We lived through the worst stock market crash in over 50 years last year and markets across the planet got taken down in it. But the past few months have brought us a nice rally. What you may not know though, is that the markets of the so called BRIC nations have gone up faster than the DOW and S&P 500. As a trader you need to stick to the stock trading basics of following the money.

The BRIC nations include Brazil, Russia, India, and China. These four countries are going to experience the greatest economic growth in the next four decades and that means that their stock markets will probably be the best long-term investments you can make. There are many stocks from these countries that trade on the major US exchanges.

A researcher at Goldman Sachs put the concept of BRIC together seven years ago. He showed that these countries are going to have the biggest economies as far as GDP goes in five decades. Right now most of the big economies are in Europe, but the BRIC nations are going to pass them by.

It is about being in the right place at the right time. For example Japan currently is the second biggest economy in the world. By 2050 economists expect that Japan will slip to become the eighth largest economy in the world while India will rise from being the twelfth biggest economy to third.

China is going to have the biggest economy in the world by 2050. Right now the US does, but US is going to become number two. China is the most heavily populated country in the world and those people are moving from a peasant economy into the cities and becoming modern. Billions of Chinese working together to grow together is going to be a very profitable thing to be a part of.

Brazil is also an incredibly attractive place to invest. While the economy of the US shrank over 5.5% in the first quarter of this year Brazil's GDP actually grew. It completely shook off the global financial crisis.

The leaders of the BRIC nations see the future and are working together. The other week Russian finance leaders brought the leaders of these countries together for a power summit. They all talked about cooperating to help each other out. They are the future.

US investors can find opportunities to invest in the BRIC countries. There are exchange traded funds that track each country individually and one that is linked to all of them. There are also individual stocks from these countries that have dual listings on US exchanges. Huge opportunities to make great investments exist in these stocks.