Finding Your Perfect ETFs In Stock Rover

Stock Rover recently added much more data on exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds. And in our V7 beta*, we added the ability to screen on ETFs. If you haven’t sunk your teeth into ETFs before, they can be a great low-cost way to diversify your portfolio. Just as with stocks and mutual funds, there is a wide variety—our screener can help you wade through thousands of ETFs to find the handful that are suitable for your investing needs and style. Note that this feature and the fund data covered in this blog post are available only in the Premium plans.

*Before we dive into the new data, a note on V7: Stock Rover V7 is our updated interface, which is currently in beta. It has a modern look, streamlined navigation, and more power than the standard version of Stock Rover. It’s a fantastic evolution, so be sure to check it out! To do so, login to Stock Rover and select ‘Try V7 Beta’ from the dropdown control in top right-hand corner menu where your Stock Rover username is. For more detail on V7, see this blog post.

Now, onto the fun-d stuff!

The following new metrics are now available in Stock Rover:

• Morningstar Rating:
  1-5 star rating based on the ETF or fund’s past performance given the amount of risk taken.
• Category:
  The fund’s category (e.g., Large Growth, Mid-Cap Blend or Small Value), as assigned by Morningstar.
• Style:
  The type of investments the fund makes—e.g., large cap, high growth—this speaks broadly to the risk level of the fund.
• Type of fund:
  The criteria used to determine what type of investments the fund makes. Fund types include Index, Fund of Funds, Lifecycle, Socially Responsible, etc.
• Net Assets:
  This is the size of the ETF or fund based on the current total dollar value of all of the the assets of the ETF or fund. For funds it includes assets across all share classes of the fund.
• Volume:
  Just like with stocks, a higher trading volume means more a more liquid security.
• Expense Ratio:
  The cost of owning the fund (taken as a percentage of your total investment)—needless to say, a low expense ratio is desirable.
• Turnover Ratio:
  How frequently the investments within the fund are turning over; higher turnover can result in higher fees (and potentially a higher tax rate) and therefore lower returns for investors.
• Manager Tenure:
  The number of years that the current manager has held their position; this provides some context when looking at a fund’s performance.
• Benchmark:
  What benchmark the fund uses as a baseline of comparison.
• Allocation of assets:
  How the fund’s assets are allocated in the following categories:
  • Security type (US stock, non-US stock, US bond, Non-US bond, cash)
  • Market cap (giant, large, medium, small, micro)
  • Developed Country vs. Emerging Market
  • Geography (US, Canada, Latin America, Asia, etc.)
  • Value vs. Growth
  • Sector (Technology, Health, Financial, Industrials, Staples, Consumer Discretionary, Energy, etc.)

As usual, this data is available in multiple places. If you’re just looking at a single fund, you’ll probably want to view it in the Insight panel, as shown here:

Some of the new fund-specific information now in the Insight panel.

If you want to compare more than one fund side-by-side (for example funds in a watchlist, portfolio, or screener), use the Table. You can add any of the above fund metrics to an existing Table View, or you can import any of our brand-new Table views from the Library:

• ETF & Fund Asset Profile
• ETF & Fund Asset Allocation
• ETF & Fund Equity Capitalization
• ETF & Fund Equity Classification
• ETF & Fund Style Box

These views are available in both the current current version of Stock Rover and the V7 beta. If you add the views to one, they will be added to the other version automatically. To add the new views in the current version click on the Views dropdown to the left of the leftmost view tab and select View Options -> Browse View Library. To add them from the V7 beta, enter the Library via the charcoal-colored menu on the left-hand side, then select ‘Views’ from the Types menu, and find the above views listed. Check the ‘Import This View’ box and then, after you’ve selected all the items you want, click ‘Import’ at the bottom of the screen, as illustrated below.

The Stock Rover Library, with the Views section highlighted. Select the views you want and import them into your Table.

Screen for ETFs (Premium, V7 Only)

ETF screening is a Premium feature only found in V7. Just in case you missed the memo earlier, to access V7, select ‘Try V7 Beta’ from the top right-hand menu when you are logged into Stock Rover.

One very easy way to get started with ETF screening is to simply pick out a ready-made screener (or ten) from our Library. Add any of the following to your account for free:

• ETF Big Dogs
• ETF Quality
• ETF Low Expenses
• ETF Dividend Growth
• ETF Dividend Yield
• ETF Enhanced Index Funds
• ETF Sustainable
• ETF Europe
• ETF Asia Developed
• ETF Emerging Markets
• ETF Large Cap Value
• ETF Large Cap Growth
• ETF Mid Cap Value
• ETF Mid Cap Growth
• ETF Small Cap Value
• ETF Small Cap Growth

To find these bad boys, follow the earlier instructions for accessing the Library and select ‘Screeners’ from the Library menu.

Once imported into your account, run a screener anytime to see what it turns up (go to ‘Screeners’ in the charcoal left-hand menu). For example, here’s what the ETF Dividend Yield screener is finding at the time of writing:

Some of the results from the ETF Dividend Yield screener, shown in the ETF & Fund Profile view.

The screener results are being shown in the very handy ETF & Fund Profile table view. As you can see, this allows us to, right off the bat, begin comparing the funds in key criteria not already included in the screener. For example, maybe you’re only interested in ETFs with a high growth style, or a low turnover ratio. You can sort and filter on these columns to help you zero in on an even smaller population of funds.

Feel free to modify the criteria of our ready-made screeners (right-click screener → ‘Update Screener’), or simply make your own from scratch (right click folder → ‘Create Screener’).

Find this menu of options by right-clicking Screeners in the Navigation panel.

To make this an ETF screener, be sure to select ETF from the Equity Type dropdown:

To screen for ETFs, be sure to select ‘ETF’ from the Equity Type dropdown menu in the screener editor.

Now you can begin adding your own ETF criteria to find the perfect ETF for you.

By the way, Premium subscribers can create folders for screeners in the navigation panel. So once you’ve got an ETF screener or two in your account, go ahead and create a folder for all your ETF screeners to keep things nice and organized.

We’ll be covering more from the latest release of Stock Rover in an upcoming blog post. Until then, happy fund-finding!