When is comes to investment prognostications, the crystal balls of market strategists sometimes are no more reliable than Magic 8 Balls. Still, strategists are paid to give their forecasts, investors want to hear them, and articles such as this provide a forum for them.

In that vein, a panel of top investment chiefs sat down today at the Inside ETFs conference in Hollywood, Fla. to offer their two cents on what investors can expect for the remaining 11/12s of 2015.

There weren’t any sparks of major disagreement among the panelists, and most seemed on board with the idea that last week’s news about the European Central Bank’s massive bond-buying program, or quantitative easing to help inflate the continent’s moribund economy, should be good for the equity markets there.

That’s not to say all agreed Europe’s QE will actually help the regional economy. Brian Wesbury, chief economist at First Trust Advisors, offered that QE didn’t really help the U.S. economy and currently isn’t helping the Japanese economy, and he expressed doubts it will help the European economy.

Richard Bernstein, CEO and chief investment officer at Richard Bernstein Advisors, countered that for investors the issue of QE isn’t about the economy, it’s about equity performance in those countries that have implemented QE. “Ultimately, I think it [QE] will benefit the Japanese stock market,” he said.

Regarding Europe, he said the fact the ECB has reversed prior tightening policies in the face of deflation and is now opening the spigot is the key takeaway for investors.

“Debating market returns on European QE is immaterial to the discussion,” Bernstein said. “Going from tightening to easing mode will be better for the markets.”

Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said European QE is a different beast in that it’s a more blunt instrument than what occurred in the U.S. or is now taking place in Japan.

“My take is that QE in Europe is more contemporaneous to a recovery that’s already going on in the European economy because surveys show marked improvement in investor and business confidence,” he said. “And the gas tax cut will also be helpful to the European consumer. Collectively, we’re pretty constructive on European equities."

Elsewhere overseas, panelists were cautious about emerging markets and warned investors not to look at this broad category as a monolithic entity. In other words, selectivity is paramount. Indeed, Russia’s recent woes regarding the Ukraine crisis and plunging oil prices have whacked its markets and left the Micex Index of the 30 largest and most liquid Russian companies trading at four times earnings.

“That makes it an incredibly cheap opportunity and arguably provides tremendous value for investors with long-term time horizons,” Luschini said. “But it’s hardly a conventional investment for mainstream investors.”

Investors keen on the international sphere should be attuned to currency wars as governments debase their currencies to remain competitive in the aftermath of last decade’s massive global credit bubble that produced overcapacity issues.

“When that happens the only way to compete is on price, and countries compete on price by depreciating their currency,” Bernstein said. “Nobody wants a strong currency, and that’s why we’ve been so bullish on the dollar for the past three or four years because with other currencies there’s a race to the bottom.

“If you’re in emerging-market bonds you’ve got a lot to worry about,” he continued. “People think emerging-market debt is fantastic because it’s higher-yielding and a great source of income, but they don’t have a clue about where this is going.”

The underlying message: consider the importance of hedging currency risk.

“I haven’t talked about currency in my entire career as much as I have in the past six months, so you have to acknowledge, if not embrace it,” Luschini said. “We’re seeing the ETF industry continuing to provide more options in that [currency-hedging] space, and we’re using them in our portfolio construct to negate that issue.”

On the home front, Luschini said his firm is “a little out of consensus” regarding return expectations for U.S. equities. He noted that calls for an 8 percent to 10 percent rate of return are too rosy. While he still expects positive returns, he offered that full valuations in U.S. equities should result in lumpier results and more volatility.

Delving further into U.S. markets, Luschini suggested that dividend payers are still worth a look. “The dividend equity story isn’t dead,” Luschini said, adding that dividend-paying stocks can cushion the blow of a market drawdown while offering the potential for boosting overall returns.

Since the start of last year, perhaps the most-asked question in investing circles has been when will the U.S. Federal Reserve raise interest rates. Many people thought it would happen in 2014, and they were wrong. The consensus is it will finally happen this year.

Wesbury from First Trust Advisors is in that camp. And if and when it does happen, he sees no need for collective angst among investors because he believes the Fed won’t go crazy with it. “All the Fed will do is get less loose; it won’t be tight,” he said. “And that’s the key because you worry about a tight Fed, not a less-loose Fed.”

The last order of business for the panel dealt with the stunning drop in global oil prices since mid-year 2014. Bernstein said companies in the sector built themselves for $100 oil, and in the process loaded up their balance sheets with gobs of debt, particularly among small- and mid-cap operators.

“There will have to be a whole wave of asset write-downs that will be coming,” he predicted. “I don’t think people have thought through the risk of MLPs (master limited partnerships). Everyone is thinking these are the greatest things since sliced bread [and believe they are] uncorrelated to the commodity. Nothing could be farther from the truth.”