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

Which S&P 500 Stocks Are Currently Most Attractive?

Those of you who follow ValuEngine’s weekly lists of top-rated, (5 rated on scale of 1 to 5), Strong Buy stocks may have noticed that most of these stocks tend to be in the lower half of the market cap spectrum.  This is a function of the fact that our scores are tied to our … Read more

5 US Stocks to Consider Now for Conservative Portfolios

Looking at this week’s list of stocks rated 5 (Strong Buy) from ValuEngine for year-ahead performance, I note that there are a number of relatively well-known large cap and midcap stocks that meet my minimum criteria as appropriate for conservative institutional-quality portfolios. As we will see, all five are in popular large cap and midcap … Read more

Rotating Regimes – What to Plan For in 2023

In general, 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.  The ETF reports on ValuEngine for ETFs that follow market benchmarks provide a side benefit in writing market analyses.  They are a window to implicit forecasts for 3-, … Read more

Stock Analysis Inspired By Alternative Data Signals & A Tribute

I have spent 40 years helping to develop, research and market quantitative investment products with new twists. The advent of alternative data including the use of web-gathered information introduced new products in that regard. This has led to published papers in refereed journals such as “Using Alternative Research Data in Real World Portfolios” using data … Read more

Is It Time to Get Back to Basics?

I feel deluged lately by webinars and events touting investments in gold and precious metals. One theory pushed to support investment in these industry groups is that 1974 is here again.  They claim it is inevitable that the market will tank further as the economy plunges into stagflation, a deeper recession accompanied by huge inflation … Read more

How Much Runway Room Remains for the Aerospace/Defense Sector?

This year Aerospace stands out as one of the few industry sectors with a positive return other than energy and utilities.   For example, the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA), the largest ETF by assets representing the industry, returned 15.2% over the past twelve months in contrast to the -13.6% return posted by … Read more

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

3rd Quarter US Benchmark ETF Update

The third quarter was a tale of two halves.  The market staged what turned out to be a bear market rally throughout July and the first two weeks of August.  Then it was as if somebody blew a whistle.  The next six weeks saw the bear return with a vengeance.  The ETF reports on ValuEngine … Read more