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The Global X FTSE Nordic Region ETF: The Perfect Fit

The fund is concentrated, holding 30 of the region’s top companies. Almost every company held in the fund has a broad global reach. Inclusion in the index requires ample market trading liquidity. European economies get a lot of undeserved bad press. Take the European Union for instance. A few of its economies are indeed lagging like Portugal and Greece, but at the same time several are excelling like the United Kingdom and Germany. The same may be said for the core Eurozone economy. Then there are the Central and Eastern European (CEE) states, several of whom have made remarkable strides within the EU. With a moment’s reflection, an economic comparison can be made with the United States. Some states, like New York, California and Maryland are economic powerhouses, whereas Mississippi, Louisiana and Illinois are still struggling with tough economic times. The same is true of the wider region of North American economies like Canada and Mexico. Some states or provinces do well with natural resources or foreign investment while other must rely on seasonal tourism or agriculture. It takes governments with foresight and courage to forge ahead to establish economic zones while being as inclusive as possible. It is, in fact, the basic purpose of an economic zone: to eliminate economic border constraints and provider opportunity for the weaker entities through unencumbered economic interaction with the stronger entities. It’s different from the investor’s point of view, however. For the investor, it’s always a matter of risk vs reward. The majority of individual retail investors do not have loads of free capital to risk on large scale ‘turn-around’ stories no matter how tempting the total returns might be. The average mid-career investor, saving for retirement or college fund, must look for ways to ‘pick and choose’ the best potential reward with the least possible risk. Those higher reward ventures are best left to the so ‘high rollers’; hedge funds, venture capitalist and the like. (click to enlarge) A good example of a region whose economies are outperforming its neighbors is collectively known as Scandinavia . These are the nations of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark (and sometimes Iceland). The region of Scandinavia is loosely defined and more a matter of cultural and historical relations. However, a word or two needs to be said about their legal economic affiliations. First, Norway is, essentially, an independent economic nation whose primary trading partners are in western Europe most of whom are European Union members. Importantly, Norway uses its own free-float currency the Krone . Sweden is a member of the European Union; it retains the use of its free-float currency, the Krona . Denmark is also a member of the EU and for the time being is using its own currency, the Krone . However, Denmark is in the process of adopting the Euro and must maintain a fixed rate (called a peg) with the Euro before it fully adopts the currency. It should be noted that (about) 7.5 Danish Krone is a virtual Euro. Finland is all in: EU and Euro. Although Iceland is considered a part of Scandinavia, it is not an EU member and uses its traditional Krona. The point of the matter is this: for those investors who wish to pick and choose the best regional ETFs with stability and reasonable returns, the Global X family of funds offers the FTSE Nordic Region ETF (NYSEARCA: GXF ) . Global X seeks to: … provide access to high quality and cost efficient investment solutions… …recognized for its smart core, income, alpha, risk management and access suites of ETFs.. . Indeed this is the case with the Nordic Region Fund. The fund’s tracking index is the FTSE Nordic 30 Index. As for the tracking index itself: … The FTSE Nordic 30 Index is designed to represent the performance of the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish Stock Exchanges in real time for the purpose of derivative trading. The index consists of the top 30 companies in the FTSE All-World Index – Nordic Region, ranked by full market capitalization. In order to be eligible for inclusion in the Index, securities (other than new issues) must have a velocity of 40% or more. Velocity is based on the previous six months trading and is defined as the total value of six months exchange turnover annualized and shown as a percentage of the full market capitalization… The description includes the terms “derivatives” and “velocity”, however, don’t be put off. The fund does not involve any derivatives, only common stock. The index is composed of companies whose stocks have high trading