FRDM Over EEM Amidst The Chip Crash

Jack Bowman 10.56K Followers Follow Summary I’m upgrading the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF to a strong buy and taking a tactical position; iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF keeps its buy rating, as neither deserves a downgrade, but Freedom is the worthwhile tilt here. FRDM’s portfolio carries a lower trailing P/E, lower price/book, and significantly lower price/sales than EEM’s, with nearly half its weight in firms below 15x trailing earnings. FRDM cuts China, India, the Arab Gulf monarchies, and Egypt, allocating that to Poland, Chile, Malaysia, and others, while still sharing TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix with EEM. Both charts are ugly after the sudden crash of global chip stocks, and FRDM took it worse given its heavier exposure to Korea, which is in a technical bear market. I believe this is an opportunity for patient investors adding emerging market exposure, especially to markets aligned with Western business values, with RSI showing both funds very near oversold. Petra Richli/iStock via Getty Images Back in May, I gave my endorsement to the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF ( EEM ), largely on the point that EEM's definitions around which countries are “emerging” differ from CRISPR Therapeutics AG's ( This article was written by Jack Bowman 10.56K Followers Follow Jack Bowman is a financial columnist and independent analyst, ranked in the top 5% of experts on TipRanks. He is the co-founder of ETF Portfolio Mechanics, a Seeking Alpha Investing Group for ETF investors that opens soon. There’s an ETF for everything now, and Jack believes ETFs serve investors best when they’re fully understood: how the fund works and what it actually holds. At ETF Portfolio Mechanics, he and co-founder Cain Lee publish look-through ETF research, valuing each fund like a portfolio (because they ultimately are). In the group, Jack writes the Macro Market Monitor, the group’s weekly chartbook on index, sector, factor, and macro funds, and runs the Growth Model Portfolio, which mirrors his family's real-money portfolio. On Seeking Alpha, Jack is best known for his macro commentary and ETF coverage, though he occasionally writes on technology, materials, and miscellaneous equities, most frequently on securities he holds or is weighing for his own portfolio. He also writes The Macro Obsession, a Sunday newsletter on finance, technology, and the real economy. It’s chart- and narrative-driven. There, you can get Jack unfiltered, with no editors and no guardrails. Jack spent five years in public-facing investment advisory, running Bowman Capital Management (“BCM”), and contracting for independent RIAs, with his work largely centered on portfolio management and discretionary trading. He passed the Series 65 (the Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination) and was registered as an investment adviser representative starting in 2021. BCM is closed to new clients. In 2026, Jack opened Bowman Macro Research (“BMR”), a subsidiary of BCM that builds and maintains the datasets behind his chart work. BMR also publishes the Profit Dynamics Index, which tracks the level, direction, and velocity of corporate profits in the S&P 500. Profit Dynamics is an investable strategy on PiTrade, signals provided by BMR. Before that, Jack was classically trained as a social science educator. He holds a bachelor's of arts degree in history with a public history concentration and a master's of education degree in pedagogy. He taught senior-level economics, civics, history, psychology, and journalism at a public high school for four years. Jack was a teacher for six years total, with his earlier two years spent at a public middle school teaching social sciences to academically gifted students. “Successful investing requires holding uncomfortably idiosyncratic positions.” — Howard Marks, paraphrasing David Swensen Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of EMXC, FRDM, S&P 500 either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.