Sometimes, when your life is too routine and the things you are exposed to are more or less the same, you become complacent. Go to work, come home, cook dinner, play games, sleep. Repeat and rinse.
In trading/investment, it can be the same as well. If you stick to your own local markets, the companies that are very familiar with (strong brand name, you are the customers for years, good review, etc), then you might missed out good opportunities.
Good opportunities such as markets in Thailand, Korea, Japan and Malaysia. For STI (SG market), it has only rebound from the bottom of 23 March around 22%. If you do some research, reading the news, etc you would know that these markets are faring better than STI.
They went up on average 43% from the bottom. Why wouldn't one want to make more money given the same time frame? Risks?
Unless you are venturing into the stocks in these countries which your broker might charge for a higher commission and custody fee, you are better off looking at the ETFs in these countries.
KLSE index (Malaysia) is EWM ETF
Japan index is Nikkei 225 index (futures) which most platforms will have or EWJ ETF
SET index (Thailand) is THD ETF
KOSPI index (Korea) is EWF ETF
Please do your own due diligence as the above is an example only. There are many ETFs that invest in these countries that offer different components mix and expenses. You want to look for one that offers the lowest .
I remain cautiously bullish on Asia markets now that the various countries are slowly reopening their economies and businesses are coming back as well. The consumers would still have to accept some inconvenience like putting on masks, keeping a social distance, no dine in at food outlets,etc. Other than that, being able to resume back to their pre-Covid 19 days is liberating for many who find staying at home stressful and suffocating.
Again, this chart is not exhaustive as comparing all available tradeable Asian countries would make the charts looks confusing. So , feel free to make your own index and/or ETFs comparison and decide if investing outside of your country is worthwhile, offering you a better ROI, etc.