ETFs on the MSCI World are very popular. But in the current environment, he also brings risks. This is the best way to avoid them.
• US shares suffer especially from Trump’s aggressive trade policy
• MSCI World ETFs suffer from high US weighting
• Investors have numerous alternatives
The MSCI World is scattered worldwide, simply accessible and inexpensive – no wonder that it is very popular among private investors, for example for asset structure or pension. In Germany, for example, according to an evaluation of the Consorsbank for the “Handelsblatt”, ETFs have been at the top of the list of the ten most popular market -traded index funds for four years.
As “Computer Bild” reports, citing a study by the fund provider Loy, such an ETF savings plan actually paid off: Anyone who has been investing regularly in the MSCI World since 1995 was able to achieve average, inflation-adjusted annual returns of around 6 percent-despite crises such as the DOTCOM bubble, the financial crisis 2008 and Corona pandemic. However, there were also periods in which the savers were in the minus over several years, because the fluctuation width was sometimes considerably failed.
High US exposure becomes a problem
Investors are facing a problem right now, because the MSCI World depicts the performance of around 1,350 shares from 23 industrial countries, but 75 percent of them are US shares. And because the market value of a company also determines its weighting in the index, the so -called Magnificent Seven (Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Tesla) have a total of almost 20 percent (as of the beginning of May 2025).
Against the background of the erratic trade policy of US President Donald Trump, this becomes a double problem for investors from Europe. On the one hand, the customs confusion pushes enormously on the stock prices of US companies, on the other hand, the US dollar therefore loses value compared to the euro. In addition to course, investors also suffer currency losses.
Alternatives to the MSCI World
For investors who do not want to make themselves dependent on the economy and the stock market in the USA, there are some other indices that, according to the portal “their provision” – an initiative of the German Pension Insurance and the German Pension Insurance Knappschafts -Bahn -Sea – depending on their personal preference as an alternative or as a supplement to the MSCI World.
Such a possibility would be, for example, the MSCI World Equal Weighted, in which all of the stocks contained are weighted equally, and not as with the MSCI World according to the stock market value (market capitalization) of the respective company. This reduces the US share to only about 40 percent. If you want to completely rule out the US market, the MSCI World Ex USA would be interesting for you. This corresponds to the MSCI World, but without US shares and thus includes around 800 stocks from 22 industrialized nations.
For investors who want to relocate a lot of capital from the United States to Europe in the current environment, for example, the MSCI Europe is suitable. This contains around 400 of the largest and strongest sales companies from 15 European industrialized countries.
Another option would be an investment in the MSCI All Country World (ACWI), which, in contrast to the classic MSCI World, also contains shares of 24 emerging markets (emerging markets) such as China, India or Brazil. This increases the number of shares contained to just under 2,560 and the proportion of US titles is reduced to around 64 percent.
MSCI World for long -term investors
Basically, the classic MSCI World is still seen as a solid solution for patient investors. According to “Handelsblatt”, for example, Jens Jüttner from the Extra ETF portal is not bothered by the strong US dominance. The expert points out that the United States has grown the largest stock market and the US tech giants in the past ten years.
Editor finance.net
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