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

Ultra Dividend ETFs

The last Edition of this column focused on Dividend ETFs, each of which had the word Dividend in its name.  The analysis focused on identifying the best overall ETF for conservative dividend-oriented investors as an alternative core holding that had more than twice the dividend yield of the S&P 500 while collecting comparable, if somewhat … Read more

Active ETF Gurus vs. GURU Index ETF

This week’s featured ETF is GURU, Global X Guru Index based on a specific “smart money” hedge fund strategy. Guru’s site claims that the index engineered by Global X and provided by German customized index specialist Solactive AG allows everyday investors to access the high conviction investments among the largest, most sophisticated hedge funds in … Read more

Seven Simple Rules for Owning ETFs and Exchange-Traded Products

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

How does DEF stack up against Consumer Staples ETFs?

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

Defensive Sector ETFs for Turbulent Times

This week’s featured US equity ETFs, all focused on the US Consumer Staples Sector, are projected to outperform the market going forward. The similarities with last week’s blog end there.  These all get a more modest 4 (buy) recommendation.  Risk versus safety differentiate the last blog from this one. My last blog entry profiled ETF … Read more

Medical Miracles: Inside Biotech ETFs

The events of the past twelve months focused a lot of attention on amazing and life-altering developments made possible by the global biotech industry.  Although the major names we heard were Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, only the last was where the original research and patents that produced the CoVid-19 vaccines were developed.  … Read more

Inside Value ETFs

The market has been in a value phase the past 6 months which has been well documented by others.  The regime change was heartily welcomed by almost all managers of value funds, both active and passive. This is because the previous 13 years have been relentlessly difficult for value managers in terms of relative performance … Read more

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