Since the beginning of this month traditionally marks back-to-school time for many, I thought the timing was appropriate for this article on basic investor education with a focus on ETFs and similarly traded instruments. The following seven actions reflect practices, many quite common, I’ve seen executed often that I consider major mistakes. In fact, I strongly … Read more
Airline stocks have been a favorite of many analysts as the economy resumed reopening and restrictions eased. Is it too late to join the party? If not, which ETFs should be considered? When this blog analyzed opportunities in specific industries such as banks or sectors such as consumer staples, I compared representative ETFs before identifying … Read more
By Herb Blank Research Affiliates and Dimensional Fund Advisors have been among the esteemed research and investment firms proclaiming that equally weighted portfolios will deliver superior performance to portfolios weighted by market capitalization also known as cap-weighted. This article explores to what extent that has been true in recent years. IVV is the iShares S&P … Read more
Two other analysts whose blogs I monitor wrote in their midyear reports that they were bullish on bank and financial ETFs. My analysis using ValuEngine data below differs significantly. One analyst singled out KRE and the other’s favorite was FTXO. They cited that the P/B and P/E ratios were considerably lower than the market averages. … Read more
The biggest surge in new ETFs during the past 12 months has switched from ESG/Other thematic to actively managed ETFs. The preponderance of these new offerings and filings have come from major mutual fund houses and investment banks. Three ETFs are compared below regarding this topic. I’ve recently written an article that explains the many … Read more
About a month ago, this blog profiled the defensive qualities of the three largest ETFs representing the US Consumer Staples Sector. One of our readers asked a logical question. How did DEF, the Invesco Defensive Equity ETF, stack up against the sector ETFs? After all, its objective of its rules-based methodology is to select companies … Read more
The ETF reports on ValuEngine for funds that follow market benchmarks provide a side benefit in writing market analyses. They allow me to discuss the implicit forecast for 1-, 3-, 6- and 12-month forecasts our models are making for each benchmark’s ETF portfolio. This is because the ratings and projections combine bottom-up constituent analysis with … Read more
Lately, ValuEngine has seen ticker GVIP (Goldman Sachs Hedge Industry VIP ETF) on several ETF strategists’ buy lists. The fund’s strategy is intended to take advantage of the highest conviction holdings of “VIP Hedge Fund Managers.” Specifically, GVIP seeks to track the GS Hedge Fund VIP Index, which is constructed in accordance with a rules-based … Read more
By Herbert Blank Actively managed ETFs have evolved very differently from index-driven ETFs. Most of the assets have been accumulated in actively managed fixed income ETFs while the vast preponderance of Assets Under Management in Equity ETFs are index driven. Although there are many legacy reasons for this, the fact is that the efficiencies of … Read more
By Herbert Blank Dividend ETFs have seen major inflows in recent years. At a time when most fixed income ETFs have historically low yields, that interest is easy to understand. There are more than 100 US-listed ETFs categorized by Morningstar, ETF.com, ETF Stream and others as Dividend ETFs. Many of these use very different methodologies to satisfy … Read more