The correct answer is     (D.) Peru

That's right: Peru. The little country that gets no attention has trumped the rest of the world in 2009, and investors who were smart enough to get on the bandwagon early are now feeling as high as the Andes peaks.

In fact, most investors who went into emerging markets are feeling the high. The benchmark MSCIBarra Emerging Markets Index is up +60% year to date --almost four times as robust as the S&P 500. And that's an average. Individual emerging markets have topped those gains. Though Peru sits at the top of the leaderboard, with year-to-date returns of +114%, Russia comes in formidable second with +94% gains. Indonesia's +80% surge is a close third while India's +73%, Brazil's +61%, and Shanghai's +56% also rank among the best performing major emerging markets this year. These gains dwarf the S&P 500's +16% or the MSCI EAFE global benchmark's +25% year-to-date returns.

What's especially great about this trend is that the amazing outperformance of at least some of these markets is likely more than a flash in the pan. Emerging markets account for more than 40% of the world's population and nearly a third of its gross domestic product (GDP). The International Monetary Fund even forecasts that emerging markets will account for all the growth in the global economy this year and most of the growth in 2010 as well.

So how can an income investor profit from this growth story? And are emerging market equities too hot for S.W.A.N. investors -- investors who want to "sleep well at night"? After all, emerging market equities aren't for everyone -- historically, they have tended to take back their gains as quickly as they gave them. StreetAuthority editor Carla Pasternak answers these questions in her latest edition of the High-Yield International newsletter.

In her search for a relatively safe way to play emerging markets, she shifted the focus to select countries that aren't as highly levered to volatile commodities or export markets as Peru or Russia. Instead, Carla looked for domestic growth stories and diversified economies that provide a relatively stable backdrop for their capital markets in the months and years ahead. What she found were a series of funds and equities that mitigate risk effectively and pay hefty yields to boot. It's a great way to put the world in your pocket. To learn the names of Carla's picks, and to learn more about High-Yield International, please visit this link.