Erroneously, there are folks who believe that China is bowing to developed world pressure prior to the G-20 summit. Anyone who has spent enough time in China as well as studying it knows that the Chinese only act in ways that will ultimately benefit China.

For instance, while the rest of the world has run from Greece, it’s China that is buying up land and forging unique business deals. Similarly, if China sees value in depegging its yuan from the U.S. dollar, it does so to strengthen relations with its Asian neighbors. (That… and the long-term recognition that the euro crisis may be a prelude to a fiat currency crisis for the U.S.!)

So it’s no surprise to see SE Asian Stock ETFs outperforming the entire field on 6/21/2010. Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia… each exports goods and services to both the developed and emerging world. If these country’s respective currencies are more competitive with the yuan, these countries will have more success exporting.

Just how attractive is SE Asia? I compared a number of iShares ETFs on both current P/B for fundamentals as well as “beta” against the S&P 500 for risk. Fundamentally, SE Asia country stock ETFs tend to be better values than other emerging market funds. Risk may be a bit of a mixed bag, but nothing out of the emerging market “ordinary.”

You can listen to the ETF Expert Radio Show “LIVE”, via podcast or on your iPod. You can review more ETF Expert features here.

Yet I digress. Fortunately, I am quite capable of motivating myself to focus on the world of market-based securities.

It’s important, then, to consider the subtle shift that may be taking place since the monstrous surge higher on June 15. That was the day that the S&P 500 SPDR Trust (SPY) climbed back above its 200-Day trendline.

Consider Wednesday’s disheartening news from bellwether Fed Ex. The company’s forecasts were hardly the stuff of bullish dreams… and yet stocks managed green arrows by the closing bell. The S&P 500 also held above its 200-Day MA support.

That said, since stock markets are discounting creatures that reflect what will happen (a.k.a. guidance) versus what has taken place (a.k.a. prior quarter’s earnings), why was the FedEx “warning” shrugged off? There was greater certainty about BP’s future and stabilization in the Eurozone.

Fair enough. Yet what about the disappointments on Thursday’s news-wires. Jobless claims rose yet again… to 472,000. Ouch! Meanwhile, Philly manufacturing via factory employment contracted for the first time in seven months.

Granted, the market’s have pulled back… but it’s different. Where’s the VIX volatility spikes above 30? And can we credit the euro dollar’s gains for helping U.S. stocks to find trendline support for the S&P 500 SPDR Trust’s (SPY)?

If I were a betting man, I’d bet on the Lakers to win the Thursday night finale handily. But I’m not a betting man… and the game could easily go either way.

Taken one step further, if I were a betting man, I’d be inclined to view stocks favorably going into earnings season. The low volume and lower volatility suggest that hedge funds have already positioned themselves with 10%-15% cash in their portfolios. Meanwhile, money managers, mutual fund managers, and individual investors are likely scrambling to get into what is “hot” before quarter’s end. (Think Apple as it hits all-time highs.)

Yet, once more, I am not a betting man. As the chief investment officer for a Registered Investment Adviser, I must evaluate the risk-reward relationship of each decision. And I must protect each decision with stop-limit loss orders or protective hedges or offsetting non-correlating assets.

So here’s the dilemma. We may get a bounce to close out the “series” known as the 90 days of Q2. Yet corporate guidance will either push the cyclical bull forward or it will revitalize the dancing bears. And there’s simply no way to get a comprehensive feel for the collective sentiment of CEOs on Q3 and Q4 business prospects beforehand.

If you like Apple, and tech in general, PowerShares Nasdaq 100 (QQQQ) carries a 15% Apple weighting. If you buy, simply plan for the circumstances under which you would sell.

Moreover, don’t pass up an opportunity to explore foreign stock ETFs. Thailand (THD) and Indonesia (IDX) have both defied the global downturn in equities, due in large part to their exposure to financial institutions believed to have excellent balance sheets.

My personal favorite in the emerging market realm today… it’s actually iShares MSCI Malaysia. (EWM). The fund is primarily diversified across financials, industrials and consumer stocks, with virtually no exposure to the more volatile energy and basic materials segments.

You can listen to the ETF Expert Radio Show “LIVE”, via podcast or on your iPod. You can review more ETF Expert features here.

Anyone who has watched Jim Cramer is already familiar with the “flip-floppiness.” There were ill-timed assessments throughout the first half of 2008, even a bit of scandal over Bear Stearns. So it comes as no surprise that… here in 2010… Cramer’s proclamations are harder than ever to track. 

For example, Dow 12000 didn’t just shift to Dow 8200… no sir. Dow 12000 went to a Dow 9000 call in mid-May. Yet, when the Dow Industrials surged 400 points on word of a $1 trillion dollar European bailout, Mr. Cramer became a raging bull once more, declaring the correction over. He explained that when the facts change, he changes with them… and that he had never seen a more important commitment in his 30+ years of experience than the commitment by the European Union.

The markets recovered in dramatic fashion, but only temporarily. Attention shifted from sovereign debt worries to European growth/euro currency fears. Mr. Cramer then kicked off a new campaign for Dow 9500, shifting back to bearishness. (Facts changed… perhaps?) Yet with the Dow hovering in and around 10,000, Mr. Cramer consistently encouraged viewers not to be sucked in by the perma-bears like Nouriel Roubini.

