U.S. stocks did investors very well over most of the last 30 years. But the next 30 belong to those who can harness the power of the rise of the new consumer.

Just last week, news broke that 1,408 investors, analysts and traders Bloomberg surveyed rate the U.S. fourth for potential returns over the next year.

Guess which countries rank first, second and third? Not Germany. Not Britain. Not France. Not Japan. Not Australia. But Brazil and China (tied for first) and India (in third place).

This is hardly surprising. These three nations are on the fault line of the rise in the emerging nation consumer class. Plus, their economies are growing at a much faster clip than the U.S. economy.

This is fantastic news for globally minded investors. Believe me, these same 1,408 pros will be plunking down big piles of cash in the emerging economies. And that means even higher prices of emerging market stocks.

What is the best way to trade this trend? As they say, therein lies the rub.

Three things are crucial to success:

1) Proper Diversification – Investors lose money in the markets, not because they chose the wrong investments, but because they fail to diversify their portfolios.

Just because emerging markets are set to outgrow the developed economies doesn’t mean you put all your money into one Indian tech stock…or one Brazilian oil producer.

Your portfolio should be spread out across a number of countries and a number of sectors. No one investment or group of investments should be able to wipe out your savings.

2) A Strong Focus on Risk Management – Risk management of individual positions is also crucial to success. You need to learn how to let your profits run and how to strictly limit your losses.

You do this through position sizing (knowing what percentage of your savings to put into each investment) and the intelligent use of stop-loss orders (orders you give to your broker to sell a stock at a particular price.)

3) Top Market Intelligence – This is the most difficult element to get right. It sounds obvious, but to win in the markets, you’ve got to buy investments that are going to go up and sell ones that are going to go down.

That means you’ve got to gather a lot of knowledge and insight about state of the market and about the state of the stocks, funds, bonds and ETFs that make up the market.

Most Wall Street types are too busy selling investment products (at a fat commission, of course) to bother doing this. So you must seek independent advice from people who understand how the world works.

They won’t get every call right. No one does. But they will help you find the diamonds in the rough.

To start, you should sign up for a free subscription to IL Investor—the new financial e-letter from International Living.