2 Active Funds Debut

Today, AdvisorShares is launching two ETFs that are subadvised by Dorsey Wright. The AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Micro-Cap ETF (DWMC) and the AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright Short ETF (DWSH) are both actively managed and are driven by the subadvisor’s relative strength investment approach.

Both funds list on the Nasdaq stock exchange and come with expense ratios of 0.99%.

Micro Caps And Short Positions

DWMC invests in U.S.-listed common and preferred securities. It also invests in American Depositary receipts selected from a large universe of small cap stocks including the lower half of the small-cap Russell 2000 Index. All securities are screened for liquidity.

From there, the subadvisor ranks the selection universe based on relative strength and selects the top securities for the portfolio, the prospectus says.

DWSH, on the other hand, targets large-cap U.S. securities, including other ETFs. However, its methodology seeks out those that exhibit relative weakness—the opposite of relative strength—taking short positions in the ones exhibiting the greatest levels of weakness, according to the filing.  

Although DWMC has no direct competitors beyond some plain-vanilla index-based microcap ETFs, Virtus does offer the Virtus Enhanced Short U.S. Equity ETF (VESH), which takes short positions in the S&P 500 Index and its sectors exhibiting the weakest performance using futures. VESH has an expense ratio of 0.55% and roughly $2 million in assets under management. 

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]