The number of new Smart Beta ETF products being launched in the investosphere is mind boggling. Just this week BlackRock iShares launched and re-branded their Smart beta suite to be called iShares Edge Multifactor ETFs. BlackRock features 23 ETF products in this category with 9 of the 23 being launched this past week (May 2016).
These 9 new smart beta ETFs are sector specific and focus on multi-factored exposure. This is taking the suite deeper into the rabbit hole from the currently existing smart beta ETFs which were primarily single factor ETF’s. The table below shows the current suite of single factor ETF’s, which allow an investor to gain exposure to specific factors like Momentum (stocks that have strong recent performance), or Quality (financially healthy firms) across US and International Large Cap equities. As you can see the majority of the AUM among these is concentrated in the USA Quality and Momentum specific ETFs.