Equal-weighted ETFs are less popular for a reason

Article Excerpt

Equal weight ETFs have struggled to gain popularity in both the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S. there are 115 equal-weighted funds. Their total assets under management is $45 billion, or just 1.1% of the total for ETFs. The largest U.S. equal-weighted fund is the $12.3 billion Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weighted ETF (symbol RSP, see above). Several equal-weighted biotech ETFs—SPDR Biotech ETF (XBI), Invesco Health Care ETF (RYH) and First Trust Biotech ETF (FBT)—have also gathered large asset bases. In Canada, the main provider of equal-weighted ETFs is BMO. The largest one is the BMO Equal Weight Banks ETF (symbol ZEB) with $1.2 billion under management. Both the BMO Equal Weight REIT ETF (symbol ZRE) and the BMO Equal Weight U.S. Bank ETF (symbol ZBK) have attracted more than $500 million in assets. Equal-weighted ETFs tend to invest less in stocks that are doing well and more in falling stocks. In the end, this has caused most of the equal-weighted ETFs to under-perform their market cap-weighted peers over the past five years. That period…