ARGT vs EWM

ARGTCGlobal X MSCI Argentina ETF

EWMBiShares MSCI Malaysia ETF

In short

ARGT Argentina in one ticker. Global X has run this fund since 2011, packing roughly 25 stocks tied to a market most global portfolios skip, and it trades more smoothly than most single-country peers.

EWM Malaysia in one ticker, running since 1996. EWM tracks the MSCI Malaysia index, a cap-weighted slice of Kuala Lumpur's largest listed companies, and charges less than the typical single-country emerging markets fund.

Stated mandate

ARGT The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MSCI All Argentina 25/50 Index.

EWM The fund seeks to track an index composed of Malaysian equities.

Why people hold it

• ARGT About 25 holdings put Argentine equity exposure in a single trade, a market that is awkward to assemble stock by stock from a US brokerage account.
• The 0.59% expense ratio lands exactly at the median for single-country emerging-market funds, level with iShares Poland (EPOL) and iShares South Africa (EZA).
• For a niche one-country fund it changes hands easily: among the smoother trades in its peer group, with a mid-sized asset base behind it.
• Trading since 2011, a long run for a single-country niche product, and it still tracks the MSCI All Argentina 25/50 Index it started with.

• EWM Listed in 1996, which puts it among the oldest ETFs still trading. Nearly three decades of doing one job: hold Malaysian equities, track the index.ishares.com
• 0.50% a year, under the median for its single-country emerging markets peer group and below iShares siblings EPOL and EZA at 0.59%.
• Sits in the upper tier of the single-country emerging markets funds we grade, helped by a low fee and a milder volatility profile than much of that group.
• No guesswork about the mandate: BlackRock builds it as a way to express a single-country view on Malaysian companies, and the index name is right on the tin.ishares.com

Worth knowing

• ARGT Roughly 25 holdings means a few names and sectors steer the whole fund. This is a concentrated country bet, not a diversifier.
• Argentine exposure brings currency and policy swings, and the fund sits in the rougher half of its single-country cohort on risk measures.
• It has followed its index less tightly than the strongest trackers in its group, so returns can drift from the benchmark.

• EWM Market-cap weighting in a modest-sized market means a short list of Kuala Lumpur heavyweights drives most of the fund's day-to-day move.stockanalysis.com
• One country, one currency. The holdings trade in ringgit and the fund is unhedged, so currency moves against the dollar land in your return alongside the stocks.ishares.com
• Volume is moderate rather than deep, and payouts arrive once or twice a year instead of quarterly. Limit orders are the friendlier way in and out.

Full ARGT profile⁠

Full EWM profile⁠