03/08/2021 What’s in Your Core?

By Herb Blank If you are an investor with less than $1 billion to invest and a holding horizon of more than 3 months, do NOT buy SPY to access exposure to the S&P 500.  This is true even though SPY has the most assets under management and the highest average trading volume by far. The simple … Read more

Inside Actively Managed Equity ETFs

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

Dividend ETFs, How to Decide Which is Best for You.

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

Making Sense of ESG ETFs and Impact ETFs 12/14/2020

By Herbert Blank There are more than 100 US-listed ETFs categorized by Morningstar and others under ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance).  All have an element of attempting to align investments with personally held social values. Under the hood, there are huge differences between many and subtle huge differences between others. Its a big subject, to … Read more

Low Volatility ETFs 11/13/2020

By Herbert Blank Welcome Herb to ValuEngine! Please see below for the first of many articles/blogs by Herb Blank. There are more than a dozen US ETFs with “Low Volatility” in their names.  It made a difference this year as many Low Vol ETFs struggled to keep up with during this year’s “downturn” when one would … Read more