Anyone switching to a Ex USA world ETF?

[Mazinbrum]

The core fund in my SIPP is a world ETF but in 2025 they have been outperformed by ETFs excluding the USA.
I know past performance is no indication of future performance and all that but in 2026 I think the dollar is going to tank big time as they ‘print’ trillions to inflate away their debt.
Is anyone else thinking of dumping the high (60%+) USA allocation of a world fund and maybe supplementing an Ex USA fund with an S&P fund?
I’m thinking about totally excluding the USA and yes I know about “Never bet against the USA”.
I know this is what financial advisors are for but I’m too tight to pay for one and who needs one anyway now we have YouTube!

[SonicHedgeHog]

Yes, my default work pension fund is very heavy on North America. I’m thinking along exactly the same lines as you. From what I can see there isn’t a massive difference in performance between a lot of the funds that do ‘rest of the world’. I’d be really interested to hear from anyone with some good insight as it’s hard to choose between funds.

[Mazinbrum]

The JustEtf app is very good.

[Crumpet]

It’s all a gamble, isn’t it? I watched too much doom and gloom on YouTube back in October and bailed out of my S&P500 ETF (VUAG) and a good chunk of the global funds I had. I’m now left with about 50% in a global fund that’s about 60% USA. I’m ok with that exposure and it feels like I’ve hedged my bets.

I then watched more stuff pushing gold so after a few beers I got brave and ploughed a lot of what I’d removed into that - it’s done about 20% since then. The question for me is when to bail out of that!

As it happens, I’ve watched a fair few US-focussed videos on YT where they’re encouraging Americans to invest globally, rather than sticking to a US fund which seems the norm over there.

[Countdown]

Over the past few years I’ve moved gradually from VWRL TO VUKE, VERX, VHYL and an EM ETF. I’m probably being paranoid but I have concerns about the Mag 7.

[Ezra]

Mazinbrum said:

Is anyone else thinking of dumping the high (60%+) USA allocation of a world fund and maybe supplementing an Ex USA fund with an S&P fund?

If you're still wanting some US exposure, but just not the extremely high US weighting in a world index, what about an equal weighting ETF, something like MWEP?

[SonicHedgeHog]

I found a couple I’m happy with. Both Blackrock. First is their European Equity Index Tracker and the second is the UK Equity Index tracker. I think I’m going to break my default fund into equal thirds so I still retain some exposure to the US/Mag7 but switch my weighting towards Europe. I’m tempted by Japan and far east emerging markets but Japan could collapse under their debt interest payments and I know nothing about far east emerging markets.

It is so tempting to go all-in on gold but even though I’m so bullish about gold it is too risky to put everything on the line.

[stuthemongoose]

Mazinbrum said:

The core fund in my SIPP is a world ETF but in 2025 they have been outperformed by ETFs excluding the USA.
I know past performance is no indication of future performance and all that but in 2026 I think the dollar is going to tank big time as they print trillions to inflate away their debt.
Is anyone else thinking of dumping the high (60%+) USA allocation of a world fund and maybe supplementing an Ex USA fund with an S&P fund?
I m thinking about totally excluding the USA and yes I know about Never bet against the USA .
I know this is what financial advisors are for but I m too tight to pay for one and who needs one anyway now we have YouTube!

Be a bit careful conflating US equities with US dollar. Yes they are correlated- but if you think about gold, as usd weakens, gold rises in value. Stocks are similar. If you’re holding stocks that are generating value globally, if the dollar weakens their $ value goes up, so it can offset. These things aren’t as simple as usd down, us equities down.

[andrew-6xade]

I've done pretty well with JPMorgan emerging markets & Artemis Global income. Certainly better performing in the short term v US dominated funds.

[Mazinbrum]

stuthemongoose said:

Mazinbrum said:

The core fund in my SIPP is a world ETF but in 2025 they have been outperformed by ETFs excluding the USA.
I know past performance is no indication of future performance and all that but in 2026 I think the dollar is going to tank big time as they print trillions to inflate away their debt.
Is anyone else thinking of dumping the high (60%+) USA allocation of a world fund and maybe supplementing an Ex USA fund with an S&P fund?
I m thinking about totally excluding the USA and yes I know about Never bet against the USA .
I know this is what financial advisors are for but I m too tight to pay for one and who needs one anyway now we have YouTube!

Be a bit careful conflating US equities with US dollar. Yes they are correlated- but if you think about gold, as usd weakens, gold rises in value. Stocks are similar. If you re holding stocks that are generating value globally, if the dollar weakens their $ value goes up, so it can offset. These things aren t as simple as usd down, us equities down.

That's a good point but gold has gone up because so many investors and even countries are rotating out of the dollar. Buying US stocks will become cheaper for us but that didn't work last year and I see this year being the same. Just checking gold and silver, new highs over night! Onwards and upwards!

[LeoSayer]

No. I'm sticking with market cap-weighted global equity index funds.

I've got enough experience to know that I'm not very good at predicting which country will do better than others so I will continue holding the whole market and will accept whatever outcome I get.

[eyebeebe]

On current valuations my GIA is split 63% equities, 27% private equity and 10% gold.

The equities are split 70% global tracker, 20% my employer, 10% developed markets ex. USA.

I’m expecting PE capital calls of roughy 25% of my 2026 investment budget and 25% will be to max my share save scheme. I’m tending towards the remainder going into the developed world ex. USA with maybe a tilt on the Swiss market, as my reference currency is CHF, but my investments are in EUR and USD and it’s getting a bit boring seeing the ETFs hitting record highs, but my portfolio barely moving due to the strength of the CHF.

Pension allocation is more or less out of my control.

[simon800]

Swapping out into whatever has done best most recently is the exact "typical retail investor" behaviour that costs people fortunes over time.

[Mazinbrum]

simon800 said:

Swapping out into whatever has done best most recently is the exact "typical retail investor" behaviour that costs people fortunes over time.

It’s not a case of what did best last year, have you been watching the news?

[toon10]

I'm waiting for April to max out my ISA again but I'm heavily weighted to the US. VUAG and my world yield is VHYL which is still highly exposed to the US. I'm thinking of splitting the investments over S&P and a different world tracker excluding the US this time. I'm certainly watching world events right now.

[simon800]

Mazinbrum said:

simon800 said:

Swapping out into whatever has done best most recently is the exact "typical retail investor" behaviour that costs people fortunes over time.

It s not a case of what did best last year, have you been watching the news?

I don’t tend to make investment decisions based on daily headlines either, to be honest.

Plenty of people do - some sold during COVID and still haven’t re-entered the market for example.

It’s also interesting how narratives flip. For example not long ago the US dollar being “too high” was cited as a reason to avoid global equities; now a weaker dollar is being used to justify the same conclusion.

The reality is that anyone investing in a global tracker should be doing so with a 10+ year timeframe. On that horizon, today’s headlines - and the people generating them - are just noise.

[ukwill]

andrew-6xade said:

I've done pretty well with JPMorgan emerging markets & Artemis Global income. Certainly better performing in the short term v US dominated funds.

AGI has been bloody fantastic over the past few years. Kicking myself that I've only had 2yrs of the ride. It's been such a fantastic S&P hedge.

I've kept L&G Global Tech (25% alloc) but that too will be going later this year.

6mths ago in my isa/punt account I jumped into VanEck Defence ETF - it's now 27% up from my entry point. And I think there is plenty more to come from that.

I'll be moving to a more defensive posture over the next couple of years, but I think I'll keep my AGI allocation, whilst adding an all-world index.

[Hustle_]

If you pivot now you have to accept the possibility that you are selling US at some kind of bottom.

I know, timing the market etc etc...