Milestones and Valentine's Day Testimony

It was another week for the record books as all three major U.S. indices hit record highs and the so called “Trump Rally” continued. Also announced this week, Vanguard continues to win with their low cost, passively managed index funds. The U.S. based money manager now tops $4 trillion in AUM.

This surge in assets comes with lofty projections for the ETF industry and rightfully so. Price Waterhouse Coopers released a research report projecting $1.1 trillion of assets pouring into the ETF Industry by 2018 and over $2 trillion more by the end of 2021. That would bring the fast growing industry to over $6 trillion in assets.

This week the PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Staples Portfolio (PSCC) and the PowerShares Contrarian Opportunities Portfolio (CNTR) led the way in our ETFG Quant reward model. Both funds are currently sporting an “A” rating and have scores of 70.5 and 75.4 respectively.

In our Quant Movers, the Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE Small Cap Hedged Equity ETF (DBES) and the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) had the highest total weekly change. They moved 14.44 and 11.82 respectively. DBES currently holds a “C” rating on our Quant score and VYM holds a “D.”

Within our Risk Ratings, Direxion has 4 of the top 5 riskiest funds this week according to the ETFG Red Diamond Risk Model. GASL, which is a triple levered, bullish on gas fund, lead the way with the highest risk score at 10. That was followed by GASX, another gas related fund, LBJ, a Latin American bull fund and ERX, an Energy bull fund. All of them are tripled levered which pulls down the structure score in our model - learn more here.

The coming week is sure to be a busy one led by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen testifying before congress on Valentine’s Day. She will be delivering her semiannual monetary policy report before the U.S. Senate on Tuesday and will then make her way to the House of Representatives on Wednesday. This is the first time she will appear before lawmakers since the start of the Trump Administration and you can rest assured that the markets will be listening intently.

Thank you for reading ETF Global Perspectives!

ETFG 21 Day Free Trial:  https://www.etfg.com/signup/quick

_____________________________________________________________

Assumptions, opinions and estimates constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice.  ETF Global LLC (“ETFG”) and its affiliates and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively ETFG Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, adequacy or timeliness of any information, including ratings and rankings and are not responsible for errors and omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information and ETFG Parties shall have no liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions therein, regardless of the cause, or for the results obtained from the use of such information. ETFG PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SUITABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE.  In no event shall ETFG Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the information contained in this document even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

ETFG ratings and rankings are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions. ETFG ratings and rankings should not be relied on when making any investment or other business decision.  ETFG’s opinions and analyses do not address the suitability of any security.  ETFG does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor.  While ETFG has obtained information from sources they believe to be reliable, ETFG does not perform an audit or undertake any duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives.

This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or other financial instrument. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.  Any opinions expressed herein are given in good faith, are subject to change without notice, and are only correct as of the stated date of their issue.  Prices, values, or income from any securities or investments mentioned in this report may fall against the interests of the investor and the investor may get back less than the amount invested.  Where an investment is described as being likely to yield income, please note that the amount of income that the investor will receive from such an investment may fluctuate.  Where an investment or security is denominated in a different currency to the investor's currency of reference, changes in rates of exchange may have an adverse effect on the value, price or income of or from that investment to the investor.