Home Bias Blues: Investors Really Should Get Out More

Home Bias Blues: Investors Really Should Get Out More

If diversification is the only free lunch in investing, investors are leaving a lot on the lunch table. Diversification is measured across a number of dimensions: individual stocks, industries, sectors, and so on. Most investors’ portfolios are fairly well spread along these lines. However, when it comes to investing overseas, many decide to ditch diversification at the border.

“Home bias” is the term used to describe investors’ tendency to tilt their portfolios in favor of domestic stocks (bonds, too, but I’m going to focus on stocks). Here, I’ll discuss how home bias is measured, the factors that underpin this phenomenon, and why it’s probably a good idea to expand your horizons a bit–especially given current valuations..