Jonathan Clements is one of our favorite journalists because of his common-sense approach and his focus on what is best for investors. Creating awareness is one way to combat the lies mentioned by Clements in his recent WSJ piece. The other is having an advisor on your side. Click here to read more.

It’s certainly not the “Dow” as Allan Sloan so excellently covered in his recent piece. (You can also find the perfect summary by The Week here.) It’s not even the S&P 500—which is just the 500 largest companies in the U.S. Add in nearly all US, International, and Emerging Market stocks, bringing your total in the neighborhood of 12,000 companies, and then you’ll have a feel for what we call global capitalism. That’s also what we at Hill consider to be the true market. The image above shows the percent that each country represents in world market capitalization as of December 31, 2014. Note where some markets might be much smaller that expected. Even the U.S. only represents 52% of the total, whereas most investors we meet come with portfolios that have little other exposure outside of that.

A note to our clients: Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) has a proxy vote underway for shareholders of certain funds that requires participation. We encourage you to submit your votes by signing and returning the paper materials mailed to your home, and if you’re unable to do so, a third-party proxy facilitator will reach out to you over the phone beginning in April.

The board members for DFA’s funds (most of whom are not affiliated with DFA) are responsible for protecting your interests as a shareholder and believe that these proposals are in the best interests of shareholders. They recommend that you vote in favor of the proposals.

Visit DFA’s 2015 proxy vote page on their website or view this letter from DFA’s Chairman, David Booth, for more information.