Newcomer Debuts Active Factor-Focused ETF

Today, Atlanta-based CornerCap Wealth Advisors has entered the ETF market with the launch of an actively managed, factor-based ETF. The CornerCap Fundametrics Large-Cap ETF (FUNL) targets companies that fall within the market capitalization range of the large-cap Russell 1000 Index.

FUNL comes with an expense ratio of 0.50% and lists on Cboe Global Markets, the parent company of ETF.com.

Methodology

FUNL relies on CornerCap’s Fundametrics proprietary in-house quantitative research system, which evaluates companies based on more than 120 fundamental factors, to sort companies into peer groups, which are determined primarily by valuation but also other criteria in order to arrive at an “optimized risk adjusted mix.”

“We create models that really capture the long term factor advantages of these different peer groups,” said Jeffrey Moeller, CornerCap’s director of research.

“Our research evaluates stocks against their peer group and then we look at how that peer group [compares] to the entire universe. Generally, valuation is an important part of our process, but factor weights can differ for each peer group,” he added.

Portfolio trading decisions are made using the Fundametrics Alpha Composite and the Fundametrics Financial Warnings Overlay, which are, respectively, designed to identify those stocks likely to outperform and those facing risks that threaten their performance, according to the prospectus. It also notes that the Alpha Composite focuses on relative valuation, earnings growth rates and cash flow measurements.

Stocks are typically selected if they score above average based on the Alpha Composite metric, are not filtered out by the Financial Warnings Overlay and will add to the diversification of the portfolio, the document says.

Moeller notes that the portfolio generally equal weights its holdings.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]