Case Study of a Ten-Year Actively Managed ETF

Cambria Advisors recently sent out a mailing that was somewhat self-congratulatory noting the 10-year anniversary of the launch of its first ETF.  As we will explore shortly, I contend that the congratulations are well-deserved from a number of perspectives.  The email missive piqued my interest for a specific reason.  The main comparisons made in the … Read more

Semiconductor Stocks and ETFs – Is the Trend Still Your Friend?

Artificial Intelligence related stocks led the way robustly in the first half of 2023 with Nvidia (NVDA) leading the way.  The general consensus among major strategists cautions that the steep price increases of such stocks is characteristic of a market bubble.  Furthermore, for those who must be invested in equity, they suggest using growth stocks … Read more

2023 Midyear Review of Index ETFs and Smart Beta Strategies

Approaching 2023, the experts were in near unanimity that the fourth quarter of 2022 was little more than a dead cat bounce and that once the inevitable recession hit, the bear market would quickly take the S&P 500 Index to new lows.  Instead, the first six months have seen the Nasdaq-100 ETF, Invesco QQQ rise … Read more

How Have Expert Stock Selection ETFs Performed in this Decade Thus Far?

Throughout my career, I’ve heard professional investors assert that index funds are fine for bull markets but in volatile-to-down markets, active management will outperform.  SPIVA (S&P vs. Global) published research available from S&P Global has demonstrated that this was not true for actively managed mutual funds for 2022, and less true for the 2020-2022 period.  … Read more

The Many Dimensions of Technology ETFs and the Stocks They Hold

The US Stock Market, led by technology, has outperformed most expectations this year. Going into Memorial Day weekend, SPY, the most popular S&P 500 ETF, has risen more than 10%. That’s a very impressive number in the face of many of the best-known strategists predicting a down year for the major index in 2023.   As … Read more

Ill-Defined Outcomes – Results of a Research Study on Downside Mitigation ETFs

2022 provided a litmus test for ETFs designed to shield Investors from the full impact of a major stock market decline. The bad news is that half of them failed.  The good news is that three of them actually did perform in line with their objectives. These are the results of a recent study that I co-authored … Read more

GARP with Yield and Excluding Falling Knives

GARP is an acronym used in the investment industry to connote “growth at reasonable prices.”  Last week, we discussed the market size and style trends year-to-date and what our models expect to see for the year ahead.  The bottom line is that both our predictive and valuation models thought the mega-cap-weighted ETFs, such as QQQ, … Read more

Large-Cap Growth Rampage Could Be Creating Small-Cap Value Opportunities

In January, we published “Rotating Regimes – What to Plan For in 2023.” At that time, we recounted that the 2022 US Stock Market was a conflagration that wiped out almost everything in its path with the exception of a few industries and ETFs. At that time, we reported that two Benchmark ETFs we track, … Read more

Bank Stocks and ETFs – Time to Buy?

The Editor-in-Chief of well-respected publisher ETF Stream, Tom Eckett, published a rare editorial Friday March 24 saying the big selloff in banks due to fear of contagion was close to over.  He said at these levels, bank ETFs were at rarely seen low levels compared with earnings expectations and should not be thrown off too … Read more