Morningstar ETFInvestor

Morningstar ETFInvestor Newsletter

A commonsense approach to ETF investing

Morningstar ETFInvestor scans the globe for promising investment opportunities. Editor Bryan Armour and Morningstar’s team of ETF analysts highlight insightful academic and practitioner research and serve up actionable investment ideas to put those insights into practice.

What You'll Get Performance About the Editor

Monthly Issues
Every issue contains our editor's analysis of ETFInvestor's model portfolios, commentary and research on the investment issues of the day, and performance updates on our ETF coverage universe. In addition, Morningstar's deep analyst bench will provide detailed analysis of individual exchange-traded funds and market segments.

Our Strategy in Action
ETFInvestor takes a long view, casting our analysis back many decades and over many different countries, and seeks to understand drivers of excess returns that have existed in those varied environments. One of the universal results is that high-yielding assets outperform over the long haul, but not at all times and all environments.

Our editor applies this strategy in ETFInvestor’s model portfolios.

The Basic Portfolio harnesses the market’s collective wisdom with ultra-low-cost funds and is the baseline portfolio against which the three other portfolios will be compared.

The Defensive Portfolio aims to provide lower volatility, better downside protection, and better risk-adjusted performance than the basic portfolio over the long-term.

The Factor Portfolio is designed to earn higher returns than the basic portfolio over the long-term.

The Income Portfolio attempts to earn a higher distribution yield than the basic portfolio, without taking a lot more risk.

The ESG Portfolio targets firms with strong corporate governance and sustainable environmental and social practices, while offering competitive returns and similar risk to the basic portfolio.

ETFInvestor Online
Track the performance of the model portfolios, access analyst reports on ETFs, screen the entire ETF universe, and download the last 12 issues of the publication.

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You will receive an e-mail alert as soon as a new issue is published which contains a summary of what is included in that issue as well as instructions on how to download it.

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What You'll Get Performance About the Editor

The Basic Portfolio harnesses the market’s collective wisdom with ultra-low-cost funds and is the baseline portfolio against which the three other portfolios will be compared.

The Defensive Portfolio aims to provide lower volatility, better downside protection, and better risk-adjusted performance than the basic portfolio over the long-term.

The Factor Portfolio is designed to earn higher returns than the basic portfolio over the long-term.

The Income Portfolio attempts to earn a higher distribution yield than the basic portfolio, without taking a lot more risk.

The ESG Portfolio targets firms with strong corporate governance and sustainable environmental and social practices, while offering competitive returns and similar risk to the basic portfolio.

Disclosure: Each of the above model portfolios (each, a "Model Portfolio") is designed to showcase a different investment strategy and how using different types of fund vehicles (each, a "Fund Vehicle") can affect the performance of that strategy. These Model Portfolios are not designed to provide individualized recommendations/advice but instead are meant solely to be used for general, educational purposes. The actual inception date for each Model Portfolio is November 1, 2018. However, for purposes of this modeling exercise, Morningstar has derived hypothetical performance numbers for each Model Portfolio using the percentage-weighted performance numbers (back through December 2007) for each of the Fund Vehicles comprising that Model Portfolio. If, in any particular instance, a Fund Vehicle has an inception date after December 2007, Morningstar uses a proxy performance number for any "gap period" (i.e., December 2007 to the Fund Vehicle's actual inception date). This proxy performance number is calculated by taking the return performance numbers generated during the relevant gap period by the index that the Fund Vehicle initially used as its primary prospectus benchmark and reducing those numbers by the Fund Vehicle fees (measured in percentages) charged as of its inception date.

©2023 Morningstar. All rights reserved. The information, data, analyses and opinions contained herein (1) include the proprietary information of Morningstar, (2) may not be copied or redistributed, (3) do not constitute investment advice offered by Morningstar, (4) are provided solely for informational purposes and therefore are not an offer to buy or sell a security, and (5) are not warranted to be correct, complete or accurate. Except as otherwise required by law, Morningstar is not responsible for any trading decisions, damages or other losses resulting from, or related to, this information, data, analyses or opinions or their use. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decision, consider if the investment is suitable for you by referencing your own financial position, investment objectives, and risk profile. Always consult with your financial advisor before investing.

What You'll Get Performance About the Editor

Bryan Armour, CFA
Editor, Morningstar ETFInvestor

Bryan Armour is director of passive strategies research for North America at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc.

Before joining Morningstar in 2021, Armour spent seven years working for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, conducting regulatory trade surveillance and investigations, specializing in exchange-traded funds. Prior to Finra, he worked for a proprietary trading firm as an options trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Armour holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst^® designation.

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© Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. Any opinions, recommendations, or information contained herein: (i) is for educational purposes only; (ii) is not guaranteed to be accurate, complete, or timely; (iii) has not been tailored to suit any particular person’s portfolio or holdings; and (iv) should not be construed as investment advice of any kind. Neither Morningstar nor any of its agents shall have any liability with respect to such opinions, recommendations, or information. This publication is intended to provide information to assist investors in making their own investment decisions, not to provide investment advice to any specific investor. Therefore, investments discussed herein may not be suitable for all investors; investors must exercise their own independent judgment as to the suitability of such investments in the light of their own investment objectives, experience, taxation status and financial position. Morningstar has not given its consent to be deemed an “expert” under the federal Securities Act of 1933. Before making any investment decisions, consult with your financial advisor and obtain and carefully read all relevant issue documents (e.g., prospectus) pertaining to the security concerned.

Morningstar ETFInvestor includes information, analysis, and opinions from Morningstar’s Manager Research Group, which consists of employees of various Morningstar, Inc. subsidiaries who prepare analysis on investment products. In the United States, that subsidiary is Morningstar Research Services LLC, which is registered with and governed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Please note, “Morningstar” is used to refer to Morningstar, Inc. and/or its affiliates, as applicable.

Investments in securities are subject to market and other risks and there is no assurance or guarantee that the intended investment objectives will be achieved. A security’s investment return and an investor’s principal value will fluctuate so that, when redeemed, an investor’s shares may be worth more or less than their original cost. A security’s current investment performance may be lower or higher than the investment performance noted within the report. Investments in exchange-traded funds involve risk and may not always be profitable. ETFs are traded on national exchanges and are thus subject to certain market risks. For example, the market price of an ETF may be at, above or below its net asset value as its NAV will fluctuate due to changes in the market value of its underlying holdings whereas its market price will fluctuate in accordance with changes in the NAV plus the ETF’s market supply and demand. Additionally, an ETF’s performance may not be exactly that of the index it is intending to track due to imperfect matches between the ETF’s underlying investments and those of the index because it incurs fees and expenses while the index does not. In transacting in ETFs, investors usually incur a brokerage fee/commission. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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