With over one-third of 2013 behind us, it's worth taking a look at what have been the world's best performing stock markets so far this year.

I keep my finger in the pulse of global markets by monitoring 36 global stock markets for my firm Global Guru Capital on a daily basis. Note that these are all stock markets that you can invest in at a click of a mouse through a U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks an index based on that market.

Truth be told, there isn't much of an overarching investment theme that connects global stock markets this year.

In fact, just about the only thing the top five markets have in common is that they have next to nothing in common.

The Top Five Stock Markets in 2013

1. The Philippines

The Philippines has always had a low profile, even among the global investing crowd. Viewed as the sick man of Asia, it never had the cache of its higher-profile "Asian Tiger" rivals — Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan or South Korea. And with a population of only 95 million, the Philippines does not have the demographic heft of, say, Indonesia (population 243 million), so that it could ever rival larger, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies.

But what the Philippines does have is economic growth, with its gross domestic product (GDP) expanding 6% this year. Moody's expects the same rate of expansion in 2014. And if favorable economic trends continue, growth could hit a China-like 8% by 2016. No wonder Moody's called this former economic underachiever one of the "brightest parts of a generally gloomy global picture."

The Philippines' greatest coup came last week when S&P upgraded its debt to investment grade. Fitch already had done so on March 27. The S&P upgrade was critical because some institutional funds require at least two investment-grade ratings before investing. This is something that even an emerging markets star like Turkey had yet to achieve.

GLOBAL GURU CAPITAL – MONTHLY UPDATE

April 2013

All of the Global Guru Capital funds were profitable for the month of April 2013, as well as year-to-date 2013.

The "Ivy Plus" Investment Program gained 2.13%. The "Global Gains" Investment Program rose 2.65%. The "Double Your Dividends" Investment Program added 1.71%.

THE "IVY PLUS" INVESTMENT PROGRAM
IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN REAL ESTATE

The "Ivy Plus" Investment Program added 2.13% for the month of April.

The "Ivy Plus" portfolio posted a monthly gain of better than 2% for the second time in 2013

U. S. Real Estate and International Real Estate were the largest gainers in the portfolio, posting nearly identical 7.22% and 7.16% gains, respectively.

The Developed Large and Developed Small Cap funds also turned in a strong performance, and Private Equity jumped 4.45%. Fixed Income swung into profitability as all four asset classes posted positive gains for April.

Commodities and timber were the only asset classes to fall, tumbling in tandem with the broader commodities markets, and hit hard by an unprecedented drop in gold prices .

The financial crash of 2008 shook much of the financial world, and many of its investment models, to its core. This includes the much-vaunted "Yale model" of endowment investing that still guides the investment strategies of the top universities in the world.

For a period of more than 20 years stretching back into the mid 1980s, university endowments seemed blessed by fairy dust. The top three U.S. university endowments — Yale, Harvard and Stanford — consistently returned more than 15% per year over that period.

That changed in 2008, when the top university endowments plummeted by 25% to 30%. The combined losses for Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton reached nearly $23 billion in the 12 months ending June 30, 2009.

The endowments rebounded sharply from the dark days of 2008 during the next two years. But once again, they had a rough time over the last 18 months or so. The Harvard endowment's returns were flat through the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. And the Yale and Stanford endowments rose only 4.7% and 1%, respectively, during the same period. And embarrassingly, all of them trailed the U.S. S&P 500 by a large margin.

The poor performance of emerging markets, private equity and timber — exactly those alternative asset classes that had historically allowed them to outperform the U.S. stock market over long periods — dragged down the endowments' recent investment returns. Yet with these alternative asset classes rebounding strongly in recent months, top university endowments are once again well on their way to generating S&P 500-beating returns.

And with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that allow you to invest in these same asset classes, you can mimic the endowments' strategy in your own investment portfolio. I have done the same for my clients at my investment firm Global Guru Capital.

Yale's David Swensen: The "Babe Ruth of Investing"?

One of my favorite quotations is from the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who said:

All truth goes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed.

Second, it is violently opposed.

Finally, it is accepted as obvious.

Although Schopenhauer wasn't thinking about investing per se, you can still say the same about "can't lose" investment themes of the day.

Advocates of the hot investment themes have an almost religious zeal and commitment to their cause. Dare to disagree with them and you'll be "ridiculed" as someone who "doesn't get it."

The story always unfolds the same way.

Just go back to the arguments supporting the dotcom boom in 1999.

"The Internet is everywhere. It will dominate our lives as far as the eye can see. It has also minted dozens of 20-something billionaires in a matter of months. How can you not invest in it?"

Then the investment theme slowly starts to unravel. It turns out that making money from a website isn't as easy as selling dog food over the Internet.

One day, everyone rushes for the exit doors at once.

Overnight, it becomes "obvious" the whole dotcom boom was yet another bubble.

Ironically, the zealots were right in many ways.

The Internet did come to dominate our lives. And it upended the business models of music, videos, television, banking and even your local shopping mall.

But unless you were invested in a handful of winners, Internet companies were a lousy place to make money for most of us.

Just as Schopenhauer predicted, by 2001, that was becoming "obvious."

Three Recent Bubbles That Went Pop

Investment bubbles are present, everywhere, all the time.

And, yes, there are bubbles even in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Here are three bubbles that went pop over the past year; the past month; and the past week, in that order.