ETF Global

Data Miner is seeing a dichotomy in Quant’s upper ranks today.  Some of the names are ones that have held up very nicely through the recent correction and some are ones that have taken it on the chin.  A fund doesn't rank highly simply because it has been strong or because it is cheap.  Quant’s is a complex algorithm whose output moves in mysterious ways.  That said, we thought it a good idea to do an international survey of the top 100 rankings.   First we notice 6 Developed Markets funds and 3 Emerging Markets.  The former are non US and have a weighting towards Europe.  The highest ranking of them is the SPDR DJ EURO STOXX 50 Fund (FEZ) which we have seen in and out of the top ranks for a couple of months, it’s at 11^th place today driven by high Sentiment and decent Fundamental Scores.  Setting our sites across Europe we see France’s EWQ back up at 21^st place, and 7 other country specific funds: UK (EWU) and Turkey (TUR) tied at 34^th place, Switzerland (EWL) and Spain (EWP) tied at 45^th, Netherlands (EWN) at 70^th, Italy (EWI) at 75^th and Norway (NORW) at 90^th.   Following the Silk Road to Asia, we see our familiar China funds, FXI and GXC in 1^st and 8^th place respectively joined by two other China funds, HAO and FCHI in 60^th and 69^th place.  Those two unfamiliar tickers get in the top 100 with strong Fundamental Scores even though they are still trading near their highs.  Low Behavioral Scores on both suggest they may be due for a correction.  Hong Kong appears in 18^th place with EWH, South Korea’s EWY comes in 90^th and Indonesia’s EIDO in 31^st place.  Africa isn't on most investors’ minds but the iShares MSCI South Africa Index Fund (EZA) rose 37 positions last night into 72nd place.  Taking to the sea we come to Australia where the iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund (EWA) has gotten up to 3^rd place, its highest in months, joined by WisdomTree’s AUSE in 90^th place.  South America has some constituents in the top 100 led by the iShares MSCI Chile Index Fund (ECH) in 4^th place.  That fund has lost a little over 1% since we highlighted it a month ago when it got as high as 6^th place, pretty good performance over a miserable month.  Peru’s EPU comes in at 42^nd place and Brazil gets 27^th place with EWZ.  There are also a couple of BRIC funds around 50th place, EEB and BKF, but none devoted exclusively to India or Russia.  Crossing the Isthmus on our way back to North America, Mexico is not represented in the top 100 this time but Canada gets 11^th place with EWC, almost as high as the 9^th place when we highlighted it on October 5^th.  It’s down almost 4% since then which is less than 70% of the S&P 500’s 5.74% drop.  Coming home, we see a higher than usual 57 US funds in Quant’s top 100 with 5 in the top 10 and another 9 in the top 25.  That group is led by the Vanguard Information Technology Sector Fund (VGT) in 5^th place with more than 20% of its assets in Apple Inc.  Wherever you wish to send your investments, we hope those provide some ideas.  If you have any others, make sure to take a look at their ETFG Tear Sheets to fully understand what you are buying.  If you have any questions on Quant’s mysterious movements or anything else you see on ETF Global, send us an e-mail to support@etfg.com, we are here to help.