It looks like this ETF does not invest in stocks but in other ETFs. Maybe a fine line there. From the Fact Sheet;
"The Cambria Global Momentum ETF (the "Fund") seeks to preserve and grow capital from investments in the U.S. and foreign equity, fixed income, commodity and currency markets, independent of market direction. The Fund intends to target investing in the top 33% of a target universe of approximately 50 ETFs based on measures of trailing momentum and trend. The portfolio begins with a universe of assets consisting of domestic and foreign stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities and currencies."
Maybe I'm the one that confused.

Well, at least GTAA did not fall during 4 years (it hugely underperformed other global funds). But his new global fund GVAL plunged down 13.5% during the first 8 months of its life. I do not know what is wrong with Meb as a money manager. Having his money in his funds is commendable, but should we follow his example? He is getting paid even when his funds are going down.

GVAL has a ton in Brazil and Europe (Spain, Italy, etc.)
Brazil has been a mess and doesn't look to be really improving. Europe is problematic, as well.
From the fund website:
"Removing Emotional Decision Making - One of the difficulties of investing in foreign countries is the inability to stay the course when geopolitical headlines
are negative. The Cambria Global Value ETF rebalances into countries that are trading at low valuations, which often coincide with negative headlines and
bear markets in such countries’ stock indexes. GVAL gives the investor the potential benefit of owning securities in over-sold markets."
So you have a fund that searches out stocks trading at levels believed to be below intrinsic value, but is it taking into account anything else, like potential catalysts? Appears to be no.
So, you have a fund that's going to lag, possibly for a long time, while it tries to move towards undervalued areas but is unconcerned if there's any sort of catalyst/reason.
Not quite sure on this methodology of searching out value based purely on unseen metrics, or at the very least it's something that should be a small % of a portfolio and understood that it's a long-term time horizon. Not something I'm really interested in, but that's just me.

Well, at least GTAA did not fall during 4 years (it hugely underperformed other global funds). But his new global fund GVAL plunged down 13.5% during the first 8 months of its life. I do not know what is wrong with Meb as a money manager. Having his money in his funds is commendable, but should we follow his example? He is getting paid even when his funds are going down.

Reuters reports the 27.5B figure for the fund:
https://news.fidelity.com/news/news.jhtml?articleid=201411041712RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_KBN0IO293_1&cat=Top.Investing.RT&IMG=Y
120B down, another 100B to go ....... to make it sanely manageable.

one discusses ETF while the other discusses a mutual fund.

But that doesn't seem to jive with this current article from Barron's:
Investors Pull $27.5B From Pimco Flagship Fund In October
http://blogs.barrons.com/incomeinvesting/2014/11/04/investors-pull-27-5b-from-pimco-flagship-fund-in-october/?mod=BOLBlog
Mike_E

But that doesn't seem to jive with this current article from Barron's:
Investors Pull $27.5B From Pimco Flagship Fund In October
http://blogs.barrons.com/incomeinvesting/2014/11/04/investors-pull-27-5b-from-pimco-flagship-fund-in-october/?mod=BOLBlog
Mike_E

I also have PHSZX. It has Potential Cap Gains Exposure 46.80%, and this year it will distribute some part of it. Historically it was a small fund, but success attracted investors, it closed and yet more than doubled in size since that time, so it is hard to say how good it will be in the future. Probably good since it has the same experienced manager for 15 years, but I do not want to add to it at this stage.

Dear Charles,
Can you explain why there is such an interest in Meb Faber and his funds? Perhaps he is a good theorist and a good writer, but his first ETF GTAA has grown by 5% since its inception 4 years ago, while world stock funds were up almost 50% and ARTGX has grown up 68% during the same time.
Then he started a new ETF, GVAL, in March 2014, and since that time GVAL plunged down 13.5% whereas ARTGX was 2% up.
So now he is starting yet another ETF, and MFO discusses how Meb Faber gets it right in interesting ways. Am I missing something?

JP Morgan
https://www.jpmorganfunds.com/blobcontent/704/379/1323395721538_2014_Estimated_Capital_Gains.pdf
Thornburg (Record Date November 18)
http://www.thornburginvestments.com/funds/dividends.asp#capgains

FYI: The continued slide in oil prices sent energy stocks lower Tuesday even as the broader stock-market indexes made modest moves.
Regards,
Ted
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-edge-lower-1415107417
Bloomberg Slant: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-11-04/u-s-index-futures-little-changed-with-s-p-500-near-high.html
MarketWatch Slant: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-end-lower-dow-ekes-out-gain-2014-11-04/print
Markets At A Glance: http://markets.wsj.com/us