volume. This works in favor of the investor. Velocity may be more familiarly expressed as liquidity . Since the velocity measurement is based on the previous six months, this is an indication of a large cap stock, i.e., similar to trading volumes experienced by, for example, GE (NYSE: GE ) , Intel (NASDAQ: INTC ) or Alphabet, (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) here in the U.S. Indeed, this will prove to be the case. The FTSE Nordic 30 includes the four continental nations of Scandinavia. The chart below demonstrates that the sector allocation is, for all intents and purposes, identical. (click to enlarge) Data from FTSE and Global X When the returns are tabulated and compared, again, the fund does reflect the FTSE index. Annualized Returns Comparison Year to Date One Year Three Years Five Years Since Inception 8/17/2009 GXF NAV -2.43% -9.91% 7.76% 5.84% 9.16% GXF Shares -1.86% -9.57% 7.88% 5.88% 9.16% FTSE Nordic 30 Index -3.70% -10.30% 7.45% 5.73% 9.04% Data from Reuters As the index suggests, there are indeed 30 holdings in the fund, plus a small cash position. A quick over view of the fund gives a good indication of its true nature. Since there are so few holdings, they are group together where appropriate. For Example, Financials are only financials, however, the few IT , Tech and Telecom Services holdings are grouped together for conciseness; however, the description will make clear their sub-classifications. Data from Global X The heaviest allocation is the Financial Sector, followed by Industrials and Health Care; 82.51% of the fund. The smaller sectors are Consumer Products, Energy and Materials. Financial 28.90% Ticker Fund Weight Market Cap (in USD Billions) Dividend Yield 5 Year Dividend Growth Rate Total Debt to Equity ROI: ROE: Primary Business Nordea Bank OTCPK:NRBAY 5.80% $44.60 6.01% 19.92% 667.54 NA 12.30 Retail, corporate banking, wealth management Sampo OYJ OTCPK:SAXPY 4.19% $27.72 4.17% 14.29% 21.09 NA 15.50 Property, casualty, life, liability, asset, business, agricultural, insurance SwedBank OTCPK:SWDBY 4.13% $24.88 5.91% NA 791.32 NA 14.74 Savings, brick & mortar, telephone and internet; loans, credit, corporate lending Danske Bank OTCPK:DNSKY 3.33% $26.33 2.99% NA 714.24 NA 4.21 Retail banking, mortgages, insurance, RE, asset mgmt; business & corporate banking Svebska HandelsBanken OTCPK:SVNLY 3.16% $25.34 5.02% 16.95% 1032.5 NA 12.21 Private and Corporate banking, financial services, mortgages, credit cards Investor (Industrial Holding company) OTC:IVSXF 3.07% $28.663 2.72% 17.61% 20.32 5.11 6.23 Minority holdings in Nordic big cap industry; also in EQT and Investor Growth Capital funds Skandinaviska Enskilda OTCPK:SVKEF 2.75% $23.14 4.75% 36.56% 560.83 NA 13.33 Merchant, retail, wealth mgmt, insurance DNB ASA OTCPK:DNHBY 2.47% $20.93 3.40% 16.77% 473.32 NA 13.60 Full range of retail, business, corporate; Offices also in Asia and Americas Averages 3.61% $27.70 4.13% *20.35% 535.15 ROE: 11.515 *x-SWEDa and DANSKE Data from Reuters There are, surprisingly, no REITs. With one exception, they are all big cap, well established banks serving their region, the Baltics Europe including the UK and to a lesser extent, Asia and the Americas. The only unusual position in the sector is Investor , which is not a ‘financial’ per se. Investor , is a holding company, buying minority positions in mostly industrials, but also owns portions of private equity group ‘ EQT’ and venture capital fund ‘ Investor Growth Capital ‘. The holdings do have very high total debt to equity ratios. That’s usually an indication of an aggressive growth strategy. This may not be the case here. The overnight reserve rates in these nations are at, near or below 0 in order to deter ‘safe-haven’ capital inflows, which strengthen the currency, making their exports more expensive. These high ratios may reflect offsetting overnight reserve rate strategies. Health Care 18.20% Ticker Fund Weight Market Cap (in USD Billions) Dividend Yield 5 Year Dividend Growth Rate Total Debt to Equity ROI: ROE: Primary Business Novo-Nordisk NVO 16.77% $113.1 1.39% 27.78% 1.46 75.36 81.73 R&D, manufacturing, marketing of biopharma for diabetes and obesity. Africa, Americas, Europe, Russia, Asia, Coloplast OTCPK:CLPBY 1.43% $16.30 2.20% 44.27% 2.12 13.74 16.36 R&D, manufacturing, marketing of Ostomy, Continence, Urology, Chronic wound care products. Global distribution Averages 9.10% $64.65 1.80% 36.03% 1.79 44.55 49.05 Data from Reuters There are only two holdings for Health Care, but it’s just as good, if not better than a portfolio of several holdings. Novo-Nordisk ranks with the premier global pharmaceutical companies as best in class. Coloplast designs, manufactures, markets