Related: Consider Smart Beta ETFs in an Extended Bull Market
In contrast, the Risk-Based U.S. Equity ETF will try to reflect the performance of the Risk-Based US Index, a rules-based, equal risk-weighted index designed to provide exposure to U.S. large-cap companies with lower volatility, reduced maximum drawdown and improved Sharpe ratio, compared to a traditional market cap-weighted index.
The top 500 equity securities by market-cap are taken and are then subjected to a marginal risk contribution calculation based on the security’s volatility and correlation to other securities for the past year. Securities are then ranked by marginal risk contribution, and 50% of those with the lowest marginal risk contribution are selected.
The equally-weighted risk contribution methodology incorporates each constituent’s volatility and correlation to the other constituents for the past year to create a portfolio where each holding contributes the same level of risk, which should produce lower overall volatility of the index, a higher risk-adjusted return and diminish maximum drawdowns.
Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about smart beta strategies can register for the Thursday, April 26 webcast here.