On May Day all fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium, reflecting performance through April 2021.

 

This month, several new features are running live in MultiSearch, the site’s main screening tool. Most of these upgrades were encouraged by our subscribers with whom I’ve enjoyed several Zoom sessions.

 

First is the ability to store viewing preferences, as described in this month’s MFO piece Introducing MFO Premium’s Saved Preferences Feature. David notes: “You just have to choose once how many of our 600 data columns you want, by default, to see.”

 

Here’s a summary of the other significant upgrades:

 

• Lipper Leaders. Ratings for Total Return, Consistent Return, Expense, and Tax Efficiency of funds versus their category peers, as well as a fund’s Preservation rating, which is relative to type peers [e.g., Equity, Bond]. Scale:  5  is top;  1  is bottom. Ratings are provided for the past 3, 5, and 10-year periods, as applicable. An “Overall Rating” is a simple average of the applicable periods. A more detailed description is available on the Definitions page or here. You can screen for any or all of the Lipper Leaders and in combination with all other MultiSearch screening criteria.

 

• Debt & Currency Holdings. MultiSearch uniquely provides ability to screen funds based on specific holding names, tickers, countries, and sectors found in a fund’s top 10 holdings. This month we’ve added currency and debt type. So, now for example, users can screen on say MultiSector Income bond funds that hold Mortgage Backed Security (MBS), Home Equity Lines of Credit, and Collateralized Mortgage Obligation (CMO).

 

• Equity Portfolio Ratings. These new ratings complement the existing equity portfolio screening options, which were value-based for metrics like Price To Book (P/B), Return on Assets (ROA), or Sales Growth. Now, instead of selecting specific value thresholds, users can request simply the lowest quintile P/B funds in category. These new ratings can help you decipher, for example, if a fund with “value” in its name is really a value fund. I find them quite satisfactory.

 

• Smart Beta. Users can now screen exchange traded funds (ETFs) for any of these factors: Dividend, Beta, Growth, Liquidity, Momentum, Quality, Size, Value, Volatility, ESG, Multifactor, Credit Quality, Yield, and Commodity.

 

Other MultiSearch improvements include options to overwrite and nickname during export of WatchLists, Searches, and Preferences to user profile; added Mixed Asset, Alternative, Commodity, and Money Market subtypes to Exclude Categories options; and, ability to set threshold return screening levels against key reference indexes, like S&P 500. Finally, there is a simple highlight search tool on the Definitions page.

 

As always, if you see anything amiss or have suggestions for improvement, let us know and we will respond soonest.