and distributes niche personal care products. Together, they cover a significant portion of the sector and contribute to the efficiency of the fund. Industrials 19.73% Ticker Fund Weight Market Cap (in USD Billions) Dividend Yield 5 Year Dividend Growth Rate Total Debt to Equity ROI: ROE: Primary Business Assa Abloy OTCPK:ASAZY 3.54% $22.15 1.18% 12.54% 57.43 12.31 20.46 Ingress and Egress security solutions and components Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget OTCPK:SVCBY 3.03% $25.34 5.02% 7.25% 53.78 5.84 8.36 Sustainable forest products, personal care, hygiene, kitchen paper, bath tissue, packaging Atlas Copco OTC:ATTLF 2.95% $31.90 2.58% 14.87% 50.27 19.11 30.80 Industrial and medical solutions compressors, blowers, filter, vacuum, air, piping; safety, productivity, ergonomics focus Kone OYJ OTCPK:KNYJY 2.90% $19.155 2.98% 13.05% 9.29 36.75 44.34 Elevators, escalators, travelator, auto doors; access control systems Sandvik OTCPK:SDVKY 1.77% $12.61 3.98% 28.47% 121.31 6.53 14.90 Mining and Construction tooling solutions; industrial metal cutting AP Moeller Maersk OTCPK:AMKBF 1.72% $31.54 18.93% NA NA NA International ocean freight and oil shipping; towing and salvage SKF OTCPK:SKFRY 1.25% $7.74 3.70% 9.46% 99.06 7.41 18.86 Lubrication, bearings, seals, services, support, solutions Volvo OTC:VOLAF 2.57% $21.55 3.40% NA 181.72 4.50 11.91 Industrial equipment construction division of Volvo Group Averages 2.47% $21.50 5.22% *14.27% **81.837 **13.20 **21.38 *x- AMKBF, VOLAF **x- AMKBF Data from Reuters There seems to be a common theme among Nordic industrials. They are focused on sustainability, recycling and environmental responsibility. This often gives their industrial sector a more cyclically defensive bias. Two examples from the sector are Svenska Celluosa , a forest product paper and packaging company and Kone , essential a ‘people mover’ designer, manufacturer and service company. Both involve products or services that will be in demand in both good and bad times. Technology 15.68% Ticker Fund Weight Market Cap (in USD Billions) Dividend Yield 5 Year Dividend Growth Rate Total Debt to Equity ROI: ROE: Primary Business Nokia NOK 4.84% $28.92 2.17% -20.87% 31.58 7.44 11.96 Network software, hardware, services; networks, voice, data, global mobile Ericsson ERIC 4.72% $31.676 4.09% 12.34% 18.81 5.84 7.67 Telecom service, software, broadband, cloud services, network infrastructure TeliaSonera OTCPK:TLSNF 2.28% $21.20 7.01% 5.92% 100.11 7.13 13.71 Telecom service, network access, mobile services, broadband and landline services Telenor OTCPK:TELNY 2.20% $26.51 4.75% 23.90% 114.97 7.01 9.16 Mobile telecom services, voice, data, internet, telephony and television, landline Hexagon OTC:HXGBF 1.64% $12.4 1.03% 28.67% 48.70 8.45 13.36 IT operations research services; industrial productivity via sensors, software, workflow data Averages 3.14% $24.14 3.81% 9.99% 62.83 7.17 11.17 Data from Reuters When one thinks of technology in the north countries, Nokia and Ericsson immediately come to mind. The interesting holding is Hexagon which applies real time monitoring and data collection towards improving efficiencies and productivity. This may be concisely described as operations research services. Consumer Products 9.71% Ticker Fund Weight Market Cap (in USD Billions) Dividend Yield 5 Year Dividend Growth Rate Total Debt to Equity ROI: ROE: Primary Business Hennes & Mauritz OTCPK:HNNMY 5.75% $53.4 3.05% 4.04% 0.00 41.57 44.71 Design and manufacture of apparel, sportswear, footwear accessories Pandora OTCPK:PNDZF 2.40% $14.32 1.09% NA 55.17 41.42 55.91 Precious metal jewelry and accessories Carlsberg OTCPK:CABGY 1.56% $12.83 1.53% 20.79% 82.84 -2.20 -5.11 World renowned brewer and soft-drink manufacturer Averages 3.24% $26.85 1.89% 12.42% 46.00 26.93 31.84 Data from Reuters The fund seems well thought out in its construct and the consumer sector exemplifies this. It covers the spectrum of consumer products from the very basics to the very discretionary in just three holdings. Energy 3.57% Ticker Fund Weight Market Cap (in USD Billions) Dividend Yield 5 Year Dividend Growth Rate Total Debt to Equity ROI: ROE: Primary Business StatsOil STO 2.41% $49.24 5.87% 15.63% 77.90 -4.86 -10.32 Global oil and gas exploration, development production Fortum OYJ OTC:FOJCF 1.16% $13.1 9.35% 5.39% 44.15 -8.63 -13.94 Heat and electric production and distribution; plant management services and solutions Averages 1.79% $31.17 7.61% 10.51% 61.03 -6.75 -12.14 Data from Reuters Again, two holdings of best-in-class companies covering the industry from wellhead to home; simple, well founded and concise. Materials 3.31% Ticker Fund Weight Market Cap (in USD