Frontier markets
Small markets with thin liquidity and restricted access that sit outside the main emerging-market indices.
How to read the number
A step below emerging: an exchange exists, but turnover is small, and closing a sizeable position moves the price against whoever is leaving.
When the metric lies
Their returns look only loosely related to world markets, and that apparent independence gets read as resilience — it is a by-product of infrequent trades and delayed repricing.
Also known as: frontier market group