The Watchlist: See the 15 Tickers I Rotate to Outperform the Index
Get the list of specific ETFs needed to follow the MarketFighter Strategy. Complete lists for the US and European markets included.
First of all, a warm welcome to all the new subscribers who joined since last time!
The positive comments and feedback I have received since I started publishing my strategy have been overwhelming. Thank you all for that!
A lot of you have requested lists of specific ETF tickers needed to follow the strategy. My intention with today’s post is to provide everything you need regarding that.
If you’re only here for the ticker lists, feel free to scroll down. 👇
New to The MarketFighter Strategy?
I write about a simple approach to beat the stock market with only 15 minutes of monthly work that anyone can copy. Check out these links:
➡️ The quick introduction
➡️ The detailed breakdown of the strategy
What’s the best way to invest in ETFs?
ETF is short for Exchange-Traded Fund and represents an easy way for investors to diversify across a large number of stocks through the purchase of a single ticker on a stock exchange.
They are similar to regular funds, except most of them are passive, which means they automatically follow an index as opposed to having a fund manager actively pick each individual stock.
The most common usage of ETFs is for passive index investing. With this strategy you simply buy and hold an ETF that tracks a broad market index like the MSCI World or the S&P 500.
This simple approach is reported to beat 95% of professional fund managers over time because it automatically avoids any form of bias or emotion in decision-making.
How to optimize index investing
Not many years ago I was doing passive index investing myself — convinced by the books and the research telling me it was next to impossible to beat this simple approach in the long run anyway.
But my analytical mindset and curiosity couldn’t stop thinking about ways to optimize or improve this. I have described my journey and the strategy it led to here:
➡️ My Investment Approach that Outperformed the Stock Market in 25 of 26 years
Basically, I realized I could improve ETF returns significantly and consistently by systematically rotating between sector-focused ETFs and factor-focused ETFs, resulting in +20% annual returns over the past 10 years.
I created a simple algorithm that picks the strongest sector and the strongest factor based on relative price momentum. This results in a maximum of two trades to be executed on the first trading day of each month.
Sounds complicated? It’s not. Here’s the best part: It’s super easy to copy my approach, as I calculate exactly which trades should be executed (the signals) each month and send it to all subscribers before the market opens.
What you need to know about the ETF market
The global market for ETFs can be confusing and overwhelming. Different rules apply in different regions. The same ETFs can have different tickers on different exchanges. And the availability of specific tickers can differ from broker to broker, from country to country.
For these reasons (and because I’m writing for a global audience), I didn’t originally include a list of specific ETF tickers when I described the investment universe and the indices needed to trade the MarketFighter Strategy in this post:
➡️ Revealing the Exact Universe Behind the MarketFighter Strategy
What I did in that post was to give you the overview of the 15 indices the strategy tracks and compares. Give it a read if you want to learn more about why the strategy works with the specific ETFs and corresponding indices. For now, I will just share this quick illustration from the article:
It became obvious to me from all the requests, that it was not enough to simply list the indices. So I decided to assemble two detailed lists:
One with specific ETFs available to the European market
One with specific ETFs available on US exchanges
People living in the European Union have limited access to US-listed ETFs because of regulatory compliance rules. From most other regions of the world, you will have access to the ETF tickers on the US market.
List of ETFs for the European market
The list below contains my suggestions for ETFs listed on the European market. These are the ones I’m trading myself, as I live in Denmark. They are all UCITS-compliant which means they fulfill the regulatory requirements for selling to retail investors living in the European Union.
Each element in the list is headlined by the index it tracks (the factor or sector to invest in). It includes the full name of the ETF, a ticker name and the unique ISIN code.
On the European market the ISIN code is the safest way to identify an ETF, as the ticker codes differ from one exchange to another. It’s important to note that the ticker names I have listed below are the Xetra Exchange tickers (listed in Germany):
USA MOMENTUM
iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor UCITS ETF
QDVA 🔸 IE00BD1F4N50
USA QUALITY
iShares Edge MSCI USA Quality Factor UCITS ETF
QDVB 🔸 IE00BD1F4L37
USA VALUE
iShares Edge MSCI USA Value Factor UCITS ETF
QDVI 🔸 IE00BD1F4M44
USA SMALL CAP
iShares MSCI USA Small Cap ESG Enhanced CTB UCITS ETF
SXRG 🔸 IE00B3VWM098
EUROPE MOMENTUM
iShares Edge MSCI Europe Momentum Factor UCITS ETF
CEMR 🔸 IE00BQN1K786
EUROPE QUALITY
iShares Edge MSCI Europe Quality Factor UCITS ETF
CEMQ 🔸 IE00BQN1K562
EUROPE VALUE
iShares Edge MSCI Europe Value Factor UCITS ETF
CEMS 🔸 IE00BQN1K901
EUROPE SMALL CAP
Xtrackers MSCI Europe Small Cap UCITS ETF
XXSC 🔸 LU0322253906
CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY
iShares S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Sector UCITS ETF
QDVK 🔸 IE00B4MCHD36
CONSUMER STAPLES
iShares S&P 500 Consumer Staples Sector UCITS ETF
2B7D 🔸 IE00B40B8R38
ENERGY
iShares S&P 500 Energy Sector UCITS ETF
QDVF 🔸 IE00B42NKQ00
HEALTH CARE
iShares S&P 500 Health Care Sector UCITS ETF
QDVG 🔸 IE00B43HR379
INDUSTRIALS
iShares S&P 500 Industrials Sector UCITS ETF
2B7C 🔸 IE00B4LN9N13
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
iShares S&P 500 Information Technology Sector UCITS ETF
QDVE 🔸 IE00B3WJKG14
MATERIALS
iShares S&P 500 Materials Sector UCITS ETF
2B7B 🔸 IE00B4MKCJ84
List of ETFs for the US market
The American market for ETFs is in many ways less complicated than the European one. You can count on the ticker name, and there are less regulatory restrictions. This also means most other retail investors in other parts of the world will have access to trade these ETFs.