On 6/8/10, JC now sees the Dow falling to 8200. That’s an additional -17.5% slide from an already depleted Dow! It seems to me that Mr. Cramer has the capacity to be every bit as pessimistic as Roubini when the day’s facts dictate.

Truth is, neither Cramer nor Roubini nor any human being can possibly know where stock markets will go. We can use charts that objectively determine a bearish or bullish price trend… and today… the trend is bearish. Still, there’s little possibility of knowing whether a downtrend will reverse course in a day, a week, a year or longer.

What I do know is that investor pessimism has become pervasive. In fact, the few outspoken bulls suggest that… rather than a period of irrational exuberance… we’ve entered a period of irrational negativity.

Other equity strategists resort to listing the reasons why stock assets are attractive. Bob Doll, chief investment officer at BlackRock, sums up his case for U.S. stock investing as follows: (1) manufacturing levels are up, (2) inflation is low, (3) interest rates are low, (4) average hourly wages are up, (5) average hours worked are up, (6) nominal GDP is at an all-time high after just a few recessionary years, (7) the Great Depression required 15 years to reach similar milestones, (8) corporate profits are exceptional, (9) business inventories are rising, (10) cash on business balance sheets are at a 60-year high, (11) Unit labor costs a la productivity have dropped at the fastest pace in 40 years.

Still, most of us can only see the cloudy overcast of Europe’s economy, the fog-filled tightening of credit in China and the murky repercussions of the BP oil spill. Is this who we’ve collectively become… a nation of forecasters calling for an endless rain?

Yet I believe there are ways for ETF investors to worry a bit less. Consider one or more of these 3 unique investments:

1. JP Morgan Alerian MLP (AMJ). Most of my readers recognize the ticker symbol. And I admit to speaking about energy partnerships ad nauseum. Yet the facts (today’s, tomorrow’s, next year’s) are quite favorable.

The country requires its pipeline infrastructure for the transportation of oil and natural gas… now, more than ever. If you are uncomfortable picking a specific partnership, JP Morgan Alerian MLP (AMJ) diversifies across the entire lot. AMJ also offers 6% annualized income and it’s still in a technical uptrend.

2. iShares MSCI Malaysia (EWM). I can’t be serious, right? An emerging market stock fund during exceptional levels of market volatility? Well, it might not be for everyone, but hear me out!

Malaysia (EWM) sports a 2.2% annual yield that’s competitive with the domestic U.S. markets at about 0.85x the volatility of the S&P 500. Franklin Templeton, one of the premier companies in global bond investing, has been investing heavily in Malaysian sovereign debt. The fund is primarily diversified across financials, industrials and consumer stocks, with virtually no exposure to the more volatile energy and basic materials segments. GDP growth is one of the fastest in SE Asia (7% projected for 2010). And its technical uptrend is, for the most part, still intact.

3. PowerShares Insured National Muni Bond (PZA). Monthly, tax-free income at an annualized rate of 4.75%. Top bracket earners are looking at a taxable equivalent yield of 7.3%. Compare that against the lower-yielding, far more volatile 20+ Treasury Bond Fund (TLT).

You can listen to the ETF Expert Radio Show “LIVE”, via podcast or on your iPod. You can review more ETF Expert features here.

Few investors have failed to express interest in the “China miracle.” Not only is its economy growing at a torrid 9%, but the China 25 Fund’s (FXI) 155% 5-year total return is nearly unmatched by any diversifed equity investment.

Even Asian peers like Taiwan (EWT) and Hong Kong (EWH) seem to capture a fair amount of the public’s imagination. Taiwan is a reasonably strong proxy for technology demand, while Hong Kong is often touted as a way to invest in China’s success with a bit less risk.

Yet what if I were to tell you that an emerging market is showing significantly stronger gains that the S&P 500, but with less volatility (i.e. risk)? In all likelihood, then, we’d be talking about the iShares MSCI Malaysia Fund (EWM).

RiskGrades.com currently assigns a standardized risk measure of 90 to EWM, while assigning a risk rating of 93 to the S&P 500 SPDR Trust (SPY). Similarly, WSJ.com pegs the beta for iShares MSCI Malaysia Fund (EWM) at 0.82 whereas the S&P 500’s beta is 1.0.

One of the unique features of EWM over competing emerging market ETFs is its diversification. Brazil (EWZ) tends to move in lock-step with Global Materials (MXI), while Russia (RSX) depends 50% on oil/gas and energy company performance. On the flip side, EWM depends more on cyclical economic trends through consumer discretionary spending, industrials, consumer staples and financials.

In other words, it may just be a reasonable way to diversify your emerging market holdings that are heavy into natural resources. Of course, the superior 2-year “bear-to-cyclical-bull” results give still another favorable perspective for the iShares MSCI Malaysia Fund (EWM).

Need a bit more background on Malaysia? Review my early August feature, “Malaysia ETF Offers A Different Slice of the Emerging Market Pie.”

If you’d like to learn more about ETF investing… then tune into “In the Money With Gary Gordon.” You can listen to the show “LIVE”, via podcast or on your iPod.