Billions) Dividend Yield 5 Year Dividend Growth Rate Total Debt to Equity ROI: ROE: Primary Business Novozymes OTCPK:NVZMY 1.92% $12.36 0.89% 21.14% 12.73 19.15 24.69 Industrial bioengineered enzymes for consumer products; agricultural and feed additives; wastewater treatment Yara International OTCPK:YARIY 1.39% $12.22 3.35% 23.64% 18.32 12.18 14.75 Sustainable fertilizer production, marketing and distribution ammonia, nitrates, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium Averages 1.66% $12.29 2.12% 22.39% 15.53 15.67 19.72 Data from Reuters Two unique holdings covering the very essence of materials manufacturing products that are less sensitive to business cycle swings: enzymes for household cleaning products, wastewater recycling, agricultural feed, food flavorings, ingredients, and essential fertilizer chemicals all produced with sustainability and environmentally friendly methods. (click to enlarge) A few things need to be said for the fund itself. The expense ratio just a bit higher than average at 0.50%; the distributions are annual. The fund is not large with 30 holdings and roughly $52,249,671.00 in assets. Volume seems reasonable with a three month average daily volume of about 4300 shares/day; more than enough liquidity for a retail position. Smaller, focused ETFs seem to have an advantage over those larger comprehensive funds with hundreds of holdings. Having two or three large funds will most likely result in ‘overlapping positions’ and may have risks not easily noticed among so many holdings. Also, smaller ETFs create the opportunity to piece together the best performers of a region, in a much focused way, and the Global X FTSE Nordic Region ETF is a perfect fit for what an interested retail investor needs to construct an efficient yet diversified portfolio. Lastly, the investor should be aware of a slight currency risk. On December 3rd, the ECB announced a continuation of its weak Euro policy. The non-Eurozone or other European central banks must somehow respond in order to maintain purchasing power parity. Europe, EU or not, has a large, internal trading network so purchasing power parity must be maintained. Hence, when translating back to U.S. Dollars, there may be a short term risk, if any at all; it will present an opportunity if it occurs. One last word about Global X: the website presentation is well thought out and interesting. The link to the GXF page contains a link to a ‘minisite’. The minisite presents an overview of the Scandinavian region: the economies, sovereign credit quality, demographics and culture; a welcome addition to the usual facts & figures presentation. Editor’s Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

PXE: An Outperforming Energy Exploration And Production ETF

Summary Energy, particular exploration and production stocks, have slid over the past year. PXE has thoroughly crushed its competitor XOP and has also outperformed XLE over the past five years. PXE contains a number of refining companies as top holdings which might help it weather this period of low oil prices. Introduction To state that energy-related sectors have done poorly recently would be an understatement. Since the recent high reached on Jun 23., 2014, the benchmark Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA: XLE ) has fallen by a good -34.0%. The JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN (NYSEARCA: AMJ ), a basket of midstream MLPs, has performed slightly worse, at -43.0%. However, the worst-performing energy-related stock class over this time period has undoubtedly been those whose main business is focused on the exploration and production (E&P) of oil and gas, with the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSEARCA: XOP ) falling by a whopping -58.0% since mid-June last year. This price action occurred over a time period in which the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY ) actually rose by 9.69%. Obviously, the woes in the energy sector have been due to the collapse in oil prices that transpired over the past year. Moreover, it is not difficult to understand why XOP has performed so much worse than the other two energy funds, XLE and AMLP. The two top holdings of XLE, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM ) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX ), both have significant downstream businesses that could, in some circumstances, actually benefit from lower oil prices, and they also possess exceptional balance sheets that could aid them through this difficult time. Meanwhile, the midstream MLPs of AMJ, the largest of which are Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD ) and Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP ), are