ETF Global

It’s Thanksgiving week and we have Turkey on our mind.  Not the kind our first grader won at Bingo night this weekend but the iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index Fund (TUR); we’re going to beat the stuffing out of the pun anyway.  We mentioned the fund’s little plastic thermometer popping up a week ago as things were heating up in the Middle East.  Its rank popped up to 8^th place that day and has held that ground to 7^th place today.  Rockets and missiles flying around the neighborhood hasn't hurt performance too much, the fund was down in line with most world markets last week but is still near its year to date highs.  Financial funds have not been on Quant’s top menus lately but this one feasts on the sector representing more than 55% of AUM.  The Consumer Staples so necessary for all the fixings make up about 12% and the Telcomms that help us share it all with Granny make up more than 8%.  Most of the other sectors are represented in weights as small as nuts, berries and other sweets.  TUR has been methodically gobbling up Quant ranks recently, it made it into the top 100 in early October and the top 20 early this month, the kind of steady improvement we like to see.  It’s only down by about 3% since its high on November 5^th but it has historically had higher risk.  High Deviation and Volatility scores remind us that it lives in a hot part of the world and contribute to its 5.67 Red Diamond Risk Rating, higher than most unleveraged funds.   Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Quant beholds a 9.72 Green Diamond Reward Rating for this old bird today, driven by strong scores on both the Behavioral and Fundamental side.  It doesn't get much tastier than that.