Morningstar ETFInvestor

Recommendations for Commonsense ETF Investing
Research and experience have long shown us that the key to reliable investment growth is to hold a low-cost, diversified portfolio spread across stocks, bonds, and commodities. ETFs are the perfect vehicle for sticking with this proven strategy.

Morningstar ETFInvestor provides a wealth of information for anyone using ETFs. With ETFInvestor you get access to our two model portfolios: the Hands Free and the Hands On. The Hands Free provides a solid core portfolio for passive investors, while the Hands On is an idea source for more active ETF traders. In addition to our portfolios we provide commentary and data on the ETF industry, portfolio theory topics, sector investing, and fund analysis.

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What You'll Get Performance About the Editor

Monthly Issues
Every issue contains Paul Justice's analysis of ETFInvestor's two model portfolios, commentary and research on the investment issues of the day, and performance updates on the ETFInvestor 350 watch list. He'll also draw on Morningstar's staff of more than 25 mutual fund analysts and 100 equity analysts to provide detailed analysis of individual exchange-traded funds and market segments.

Our Strategy in Action
You'll get a compilation of our favorite ETFs based on two investment styles. Our Hands-Free Portfolio uses the latest tools in asset allocation to create a broad, diversified basket of funds spanning equities, fixed-income, commodities, and real estate. Through this diversification, we seek to increase the long-term risk/reward potential for investors seeking a passive investment strategy. The portfolio is designed to be a model for long-term investors looking to keep trading costs and expenses low. The Hands-On Portfolio is designed for tactical and active investing using ETFs.

Although we benchmark ourselves against the S&P 500 Index, we seek investing opportunities across all the asset classes in the ETF spectrum. We look for upside potential in our investments and prefer funds with identifiable catalysts that are fundamentally mispriced. We rely heavily on macro or top-down analysis to make our buy and sell decisions and we complement that with our unique access to fundamental or bottoms-up research from Morningstar's equity research team.
Click here to see our track record »

Six Strategy-Based Model Portfolios
We developed model portfolios based on academic research. Our strategies range from technical to fundamental, all-in-one portfolios to satellite offerings. These portfolios aren’t meant to replace our existing realmoney Hands-On and Hands-Free portfolios. Instead, we will be using them to inform trades in our Hands-On Portfolio. However, we realize that each investor has his own strategic ideas, and we believe these portfolios will provide additional insights to help investors make their own decisions.

Free Investing Booklet
Scott's 20-page investing booklet walks you through the features of Morningstar ETFInvestor and describes the most important tenets of our investment philosophy. He also provides an in-depth look at what ETFs are, how Morningstar rates them, and how they compare with other investment vehicles.

ETFInvestor Online
Keep informed on breaking news and intra-issue commentary via our ETFInvestor companion Web site. You can track performance of our two model portfolios, get data on the 350 U.S. ETFs in our coverage universe, including a listing of each stock fund's top 25 holdings, read intra-issue editorial, and download the latest 12 issues of Morningstar ETFInvestor.

E-mail Alerts
Whenever Paul makes a change to the portfolios you will receive an e-mail alert with complete transaction details. Scott will also e-mail you with his opinions about events and/or changes related to the companies on his watch list, as well as his thoughts on the market.

Free Report! The Morningstar Guide to ETFs
Cut through the confusion by focusing on the basics of ETF investing.
Click here to download our take on ETFs for free »

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What You'll Get Performance About the Editor

What is the Hands-Free Portfolio?
This portfolio aims to cover all the equity bases but still outperform the broad market, as measured by the Russell 3000 Index over a three- to five-year period, by overweighting undervalued and unloved areas of the market. Turnover here will generally be modest. In order to minimize the need for rebalancing, it's composed primarily of broadly diversified ETFs.

What is the Hands-On Portfolio?
This portfolio is compiled entirely from the bottom up, based on our analysis of an ETF's valuation characteristics. It favors ETFs that hold a large portion of stocks trading below their fair value estimates, as determined by Morningstar equity analysts. The portfolio will frequently sport large style and sector biases, so periods of volatility are to be expected. This portfolio will experience more trading than the Hands-Free Portfolio.

What You'll Get Performance About the Editor

Paul Justice, Director of North American ETF Research, Editor, Morningstar ETFInvestor

Paul Justice, CFA is Morningstar's Director of ETF Research in North America. He manages the group's eight North American research analysts. He is also the editor of ETFInvestor, Morningstar's monthly ETF news and investment publication.

Justice has more than a decade of experience in financial analysis. Prior to joining the ETF team, Justice was a senior equity analyst and team leader covering the utility and merchant generation industries. Prior to joining Morningstar in October 2004, he performed credit analysis at Merrill Lynch.

Justice holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master's degree in finance from DePaul University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.