Three Different International Exposure Strategies

Let's get into this good matchup today. We have three very unique strategies that are very different. They're going to get you exposure to that international marketplace, and they're going to do it in very unique ways.

First, I would call this a dividend matchup. You have two traditional dividend strategies that are focused on dividend-paying companies, that being SCHY and LVHI. Then you have a non-traditional strategy that's going to create income through writing covered calls, and it's actively managed. So, let's start there. I would call this kind of that non-traditional, actively managed income generator for international stocks.

First, on the actively managed side, they are very active. If you look over history, the team that is managing this portfolio for Amplify is really making bets and making changes over time. Look back a few years ago, energy was the largest allocation in the portfolio. Today it's much smaller, with much larger allocations to information technology, much more growth tilt to the portfolio. So, they're actively picking the stocks that they believe are going to outperform in the current environment.

It's also important to note that they're limiting themselves to doing it with ADRs. So, they're getting that exposure by only investing in US-listed ADRs. Full exposure to the local company, but they're doing it through an ADR. As you'll see when we talk about it, it's got more of a growth tilt right now. That's not historically true, but it does right now within the portfolio.

Then you switch over to SCHY and LVHI. I would call SCHY a core dividend portfolio. It's very diversified with 100 stocks. They're looking for dividend payers, but also applying a lot of stringent quality screens, so kind of a fundamentally developed portfolio. It's going to have a value tilt just like LVHI. It will consistently have that value tilt, but it's going to get you good broad-based diversification, low-cost exposure to the marketplace.

Then there's LVHI. I would call it your defensive dividend income. Right now, it's going to take that dividend approach, but then it's also going to overlay the concept of low volatility. Low volatility dividend payers, and in doing so, it creates a much different profile than the other two portfolios. It gets a much higher allocation to defensive sectors like utilities, which have historically lower volatility. So, your up-down captures on an LVHI are going to be much lower because you're going to have a much more defensive portfolio. Very unique strategies.