A key step in successful portfolio management is to "Focus on the Leaders." However, one constant in the markets is that leadership is always on the move. Thus, it is vital to employ a system that can adapt to ever-changing environments. We have found that by paying close attention to where the performance is both in the US markets and around the world, it is easier to know where to make investments when money becomes available or when portfolio shifts are warranted.
The advent and popularity of ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds) creates almost limitless opportunities for individual investors. No longer do you need to be a high powered hedge fund manager in order to have access to countries in the emerging markets, commodities, currencies, or - just about anything you can think of. No, today anyone can own country indices such as China, Brazil, or India and commodities such as gold, copper, steel, and coal, just to name a few. Looking for global agriculture? There's an ETF for that (Market Vectors Agribusiness - MOO). Do you like the semiconductors? There are a handful of ETF's available (both leveraged and non-leveraged). Want to hedge your bets with a trade in the VIX index? Yep, there's an ETF (actually, there are several) for that.
But with more than 800 ETF's available to investors these days, the decision of what to own can quickly become overwhelming. To help with this question, we have developed two brand new ETF Reports: "The Leaders" and "ETF Big Money Flows." The reports are free to all visitors and is updated weekly.
We use both of these reports (along with a boatload of additional data) in our TSP FlexPro Portfolio. In case you're not familiar with the service, the portfolio strategy for the TopStock FlexPro Portfolio allows complete flexibility in terms of asset allocation. There are no predetermined guidelines whatsoever as to the level of stocks, bonds, cash, regions, countries, sectors, or even asset classes in the portfolio! In short, this is a completely flexible portfolio designed to follow the performance trail wherever it leads us.
The portfolio consists entirely of low-cost, tax efficient ETF's with an overall objective to “own the best and ignore the rest.” More specifically, from a universe of over 800 ETFs, the TopStock FlexPro Portfolio will own only the top performers.
Please excuse the brief commercial, but here's a link to take a Try the FlexPro Portfolio.
Getting to the topic at hand, below is a summary of the leading ETF's over three different time-frames: Intermediate-Term (3 months), Short-Term (2-4 weeks), and what we call the Micro view (5 days). However, it is important to understand that we do not rank the ETF's simply by rate of change over the period selected. First, we incorporate both trend and breadth indicators to rate the ETF's and then analyze performance over the period selected.
Combining different time-frames is an institutional/professional trading strategy that will help you (1) stay focused on the big trends that occur each year, while at the same time, (2) avoiding the "what worked best last week" approach that so many individual investors like to use that is fraught with risk.
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Below is a summary of the leading ETF's in each of the three time-frames that we use in our work:
The TSP ETF Leader Boards
The table below summarizes the top rated ETF's over the intermediate-term, which we define as 63 trading days. This is NOT simply a list of the top performers, as there are multiple indicators involved with our calculations for trend, breadth, and momentum. Note we only list those ETF's with sufficient liquidity. If an ETF does not trade enough volume to meet our criteria, we toss it aside. In addition, if there are multimple ETF types within the same category, we list only the top rated ETF.
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Disclosure: At the time of publication, Mr. Moenning or related companies own positions in the following securities mentioned: XSD,