considered to be relatively less impacted by price of the commodity itself as their profit is mainly derived from the fee-based transport and distribution of fuels. On the other hand, the fortunes of the E&P, also known as upstream, companies in XOP are more or less directly tied to the price of crude oil. So is XOP a good buy right now? Clearly, if you believe that oil prices will remain low, then XOP would be an ETF to avoid. On the other hand, given that E&P companies have been among the most beaten-up stocks in the energy sector, any reversal in crude oil prices could send these XOP soaring like a compressed spring. What this article intends to do is actually to introduce an ETF that is related to XOP, but has historically performed much better. Introducing the PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Portfolio ETF (NYSEARCA: PXE ) PXE does not appear to be a well-known ETF on Seeking Alpha. Only 784 Seeking Alpha users have PXE in their portfolio, compared to 5,597 for XOP. The last focus article on PXE was in Dec. 2014. However, the lack of following for PXE is undeserved. Despite the recent turmoil in the energy sector, the five-year total return performance for PXE is still positive at +23.47%, absolutely crushing XOP at -28.2%. Notably, PXE still returned significantly greater than XLE (+8.42%). PXE Total Return Price data by YCharts Some funds outperform in bull markets because they take greater amounts of risk, and thus these same funds will underperform on the downside as well. Is this true for PXE? As can be seen from the chart below, its total return since the XLE peak on Jun 23rd. 2014 (-35.8%), while negative, is still superior to that of XOP (-58.0%) and AMJ (-43.0%) and only slightly worse than that of XLE (-34.0%). The investment mandate of PXE is explained on the fund website : The PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Portfolio (NASDAQ: FUND ) is based on the Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production IntellidexSM Index (Intellidex Index). The Fund will normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in common stocks that comprise the Index. The Intellidex Index thoroughly evaluates companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including: price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action, and value. The Underlying Intellidex Index is composed of stocks of 30 U.S. companies involved in the exploration and production of natural resources used to produce energy. These companies are engaged principally in exploration, extraction and production of crude oil and natural gas from land-based or offshore wells. These companies include petroleum refineries that process the crude oil into finished products, such as gasoline and automotive lubricants, and companies involved in gathering and processing natural gas, and manufacturing natural gas liquid. The Fund is rebalanced and reconstituted quarterly in February, May, August and November. Further information regarding the proprietary Intellidex methodology can be found here . Fund statistics The following table shows some of the pertinent fund details for PXE, XOP and XLE. Data are from Morningstar unless otherwise noted. PXE XOP XLE Yield 1.95% 1.97% 2.92% Expense ratio 0.64% 0.35% 0.14% Inception Oct. 2005 Jun. 2006 Dec. 1998 AUM $106M $1.66B $11.73B Avg. Volume 36.5K 10.8M 19.7M Morningstar rating **** ** ***** No. holdings 30 63 40 Annual turnover 140% 44% 5% We can see from the table above that PXE is by far the smallest fund, with only $106M in assets. This makes is less than one-tenth of the size of XOP and less than one-hundredth of the size of XLE. It’s liquidity of 36.5K is also far less than XOP and XLE, although it should be still be sufficient for small or medium investors. The final statistic that sticks out is that PXE has a much higher annual turnover of stocks at 140% than XOP at 44%, which in turn has a much higher annual turnover compared to XLE at only 5%. Holdings So why do I consider XOP to be PXE’s closest benchmark? Notwithstanding the fact that both ETFs have “Exploration & Production” in their names, ETF Research Center indicates that the two funds have 42% of their holdings by weight in common. Notably, 25 out of 30 of PXE’s constituents are also found in XOP. In contrast, PXE and XLE have only 27% overlap by weight, while XOP and XLE have 31% overlap. Thus, PXE and XOP are more similar to each other than either of them are to XLE. The top 10 holdings of PXE are shown in the table below. Company Ticker % Assets EOG Resources Inc (NYSE: EOG ) 5.28 Valero Energy Corp (NYSE: VLO ) 5.27 Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX ) 5.23 Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE: