@finder.
I share same disappointment about GTAA performance. It's never been easy to love.
I tried to articulate both Mebane's disappointments and successes so far in the piece "
The Existential Pleasure of Engineering Beta."
I actually think he's is one of the more prominent figures in the fund industry today, particularly exchange traded fund industry.
Certainly not by AUM.
But in his ability to distill complex and breakout investment strategies (at least for the common investor) into terms we can understand. Then, his attempts to employ them via ETFs.
I first came across his work in the standout paper on timing methods, entitled "
A Quantitative Approach to Tactical Asset Allocation."
Then, his books Ivy Portfolio, Shareholder Yield, and Global Value. All straight-forward, unpretentious, transparent...yet innovative.
All must reads. (But granted, I'm a fan.)
Scott (our jewel of a contributor on the board) was person that alerted me to GTAA and its disappointing performance.
I attribute it to three main factors: 1) all-asset (aka "Ivy League") have performed pretty poor over the period since GTAA started, 2) AdvisorShares excessive fee structure, and 3) volatility in commodities and foreign equity also likely detracted, since timing does best in trending markets versus short-term gyrations.
Certainly, the new Cambria ETFs address the fee issue. Its fees are considerably less the those charged by AdvisorShares.
Time will tell on the other two factors!
A one month drop (or rise) in GVAL should not really concern an investor, since the long-haul strategy looks to benefit from undervalued companies in undervalued countries (aka hated companies in hated countries). So, expect a bumpy ride.
And, SYLD seems to be doing quite well.
Hey none of this helps much, I know, if you happen to be holding a fund that is doing poorly. Trust me, no matter how many times M* told me Dodge & Cox employed a time-proven value strategy with experienced staff, low cost, shared incentive, high integrity, and share-holder friendly policies...none of that helped me to stomach its performance in 2008 or even late 2011.
Well, after it recovered, maybe it did.
At the end of the day, David encourages us to call attention to funds trying to do good things, especially smaller and younger ones. I certainly think Cambria qualifies.
Again, these are young funds, and time will tell if the strategies and their implementation pay-off in satisfactory excess returns. But, if they don't, we will be first to call attention to it.
Hope my rambling helps explain a little.
(Hey, what to you think of championing a policy that financial writers must be invested in any fund they recommend? Ha!)
