True Value Oriented ETFs - Help me

[rpadebet]

One other one I am considering is VIG. Yes, it has probably been mentioned already and investing in it will be like watching paint dry but nevertheless it is promising.  I will lay out a quick thesis for my own notes if nothing else.

 

- Low expense ratio .1%.

- Companies with history of increasing dividend.

- Results in a list of stable high quality US companies.

- Neck and neck with S&P since inception, I think it is very marginally ahead but we'll call it a tie.

- Down 27% in 2008 vs 37% for S&P 500.

- Under-performed S&P for the past 2-3 years.

- Grantham has high quality US stocks as being one of the more promising stock areas in his 7 year forecast.  Seem to recall there being another forecast with similar conclusion.

 

Yes VIG is a good ETF. I considered it. I liked the mutual fund VDIGX more though because it had 50 or so stocks in there. VIG has too many stocks to perform that different from a market cap index.

 

Looking for an ETF which is more like the Magic Formula based ETF with low expense ratio, handful of stocks and fundamental based weighting.

 

The idea being selection of companies and weighting in the index should be "price blind" as much as possible with the market price coming into the picture at the last possible step. An ETF which implements the Buffett-Graham-Dodd rules. Would also be interested in something which implements the Walter Schloss investing style

[no_free_lunch]

I think it will be very difficult to find what you are after and still keep the expense ratio down.  However, it might be worth paying 1/2 percent for a few years on something a bit more market neutral.  In the long term though it seems like a gamble.  I am in the camp that those higher expense ratios are a high hurdle over decades.

 

Why not just use a screener to come up with a list and just buy 30-40 stocks that meet your criteria?

[CorpRaider]

Some guy says "the jig is up for mutual funds":

 

http://wealthtrack.com/totally-mutual-funds-says-inside-etfs-ceo-matt-hougan-says-exodus-exchange-traded-funds-accelerating/