The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the most self-sacrificing way to help fight the trade war is to forgo U.S. stocks. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes that Statistics Canada says investors were reducing their holdings of U.S. stocks even before the trade war began. People have either floated the idea of getting out of the U.S. stock market or had actually sold their U.S. exposure. Some investors are looking to Europe to diversify beyond the Canadian market, which makes some theoretical sense in that some of the world's largest economies outside the U.S., China and Japan are located there. The problem is European stock markets have not come close to U.S. returns over the past 10 years and have mostly lagged the Canadian market as well. For comparative returns, consider this index-tracking exchange-traded fund, the Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap Index ETF (VCN): A return of 23.3 per cent for the 12 months to Feb. 28, 10.2 per cent over three years, 13 per cent over five years and 8.4 per cent over 10 years. Mr. Carrick also mentions the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VFV): A 12-month return of 26.1 per cent and 17.3 per cent for three years, 18.2 per cent for five years, and 14.2 per cent for 10 years.