Each participant will need to make his own portfolio. When registration is completed, proceed to the “Order Entry Screen.”

Let us share one successful example in choosing countries to invest in.

Nikko Asset Management started to notice China over five years ago. Although China is now regarded as a country with high growth and low risk, not many people were saying good things about China back then. As there were many causes of instability in China, such as policies, public safety, prices, interest rates, foreign exchange, and infrastructure, global investors focused only on advanced economies that had more stable conditions. However, Nikko Asset Management judged that all negative information about China had already been priced in the market, but positive information, such as its future growth, had not yet been factored in Chinese stock prices. In 2005, Nikko Asset Management created and launched a mutual fund that invests in Chinese Yuan-denominated China A-shares. Subsequently, China experienced exceptional growth and investors around the world started to pay attention. At its peak, the NAV of the China mutual fund we created increased in value by as much as five times. (Note: This example refers to past performance and is not a guarantee of future results.)

So choose the countries you think will grow in the future, relying on your own ideas and creativity.

(Note: strictly speaking, these portfolios are meant to serve as reference examples, and we do not endorse or recommend these allocations.)

We wanted to make the competition as real as possible. For instance, even though equity markets exist in countries such as Argentina and Pakistan, in reality it is difficult for individual investors invest there due to strict capital regulations, extremely low liquidity, and poor access to information. With this in mind, we selected the following 31 countries and regions, whose ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are listed either on the Tokyo Stock Exchange or the New York Stock Exchange, to be included in the investment universe for the Country Pick competition. We believe this investment universe offers some interesting choices of countries that will offer sufficient profit opportunities. In addition, there may be cases where some countries or regions will be added to the investment universe.