OXY ) 5.13 Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE: MPC ) 5.11 Hess Corp (NYSE: HES ) 5.00 Apache Corp (NYSE: APA ) 4.98 Devon Energy Corp (NYSE: DVN ) 4.86 CVR Refining LP (NYSE: CVRR ) 2.93 Northern Tier Energy LP (NYSE: NTI ) 2.87 46.66 As can be seen from the table above, PXE runs a relatively concentrated portfolio, with 46.66% of its holdings in the Top 10. This compares to 19.35% for XOP and 63.41% for XLE, as depicted graphically below. Notably, the three of the top five holdings of PXE, namely MPC, VLO and PSX, are all heavily involved in the downstream refining segment, and whose fortunes are more closely associated with the refining crack spread rather than the price of crude oil itself. As can be seen from the chart below, these three stocks have actually posted positive price returns since the Jun. 23, 2014 peak for XLE. On the other hand, EOG and OXY have been obvious detractors of the fund. EOG Total Return Price data by YCharts Valuation and growth The table below shows various value and growth metrics for PXE, XOP and XLE. Data for all funds are from Morningstar (value metrics including dividend yield are forward looking). PXE XOP XLE Price/Earnings 10.39 16.77 19.07 Price/Book 0.89 0.89 1.42 Price/Sales 0.43 0.48 0.80 Price/Cash Flow 2.54 2.36 5.09 Dividend Yield % 4.26% 2.32% 3.45% Projected Earnings Growth % 10.33 8.62 9.98 Historical Earnings Growth % 13.48 17.56 3.04 Sales Growth % 3.34 5.34 2.82 Cash-flow Growth % 6.60 11.50 7.44 Book-value Growth % 5.48 7.71 6.06 While aggregate metrics for ETFs sometimes have to be taken with a grain of salt (for example, aggregate P/E calculations usually ignore stocks with negative earnings), a first glance reveals that PXE scores highly on its valuation and growth metrics compared to peers XOP and XLE. It has the lowest P/E, P/B (tied), P/S and highest dividend yield compared to the other two funds, and its P/CF is only slightly higher than XOP’s. In terms of growth metrics, all three funds have had healthy growth numbers over the past year (although this is likely to change as lower oil prices begin to drag), and while PXE has lower CF% and BV% growth than the other two funds, its other three growth metrics are comparable. Size In terms of size distribution, PXE is quite similar to XOP except that it has more large-cap stocks and fewer stocks in the other four size categories. Both PXE and XOP contain smaller-capitalization stocks compared to XLE. PXE XOP XLE Giant (%) 0 3.52 38.32 Large (%) 34.99 17.02 42.95 Mid (%) 26.78 32.33 17.71 Small (%) 30.19 33.44 1.02 Micro (%) 8.04 13.68 0 This data is also shown graphically below. Discussion and conclusion The impressive total return performance of PXE relative to its peers suggests that the Intellidex methodology has worked very well for this ETF. Given the Intellidex’s focus on factors including price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action, and value, PXE could easily be considered to be a “smart beta” fund, although its inception (in 2005) took place long before this marketing label became popular. The outperformance of PXE over XOP could be potentially attributed to several factors. First, by running a concentrated portfolio of 30 stocks (compared to 63 for XOP), PXE could avoid exposure to stocks that score less highly in its ranking model. On the other hand, XOP applies no filters other than market capitalization and liquidity for inclusion into the fund. Secondly, PXE applies a two-tier weighting system whereby 8 “large” stocks each receive 5% of the total fund weight and 22 “small” stocks each receive 2.73% of the total fund weight. In contrast, XOP basically run an equally-weighted portfolio. This is reflected in XOP’s greater tilt towards smaller-cap stocks compared to PXE (see data above). Given that large-cap energy stocks have generally performed better than small-cap stocks during this energy bear market, it stands to reason that XOP would suffer more than PXE during this time period, all other things being equal. However, the use of factor screening in conjunction with quarterly rebalancing means that PXE has a much higher annual turnover (140%) compared to XOP (44%). So is PXE a good investment right now? Without a crystal ball able to tell the future price of oil and gas, I cannot say with certainty. However, what this analysis does suggest is that if one were to choose an E&P-focused energy ETF, then PXE would be a better bet than XOP. Moreover, with 5 of the fund’s top 10 holdings currently invested in refining stocks (VLO, PSX, MPC, CVRR, NTI), which are less directly affected by commodity prices compared to E&P companies, PXE might weather the storm better than expected.

