For quite some time I was interested in recommending that my readers invest in Russia. I still had concerns about some political issues and organized crime in the country.  Most experts out there tell people to stay away from Russia, so I knew I had to do further research myself.

One day I told my lovely wife to get her passport ready because we were going to Moscow.  She was quite excited because Moscow is a shopping mecca with many historical sites to see.  But, I assure you—I was there for business.

We traveled to Russia in December of last year and I saw firsthand how the country operates.  I observed that the Russians are a hard working and productive people that just want the best for their families.  Russians are striving for a better quality of life just like anyone else.  I knew right away that the country offers investor’s high

MSCI tries to tackle Russian liquidity issues with new indexes that include stocks listed outside of the country. 

MSCI Barra has created two new Russia indexes to mitigate the problems recently exposed with the frequent suspension of trading on the Russian stock markets during the global market unrest.

The new MSCI Barra indexes will capture the performance of Russian stocks that are traded outside Russia, during trading halts in Moscow.

The MICEX Stock Exchange and Russia Trading System (RTS) have halted trading for more than a full day twice since September.

What's more, new trading halt rules have been put in place at a furious pace, adding to jittery investors' lack of comfort with Russian equities trading.

Most recently, the Russian regulatory authority on Tuesday implemented a one-hour trading halt in the event that the MICEX or RTS technical indexes rise by more than 10% or fall by more than

Market Vectors Russia (RSX) and Coal (KOL) remain 1-2 in this week’s sector ratings, although the order has switched. Both sectors have strength ratings over 100, indicating that they are expected to perform in the top 2% of historical ETF returns over the next month. (We have been showing the results of our sector model each week with a one-day delay. Investors interested in more details can request a free report via email — found at the top left of the page).

A Look at the Fundamentals…

The Market Vectors Russia ETF is a closet energy play, with nearly 40% exposure. Tom Lydon at ETFtrends has a nice article on the relationship between Germany and Russia, leading to more modernization. This has helped the RSX ETF.

When one wants foreign exposure, the ETF is often preferable to finding individual stocks.

On the coal front, Tom Lydon has another …