Interesting fund. Leverenz shares responsibility with Heidi Keikenfeld. Apparently it is her first time that she manages a fund. Leverenz has more than 1M of his money in the fund, and Keikenfeld has from 100 K to 500 K in the fund. The statement of additional info is
https://www.oppenheimerfunds.com/doc/Emerging_Markets_Innovators_Fund_SAI.pdf

We've mentioned this one a couple times in previous commentary and on the board:
Morningstar Conference Notes
Meb Faber gets it right in interesting ways
Fund summary:

The Cambria Global Momentum EtF (the "Fund") seeks to preserve and grow capital from investments in the U.S. and foreign equity, fixed income, commodity and currency markets, independent of market direction. The Fund intends to target investing in the top 33% of a target universe of approximately 50 ETFs based on measures of trailing momentum and trend. The portfolio begins with a universe of assets consisting of domestic and foreign stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities and currencies.

Link to fund webpage and fact sheet:
Cambria Global Momentum EtF

How about Thompson Bond?

Take a look at OSTIX...similar holdings...shorter duration...better results:
They both seem to be Short Term High Yield funds, yet M* doesn't categorizes them that way. THOPX is a 5* fund in the ST Bond category and OSTIX is a 1* fund in the HY category.

Hi Gandalf,
Indeed a good fund ... but, not held within my deck of 52.
Old_Skeet

Hi JohnChisum,
Thanks for making a comment.
I agree, no doubt some folks get turned off by a sales load. But, once paid they are usually free to move around within that family of funds to other funds, through nav exchanges, without paying another sales load.
One of the best ways I have found to manage the sales load, for a small retail investor, is to buy a fund family’s bond fund which usually has a smaller sales load than their equity funds and then do a nav exchange later into the equity position. You might check on this in more detail if you are interested as usually there are certain required holding periods and a limit as to how often you can do nav exchanges among funds.
I like holding all of my investments with one broker and in this way come tax time I get one consolidated 1099 statement for all my investment positions within my taxable account. If I held them split among a few fund houses or split among a couple of brokers then my accountant would have to generate a consolidated 1099 spread sheet as a part to filing my tax return. I figure, what I pay in mutual fund sales commissions that get spread over many years is a savings over having to pay my accountant annually to compile a consolidated 1099 spread sheet plus there are other things to consider.
Old_Skeet
Additional comment. I have owned both NARAX and PGUAX, each from time-to-time. I currently own PGUAX and if I chose I could move to NARAX commission free through the nav exchange program and then once parked in NARAX, I believe for 90 days, I could move back to PGUAX. The nav exchange program is one way I have found to move from fixed income to equity to play seasonal strategies without paying a sales load. And, the bookeeping is maintained by the broker's back office through sending out the account's 1099 Form which details all the account's transactions, etc. The one 1099 Form has certaintly reduced the hassels I generally have to deal with come tax time vs. many.
For those interested I have linked the M* report for PGUAX below. Notice its nice dividend of better than 4.25%.
http://quotes.morningstar.com/fund/pguax/f?t=PGUAX
Something to perhaps think on.

2.25% load on a bond fund? No thanks.

Morn'in @Old_Skeet
It appears that LALDX is also a short duration, high yield bond fund. This FIDO view, from June 30 data, also indicates a 30 day yield of 2.6%.
Seperately, as note above: "Short term bonds vs Savings/checking accounts for cash"..... these are different critters for most investors I know. The "at home" local account is more of an emergency money allocation; versus short term bond funds being a parking spot as needed, that exist within a retirement account.; unrelated to a savings or checking account.
Not unlike any other active managed fund, there are lots of different critters for investment style among short term bond funds; and that short term bond funds and short term gov't bond funds are indeed different critters, eh?
M* short term bond list
An alright place for "cash" monies within retirement accounts, IMHO.
Me 2 cents worth.
Take care,
Catch

"We're putting the band back together. We're on a mission from God."

Hmmm...we would need to know the portfolio of GDX and GDXJ over the years. If you look at TGLDX portfolio 70% is International, but mostly developed markets. I do recall international exposure used to be 85%. If all of the 15% difference was EM, that could explain it.

Very interesting chart! Yes I would have thunk lot of miners would be international. Or could it be they sucked up the place and the index gradually dropped them? That would explain things too no?

I follow your logic, but when I look at M*'s Region Breakdown data of GDX and GDXJ I get only 11% of GDX stock assiociated with Emerging Market regions. Even stranger only 5% of GDXJ stock is assiociated with EM regions. Something doesn't add up. Did the EM mines get bought up and put into moth balls by Canada, the UK and Austrilia PM companies?