ETF Watch: Dorsey Wright Takes Over AdvisorShares Fund

ADR fund managed by WCM rebranded and subadvised by Dorsey Wright.

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In a change emblematic of Dorsey, Wright & Associates’ growing footprint in the ETF space, AdvisorShares has rebranded the actively managed AdvisorShares WCM/BNY Mellon Focused Growth ADR ETF (AADR) as the AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright ADR ETF as of Sept. 1. Dorsey Wright has also assumed the role of subadvisor with regard to the fund’s management.

WCM Investment Management was the previous subadvisor, assisted by BNY Mellon, which will continue in its role of providing its ADR expertise to the fund’s managers. With WCM at the helm, AADR had sought to outperform its primary and secondary benchmarks, the BNY Mellon Classic ADR Index and the MSCI EAFE Index, via a strategy of selecting non-U.S companies that have “visionary management sound business strategies” and are ranked at the top of their respective industries.

Under Dorsey Wright’s management, AADR is adopting the firm’s more quantitative, relative strength approach, which is similar to a momentum strategy. Dorsey Wright’s relative strength indexes serve as the underlying for a wide range of ETFs that are currently trading and in registration, but this appears to be the first ETF for which it is the active manager.  

Although WCM achieved positive performance year-to-date with AADR and outperformed the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA) consistently, the fund, which launched in 2010, has only $15 million in assets under management.  

Earlier this year, AdvisorShares replaced TrimTabs Asset Management with Wilshire Funds Management as the manager of the AdvisorShares TrimTabs Float Shrink ETF (TTFS), now called the AdvisorShares Wilshire Buyback ETF.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].

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