"North America is very important, but we have a global portfolio."

"We continue to benefit from a global portfolio that hedges the risk of recessions in individual markets or regions."

He said that Morgan held neither company in its global portfolios.

The firm's global portfolio, including the United States, has 31.5 percent in Japan.

Global revenue in 2010 was $2.93 billion and the firm has a global portfolio of more than 1.6 billion square feet under management.

Tune Hotels claims it is aiming for 100 hotels in its global portfolio by 2015.

Kiska has a global portfolio of clients and is currently considering expanding to extra premises across the world.

"If you want to be global trading operation, you need a global portfolio."

But can global small-stock portfolios return more than domestic ones, and do so with less risk?

Mr. Bassini has put 15 percent of his global institutional portfolios into Mexico.