I got this question from a reader a few days ago:

“You have promoted TTF in the past. Is the current restructuring a good thing or not? Sounds logical to me, but the market apparently does not think so. I am still UP on my purchases and have bought more as it has declined…..”

I’d quibble and say I haven’t “promoted” TTF, which is a closed-end Thai fund, but I have mentioned it as a play on all of the interest that Myanmar’s re-entry to the world is bringing (Thailand is Myanmar’s natural trading partner and close neighbor, and a lot of Thai companies are already active in that re-emerging nation).

In January this year, I wrote the following:

“I was interested in TTF because I thought the discount would start to narrow and I liked the relatively low expense ratio, but now if I were investing in Thailand to get exposure both to the growing consumer economy there and to their investment in Myanmar I’d go with the THD ETF (Thai companies have an edge in Myanmar, thanks to a long history and a shared border).

“Over the past year TTF has handily beaten the other two funds, and over five years TTF and THD are essentially neck-and-neck (TF is far worse over that time, and has a much higher expense ratio). I’d switch my interest to THD now because I think the portfolio is better positioned for infrastructure growth and energy investment (it looks like THD has good exposure to cement, and more importantly to the giant state-controlled energy company PTT that’s very active in Myanmar, and TTF does not to the same degree), and it’s significantly cheaper. TTF might still outperform, particularly if they do something dramatic with their structure to close that discount (they’ve said they continue to explore options — including open-ending and buybacks, but other than some buybacks there’s been no big change, and it hasn’t altered the discount much). “

TTF’s restructuring is relatively minor and is designed to further narrow the discount, but the restructuring isn’t the reason for the fall in recent weeks — the reason for the fall is Thailand, which is collapsing along with most other frontier markets in the “run away from risk” trade. The differences between TTF and THD, the iShares indexed ETF for Thailand, are minor when it comes to performance — the primary ...