One thing to be aware of though, is that some of the indices I use in the system are not tracked in exactly the same way by any US-listed ETF. This is the case for the following:
Europe Momentum
Europe Quality
Europe Value
In these cases I suggest the “International” (Ex-US) versions that include the full developed market outside of United States. Europe typically constitutes 60-70% of this. These alternatives are the closest matches on the US market, and I don’t believe their returns will be dramatically different, as they track the same risk premia.
Below is my list of suggestions for US-listed ETFs, headlined by the index they track, followed by the full ETF name, the ticker code and the ISIN code for unique identification:
USA MOMENTUM
iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF
MTUM 🔹 US46432F3964
USA QUALITY
iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF
QUAL 🔹 US46432F3394
USA VALUE
iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF
VLUE 🔹 US46432F3881
USA SMALL CAP
iShares U.S. Small-Cap Equity Factor ETF
SMLF 🔹 US46434V2907
EUROPE MOMENTUM
iShares MSCI Intl Momentum Factor ETF
IMTM 🔹 US46434V4499
EUROPE QUALITY
iShares MSCI Intl Quality Factor ETF
IQLT 🔹 US46434V4564
EUROPE VALUE
iShares MSCI Intl Value Factor ETF
IVLU 🔹 US46435G4091
EUROPE SMALL CAP
iShares MSCI Europe Small-Cap ETF
IEUS 🔹 US4642884971
CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY
State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLY 🔹 US81369Y4070
CONSUMER STAPLES
State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLP 🔹 US81369Y3080
ENERGY
State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLE 🔹 US81369Y5069
HEALTH CARE
State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLV 🔹 US81369Y2090
INDUSTRIALS
State Street Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLI 🔹 US81369Y7040
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLK 🔹 US81369Y8030
MATERIALS
State Street Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLB 🔹 US81369Y1001
Leveraged ETFs for the fearless
One subscriber requested a list of leveraged ETFs to follow the strategy with higher impact. First of all, I want to make it clear that I’m not recommending the use of leveraged ETFs, as I haven’t tested the strategy with these!
But for traders with a high risk appetite, there are actually 2x-leveraged sector ETFs available in the US. These track the daily changes with 200% exposure to the tracked sector index. They are listed with the following tickers:
ROM | Ultra Technology
DIG | Ultra Energy
RXL | Ultra Health Care
UYM | Ultra Materials
UGE | Ultra Consumer Staples
UCC | Ultra Consumer Discretionary
UXI | Ultra Industrials
I have not managed to find any leveraged factor ETFs listed in the US. On the European market the use of leverage in ETFs is much less widespread, and I didn’t find any suitable solutions.
How to use the lists
Save these lists somewhere if you want to have an overview of the ETFs needed to follow the MarketFighter Strategy. If you are a subscriber, you will receive the monthly trading signals, which always include the two exact ETFs needed for the coming month, regardless if you trade on the US or the European market.
Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: The MarketFighter Strategy is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not financial advice, and the author is not a licensed investment advisor. Investing in ETFs involves significant risk, and past performance is never a guarantee of future results. You are solely responsible for your own trades and financial outcomes. Read the full Disclaimer here.
Hi MarketFighter, like your strategy. Is it a problem if i trade one of the EU ETFs in Italy instead of on Xetra if my broker doesn't offer the Xetra option? Also, the volumes can be low on some of the EU ETfs on Xetra, which might be a issue if one wants to invest a more significant sum and you need to switch once a month? How do you view that?
Hi MarketFighter. I like your strategy. I tried to duplicate with Etfreplay site but can't seem to get a better CAGR or Sharpe Ratio than pure SPY. I'm using 6 month+12 month lookback relative strength. I'm using USA tickers, monthly rotation.