ETF Global

And there off!  As campers awake to their 20% off flat screens and Justin Bieber DVDs, Quant is feeling the American spirit too.  Four broad US based Russell funds make the top ranks today led by the iShares Russell 2000 Growth Fund (IWO) in 5^th place.  The fund has been scoring better recently and its price has participated in the rebound along with the general market over the last week.  That has helped its Technical Score rise into the low 60s from the low 50s a week earlier when its Fundamental Score reached the low 80s.  Four straight positive days have brought that Fundamental Score down to a still respectable 73.  The fund uses a replication strategy but it still has over 1000 constituents in the small cap growth sector of the market.  The iShares Russell 1000 Value Fund (IWD) on the other hand replicates the index tracking the large cap value sector of the market and that too finds itself in the top 10 today in 9^th place.  It has seen similar scores to IWO recently with most slightly higher except for IWO’s higher Sentiment Score suggesting some market skepticism towards those small growth stocks.  If you are not sure which makes more sense for you, consider the iShares Russell 3000 Fund (IWV) in 10^th place today.  That fund’s 1,121 constituents replicate the broad Russell Index that seeks to capture the entire US equity market.  Where its brethren have been creeping up in the ranks recently, this one jumps into the top ranks today partly on higher technical scores but mainly as a result of higher sentiment scores which readers know are more volatile than Quant’s other measures.  If that’s not enough for you, just missing the top 10 today is the iShares Russell 2000 Fund (IWM) in 12^th place.  Its only score above the 60s is its Sentiment Score at 80.2 today which has actually been stable in the low 80s for a few weeks.  It uses a representative sampling strategy that buys almost all 2000 names in the small cap index that covers both growth and value.  We thought Santa looked especially jolly closing out the Macy’s parade yesterday, maybe he’s getting ready to give us a good old fashioned Santa Claus rally to close out this otherwise dour fourth quarter.