4 Key Reasons To Consider Market Neutral Investing

Summary The Invesco Quantitative Strategies team believes one way to buffer the effects of market downturns, volatility and rising interest rates is to add market neutral equity strategies to traditional portfolios. The strategies may offer several potential benefits to investor portfolios, including diversification from traditional asset classes, ability to dampen volatility, cushion against equity market declines and boost from rising rates. We believe a market neutral equity strategy can be an excellent diversification tool that enables investors to pursue increased returns from assets that respond differently to changing markets. Low correlation, downside protection and rising rate performance among key benefits By Kenneth Masse, Client Portfolio Manager The market downturn and ensuing volatility in the third quarter of 2015 is a timely reminder about the benefits of diversifying your portfolio with investment strategies that are expected to exhibit little-to-no correlation with the broad equity and bond markets. Moreover, as the US enters the late innings of its current economic growth cycle, many professional and individual investors are expecting lower returns from equities going forward than they’ve enjoyed over the last few years. These lowered expectations are on top of concern about what will happen to investors’ bond holdings when today’s historically low interest rates eventually rise. The Invesco Quantitative Strategies team believes one potential way to buffer the effects of market downturns, volatility and rising interest rates is to add market neutral equity strategies to traditional portfolios, as they potentially offer a unique approach to generating return regardless of the general movements of the equity and bond markets. In this blog, I outline four of the top reasons to consider market neutral equity strategies: 1. They have very low levels of correlation to other asset classes One of the ways investors attempt to manage and mitigate risk is by combining strategies that differ within and across asset classes to help diversify their return pattern over time. Using this approach, investors’ wealth creation is not tied to the fortunes of just one or a few investment options. Since market neutral strategies typically seek to eliminate exposure to the broader market, these strategies have also delivered attractively low levels of correlation, not only to the equity markets, but to other broad asset classes as well. As shown in Figure 1, from January 1997 to August 2015, market neutral strategies had only a 0.18 correlation to equities and a 0.04 correlation to bonds. Market neutral also had low correlation to another popular asset class, commodities, as well as to other segments of the fixed income market, such as leveraged loans and high yield. As investors seek to diversify their holdings in order to lower overall volatility, we believe market neutral strategies should be considered as a way to achieve that goal. Sources: Invesco and StyleADVISOR. (January 1997 – August 2015) BarclayHedge Alternative Investment Database. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Investments cannot be made directly into an index. 2. They may offer lower levels of total volatility Another way to potentially mitigate risk across an investment lineup is to include strategies that may offer lower levels of total volatility (variation in portfolio returns). Even if these strategies were perfectly correlated with other investments, their potentially lower total volatility profile could help lower the overall average volatility of the full lineup. Market neutral strategies also may be appealing to investors from this total volatility perspective, as their volatility has tended to be less than the broader equity markets, and in some cases, similar to broad fixed income indexes (see Figure 2). Furthermore, since market neutral returns are expected to be independent of the broader equity market, a spike in market-level volatility may not necessarily mean a spike in market neutral volatility. Sources: Invesco and StyleADVISOR. (January 1997 – August 2015). BarclayHedge Alternative Investment Database. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Investments cannot be made directly into an index. 3. They have a history of attractive downside protection during extreme market stress Another often-cited potential benefit of market neutral is that the strategies may offer investors a way to mitigate severe losses during a sharp equity market sell-off. Because these strategies typically have beta exposure to the market that hovers around zero, a big drop (or surge) in equities should not influence the performance of the strategy. This contrasts sharply with traditional, benchmark-centric strategies, which typically have very high levels of market exposure and tend to vary similarly to the broader market. Sources: Invesco and StyleADVISOR. January 1997 – August 2015. BarclayHedge Alternative Investment Database. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Investments cannot be made directly into an index. 