ITGumbo: spicing IT up

The U.S. dollar is falling, several foreign countries are experiencing significant growth rates, and the price of gold has risen from the $300 range to the $800 range. What should expatriates living in Israel invest their U.S. dollars in?

These questions and more were discussed at the first Jerusalem Investing Meetup event organized by portfolio manager extraordinaire, Zack Miller. Topics covered in depth included:

- Why investors invest internationally? Growth, valuation, diversification.

- How investors can invest internationally? Stocks, International bonds, currencies.

By applying what I have learned over the past few months about investing and technology in Israel with what was discussed at the meetup, here are my thoughts on investing in Israel and its high-tech companies:

While BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have had the most growth in the past few years and promise the most return. Return on investments in these countries aren't a guaranteed thing. Israel, on the other hand, also has a fair growth rate and a proven track record of getting money out of investments made in it. For reasons such as these, VCs are learning to love investing in Israeli companies and so should more individual investors.

To briefly expound, Israel is currently a bull market that has the highest concentration of engineers in the world and over 120 publicly traded companies in the US. After the United States, Israel has the largest amount of companies listed on the Nasdaq and is one of the top four countries American VCs invest in. Many companies, from Microsoft to Cisco to Google, have opened R&D offices in Israel. There is also talk that Google is planning to hire more local database experts as the demand for that increases.

If so many major companies find value in investing in Israeli technology, shouldn't the individual investor as well?

Here are some well-established Israeli high-tech companies that are being recommended to individual investors, such as the expats at the meetup:

Comverse Technologies
Teva Pharmaceutical
Elbit Medical
Africa-Israel

I think these companies should also be recommended:
Voltaire
Given Imaging
Ormat Technologies

Think other Israeli high-tech companies should be recommended to investors? Enter the company or companies you recommend and I'll add it here.