Communications Services – 4 Years After Its Debut

In 2018, the General Industry Classification System (GICS) that defines the sector and industry groups of the S&P 500 made major changes to better reflect the changing global stock market environment.  The primary change was the creation of the Communications Services sector and elimination of a separate Telecommunications Services Sector.   All of the approximately 5,000 … Read more

Six-Month Update – Wealth Preservation with Limited Market Participation in a Risk-On Environment

Six months ago, I discussed ways that investors could stay invested with one eye squarely on wealth preservation in a risk-on environment.  We are still in a risk-on environment where the choices we reviewed in March are still relevant. One half of the list included five stock-based ETFs without derivatives that focus on stocks with … Read more

Best Performing ETF’s Year-to-Date 2022

The list of best performing equity ETFs in the US thus far this year has been dominated by two categories: 1. Leveraged/Inverse – almost always the case by definition and 2. Single industry/sector – including energy, utilities, defense, and insurance et al.  Leveraged and inverse ETFs are short-term trading tools that are very rarely, if … Read more

Traditional Values-Driven ETFs

I have written a lot in my blog analyzing and differentiating ESG, sustainable and impact ETFs.  In 2020 and 2021 on a percentage basis, this segment was among the fastest growing in the ETF marketplace. Moreover, during most of that time, the market performance of these funds validated the concept that investing in ESG ETFs … Read more

Time for Impact Investors and Contrarians to Unite Behind Clean Energy ETFs

The trend is your friend.  That is, until it isn’t.   The list of best performing non-leveraged ETFs for the past 90-days is led almost exclusively by ETFs that hold the stocks of fossil-fuel-based energy and closely related companies.  At the same time, the prices of ESG and more climate-focused impact ETFs have plunged dramatically.  With … Read more

Is It Time for Actively Managed Value ETFs?

There is no sugarcoating it.  January was a lousy month for the market.  Many pundits are certain that this is the beginning of a yearlong downturn. Other experts are calling this a dip and a buying opportunity.  Our models at ValuEngine are mixed with a six-month forecast on S&P 500 ETFs of +2.6% but a … Read more

ETFs for Redeploying Core Equity Allocations in 2022

Happy New Year!   My previous column focused on the ValuEngine forecast targets for 6 Benchmark Index ETFs.  To varying degrees, our models expect all of them to post negative price returns.  The question for investors concerned with a downturn is what to do and, if reallocation from assets committed to core equity is required, how … Read more

2022 Market Forecasts: Sell in May and Go Away?

A common toast has been: “May 2022 be better than 2021!”  However, where the US Stock Market is concerned, most of us would gratefully accept a repeat of 2021’s returns.   The ETF reports on ValuEngine.com for funds that follow market benchmarks provide a side benefit in writing market analyses.  They are a window to implicit … Read more

BEWARE of BITO, the “ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF”

This is a departure from my usual blog, focusing on the newly launched ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO). Most ETFs analyzed in my blog articles are covered by ValuEngine with a handful of exceptions. ValuEngine does not cover any ETFs that do not hold stocks.  Moreover being newly launched, our price-based models cannot yet be … Read more

Inside Bank and Financial ETFs: How Do They Compare?

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