A Pair Of New ETFs Make Avoiding Losers Top Priority

Obviously, identifying winners is the name of the investing game, but there are plenty of examples of avoiding losers being a valid strategy.

What Happened: Some exchange-traded funds make it a point to avoid weak stocks. That group includes New Age Alpha's Avoider ETFs: The AVDR US LargeCap Leading ETF AVDR and the AVDR US LargeCap ESG ETF AVDG, both of which launched Wednesday.

The concept of loser avoidance isn't new to the ETF space. One of the established funds in the group rapidly developed a track record of topping broader benchmarks and attracting an audience, so the new ADVR and ADVG are entering potentially fertile territory.

Why It's Important: AVDR, New Age Alpha's domestic large-cap solution, filters out the 450 largest domestic equities with the highest human factor scores “resulting in a portfolio that consists of the 50 stocks with the lowest Human Factor that seeks to deliver alpha over existing large-cap benchmarks,” according to the issuer.

The premise is simple: Avoiding high human factor scores can help investors dodge stocks that are richly valued.

“We then rank the components of the universe by Human Factor score and remove 450 stocks with the highest Human Factor scores, the companies we believe are most likely to fail to deliver the growth implied by their stock price,” notes New Age.

That doesn't mean ADVR is a value ETF. Technology, communication services and consumer cyclical stocks combine for over 46% of the fund's weight, giving it a growth feel. Top 10 holdings include Dow components Walt Disney DIS and Goldman Sachs GS.

What's Next: The AVDR US LargeCap ESG ETF also features a concept that's been tested before, that being avoidance of ESG losers.

AVDG starts with the 600 largest U.S. stocks and removes all but the 50 with the best environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores. Last year, ESG funds outperformed their non-ESG counterparts, confirming that there is something to avoiding ESG losers.

As is the case with many ESG ETFs, the new AVDG is tech-heavy with that sector representing almost a third of the fund's roster. The rookie fund is also top-heavy with Microsoft MSFT and Amazon AMZN combining for almost 29%.

Both AVDR and AVDG charge 0.60% per year, or $60 on a $10,000 investment.