I’ve learned some very hard lessons about building a business around ETFs.  I’m sharing them here so that they can help other ETF innovators.

Do you believe that active management has the potential to add value in your portfolio?  If the answer is “yes”, then here are 7 reasons you should consider AlphaClone. 1.  Unfettered manager access Some of the world’s most skilled managers are closed to new investors while others are only open to institutional investors that can […]

In October 2017, the Wall Street Journal published an article largely critical of Morningstar’s Star-Rating system.  The now infamous piece, “The Morningstar Mirage”, was well researched and written by seasoned journalists Kirsten Grind, Tom McGinty and Sarah Krouse.  Its main assertions were that star ratings were not predictive of future performance and that Morningstar had […]

If you’re a market index investor retiring in the next 10 to 15 years, you could be in trouble and not even know it.   If you can solve this riddle, you’ll understand why: Two investors; A and B Both begin investing on the same day Both start with $1000 Both invest over the same 50-year […]

This article focuses on the AlphaClone Hedge Fund Masters Index in the context of constructing the optimum portfolio.  When building an optimum portfolio, the objective is to figure out the portfolio weights across different asset classes that achieve a specific optimization goal.  Our analysis constructs four different portfolios, each optimized for a different outcome: Maximize […]

November 25, 2019 This weekend we launched a redesigned website with some important changes. Let me first describe the changes and then discuss the motivation behind making them. Lower Fees and Account Minimums We’re reducing our wrap (all-in) fee for managed accounts from the previous maximum of 1.5% annually to a 1% annual flat fee. […]

As of August 31, 2021 Over the prior 44 months, the AlphaClone Hedge Fund Master Index (ALFMIX or “AlphaClone Index”) has outperformed its peers and the overall market. Our analysis period is as of the first full month the AlphaClone index became available as an ETF; January 1, 2018, through August 31, 2021. The AlphaClone […]

Agreement Dramatically Improves the Economics of Accessing Managers with High-Alpha Potential for Large Dallas-based Wealth Management Firm SAN FRANSISCO, April 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — AlphaClone Inc., a leader in building index-based alpha-seeking investment strategies, announced today that it has won a significant sub-advisory investment mandate from an established Dallas-based wealth management firm with over $4 billion in assets under management.  The […]

Moneyball for Hedge Funds If you’ve followed us for any amount of time, you know that our Clone Score methodology is at the heart of our manager selection process.  The best analogy for our process to think about a manager’s score like it was a “batting average” where every stock the manager selects is an “at […]

It’s been easy to argue against active management lately, too many funds to choose from, most of them underperform.  In an environment where the S&P 500 has returned 15% annually over the past five years (double its historical average), it’s no surprise investors are fleeing active funds for passive ETFs.   In that sense, investors […]

We take a definitive look at hedge fund holding periods. We analyze holding periods for all Form 13F disclosed securities as well as for those held with high conviction. We also look at whether the length of a manager’s holding period is predictive in any way to the efficacy of following their holdings.

The active vs passive debate continues unabated in the financial media. Passive strategies continue to accumulate assets while active strategies lose them causing many to proclaim that active investing is dead. Let’s take a step back and try to separate reality from hype.