TIMPS: Another Emerging Market Acronym

The world probably does not need it, but another emerging markets acronym accessible via ETFs has burst onto the scene. Turner Investments has brought the world TIMPs – Turkey Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines. Turner's report recalls that BRIC for Brazil, Russia, India and China proved successful in large part because of good timing. Introduced in 2001 by Goldman Sachs' Jim O'Neil, and for the next decade the group grew at a 6.6 percent clip–and investors gained 424 percent from 2001 through 2010, Barron's reported. News of the TIMPs acronym was originally reported in the Barron's online edition on Thursday. For country-specific plays on TIMPs, investors can use the iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index Fund TUR, the iShares MSCI Indonesia Investable Market Index Fund EIDO or the Market Vectors Indonesia ETF IDX, the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped Investable Market Index Fund EWW and the iShares MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index Fund EPHE. On a year-to-date basis, TIMPs has performed well. When using EIDO as the Indonesia ETF, the average return offered by the four TIMPs ETFs is about 6.8 percent this year. Thing is including Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey in emerging markets acronyms is not a new phenomenon. Indonesia and Turkey are the "I" and "T" in CIVETS. The MIST acronym is hardly different than TIMPs. Drop the Philippines in favor of South Korea and there is MIST. Still, it should be noted that TIMPs has been a better performer this year than BRIC and MIST. And kudos to Turner Investments for including the Philippines, which the firm said is "ready to meet the mostly unfulfilled expectations many have held for it," as Barron's reports. However, TIMPs is not the first emerging markets acronym to include the Philippines. The answer to which acronym first included the rapidly growing Southeast Asian nation is the unheralded CAPPT acronym. CAPPT for Chile, Argentina, Peru, the Philippines and Thailand. Unlike many of the more widely known developing world acronyms, CAPPT does offer some degree of regional symmetry with three South American nations and two Southeast Asian countries. CAPPT is accessible through EPHE along with the iShares MSCI Chile Capped Investable Market Index Fund ECH, the Global X FTSE Argentina 20 ETF ARGT, the iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index EPU and the iShares MSCI Thailand Capped Investable Market Index Fund THD. Recent pullbacks in EPHE and THD have weighed on CAPPT's returns, but through mid-March, the acronym was outpacing BRIC, CIVETS and MIST year-to-date and that is even with EPU trading down on the year. With EPHE and THD looking buys on following the recent pullback and ECH holding up well relative to other South America ETFs, CAPPT looks poised to deliver ongoing out-performance in 2013. For more on CAPPT, click here.