Recently, a California-based firm, Accuvest Global Advisors, took over the advisory duties for Accuvest Global Long Short ETF (NYSEArca: AGLS), formerly known as Mars Hill Global Relative Value with the ticker GRV.
AGLS is structured as a unique actively managed exchange traded fund that seeks to deliver alpha irrespective of the trend of the overall equity markets, and it is not tied to a specific index benchmark. AGLS aims however to outperform the MSCI World Index through investing in country specific ETFs on both the long and short side of the market.
The ability of AGLS to “short” specific ETFs in indeed unique across the spectrum of ETFs that are currently available in the marketplace, and another ETF that recently launched from issuer AdvisorShares, SSAM (Rockledge SectorSAM ETF) also incorporates a long/short ETF methodology.
Currently, top weightings in AGLS are as follows: EWZS (iShares Brazil Small Cap, 12.50%), THD (iShares MSCI Thailand, 11.71%), IVV (iShares S&P 500 Index, 10.37%), EWZ (iShares MSCI Brazil, 9.19%), and IWM (iShares Russell 2000, 8.82%).
On the short side from a top weightings perspective, AGLS is short the following: ACWI (iShares MSCI ACWI -32.68%), EWO (iShares MSCI Austria, -10.30%), EPI (WisdomTree India Earnings, -10.01%), EWA (iShares MSCI Australia, -6.67%), and EWI (iShares MSCI Italy, -6.53%).