index 300.88 -6.16 -2.01%
60 Serbia BELEXline Index 955.28 -21.91 -2.24%
61 Switzerland Swiss Market Index 5797.76 -138.47 -2.33%
62 Slovenia Slovenian Blue Chip Idx 568.94 -20.64 -3.50%
63 Mauritius Mauritius Stock Exchange 1821.63 -66.75 -3.53%
64 Jordan AMMAN SE General Index 1924.24 -70.89 -3.55%
65 Palestine Palestine Stock Index 456.66 -17.14 -3.62%
66 Qatar DSM 20 Index 8455.33 -323.70 -3.69%
67 Brazil Bovespa Index 54513.16 -2240.94 -3.95%
68 Malta Malta Stock Exchange Index 2971.83 -122.97 -3.97%
69 Czech Republic PRAGUE Stock Exchange Index 868.8 -42.30 -4.64%
70 Russia Russian Traded Index 1856.34 -92.71 -4.76%
71 France CAC 40 Index 3008 -151.81 -4.80%
72 Luxembourg Luxembourg LuxX Index 1079.67 -55.43 -4.88%
73 Bangladesh Dhaka Stock Exchange Index 4991.79 -265.82 -5.06%
74 Finland OMX Helsinki Index 5068.04 -287.02 -5.36%
75 United Kingdom FTSE 100 Index 5267.62 -304.66 -5.47%
76 Canada S&P/TSX Composite Index 11280.64 -674.46 -5.64%
77 Bulgaria SOFIX Index 303.25 -18.86 -5.86%
78 Jamaica Jamaica Stock Exchange Market Index 89507.02 -5790.18 -6.08%
79 Mongolia MSE Top 20 Index 20335.1 -1352.50 -6.24%
80 Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia BIRS Index 810.7 -65.66 -7.49%
81 Netherlands Amsterdam Exchanges Index 288.77 -23.70 -7.58%
82 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan KASE Stock Ex 1015.61 -89.97 -8.14%
83 Slovakia Slovak Share Index 194.42 -21.03 -9.76%
84 Portugal PSI General Index 1926.99 -240.45 -11.09%
85 Italy FTSE Italia All-Share 14044.81 -1805.69 -11.39%
86 Morocco Morocco CFG 25 Index CF 20030.311 -2650.29 -11.69%
87 Macedonia MBID Index 1829.82 -254.19 -12.20%
88 Argentina Argentina Merval Index 2134.85 -327.78 -13.31%
89 Sri Lanka Colombo All Share Index 5222.09 -852.33 -14.03%
90 Ukraine PFTS Index 434.23 -100.20 -18.75%
91 Greece Athex Composite Share Pr 550.13 -130.29 -19.15%
92 Spain IBEX 35 Index 6566.7 -1999.60 -23.34%
93 Cyprus General Market Index CSE 168.55 -127.39 -43.05%