Among investment factors, momentum is one of the most discussed and it is easily accessible via an array of exchange traded funds. That includes the newly minted PowerShares S&P 500 Momentum Portfolio (NYSEArca: SPMO).
The PowerShares S&P 500 Momentum Portfolio, which debuted less than two weeks ago, tries to reflect the performance of the S&P 500 Momentum Index, which is comprised of 100 high momentum S&P 500 components.
“The Index tracks the performance of stocks in the S&P 500 Index that have a high “momentum score”. The Fund and Index are reconstituted and rebalanced twice a year on the third Fridays of March and September. Constituents are weighted by their market capitalization and their momentum score,” according to PowerShares.
“In selecting securities for the underlying index, the S&P 500 momentum index first calculates the momentum score of each security in the S&P500 by evaluating the change in its price over the last 12-months, excluding the most recent month. After that it applies an adjustment to that total based on the security’s volatility over that period,” according to a Seeking Alpha post.