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International stocks have trailed US stocks for more than 100 years. Performance aside, the US market is well diversified across industries, makes up more than 50% of the global stock market, and lots of US companies have international revenue exposure. Additionally, international diversification has gotten less effective over time as correlations across markets have increased.

These arguments for forgoing international diversification in favor of US stocks do seem compelling at the surface, but, as I will explain, they’re flimsy, at best. International diversification is crucial, both theoretically and empirically, to sensible portfolio construction.

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