4. They can provide an opportunity for higher returns in a rising interest rate environment. We believe an increase in the federal funds rate from the US Federal Reserve is inevitable; at this point it’s simply a matter of when and by how much. For market neutral equity strategies, a rise in interest rates – specifically short-term interest rates – can potentially provide a boost to returns. This occurs when market neutral equity strategies short a stock and receive proceeds from that sale. Those proceeds typically earn a rate of return tied to the prevailing short-term interest rate, such as the fed funds rate. When that rate increases, so does the interest earned by market neutral equity strategies on their short sale proceeds Key takeaway We believe a market neutral equity strategy is a valuable complement to a traditional portfolio of stocks and bonds, as well as an excellent diversification tool that enables investors to pursue increased returns from assets that respond differently to changing market conditions. Such characteristics may be important to today’s investors given the recent market downturn, volatility and expectation of rising interest rates. Important information Beta is a measure of risk representing how a security is expected to respond to general market movements. Correlation is the degree to which two investments have historically moved in relation to each other. Volatility measures the amount of fluctuation in the price of a security or portfolio over time. The S&P 500® Index is an unmanaged index considered representative of the US stock market. The S&P/LSTA US Leveraged Loan 100 Index is representative of the performance of the largest facilities in the leveraged loan market. The S&P GSCI Index is an unmanaged world production-weighted index composed of the principal physical commodities that are the subject of active, liquid futures markets. The BofA Merrill Lynch US High Yield Index tracks the performance of US dollar-denominated, below-investment-grade corporate debt publicly issued in the US domestic market. BarclayHedge Alternative Investment Database is a computerized database that tracks and analyzes the performance of approximately 6800 hedge fund and managed futures investment programs worldwide. BarclayHedge has created and regularly updates 18 proprietary hedge fund indices and 10 managed futures indices. BarclayHedge indexes reflect performance of hedge funds, not of retail investment strategies, and are used for illustrative purposes only solely as points of reference in evaluating alternative investment strategies. Please note: BarclayHedge is not affiliated with Barclays Bank or any of its affiliated entities. Performance for funds included in the BarclayHedge indices is reported underlying fees in net of fees. About risk Commodities may subject an investor to greater volatility than traditional securities such as stocks and bonds and can fluctuate significantly based on weather, political, tax, and other regulatory and market developments. Fixed-income investments are subject to credit risk of the issuer and the effects of changing interest rates. Interest rate risk refers to the risk that bond prices generally fall as interest rates rise and vice versa. An issuer may be unable to meet interest and/or principal payments, thereby causing its instruments to decrease in value and lowering the issuer’s credit rating. Most senior loans are made to corporations with below investment-grade credit ratings and are subject to significant credit, valuation and liquidity risk. The value of the collateral securing a loan may not be sufficient to cover the amount owed, may be found invalid or may be used to pay other outstanding obligations of the borrower under applicable law. There is also the risk that the collateral may be difficult to liquidate, or that a majority of the collateral may be illiquid. Junk bonds involve a greater risk of default or price changes due to changes in the issuer’s credit quality. The values of junk bonds fluctuate more than those of high quality bonds and can decline significantly over short time periods. Derivatives may be more volatile and less liquid than traditional investments and are subject to market, interest rate, credit, leverage, counterparty and management risks. An investment in a derivative could lose more than the cash amount invested. Short sales may cause the fund to repurchase a security at a higher price, causing a loss. As there is no limit on how much the price of the security can increase, the fund’s exposure is unlimited. The information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation of the suitability of any investment strategy for a particular investor. Invesco does not provide tax advice. The tax information contained herein is general and is not exhaustive by nature. Federal and state tax laws are complex and constantly changing. Investors should always consult their own legal or tax professional for information concerning their individual situation. The opinions expressed are those of the authors, are based on current market conditions and are subject to change without notice. These opinions may differ from those of other Invesco investment professionals. NOT FDIC INSURED MAY LOSE VALUE NO BANK GUARANTEE All data provided by Invesco unless otherwise noted. Invesco Distributors, Inc. is the US distributor for Invesco Ltd.’s retail products and collective trust funds. Invesco Advisers, Inc. and other affiliated investment advisers mentioned provide investment advisory services and do not sell securities. Invesco Unit Investment Trusts are distributed by the sponsor, Invesco Capital Markets, Inc., and broker-dealers including Invesco Distributors, Inc. PowerShares® is a registered trademark of Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC (Invesco PowerShares). Each entity is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Invesco Ltd. ©2015 Invesco Ltd. All rights reserved. Four key reasons to consider market neutral investing by Invesco Blog