By Dan Pritch :by JT
The idea of indexing is to produce returns that are good enough;
returns equal to a benchmark that fits an investor's risk
tolerance. In most of the investable markets, indexing works
perfectly.
Previously, we've talked about how indexing does not work so
well in less liquid bond markets , with active
management producing alpha by avoiding rules-based indexing. It
appears that indexing might not work in the microcap segment of the
market, either, due to liquidity and front running.
(click to enlarge)
The Many Microcap ETFs
For all the underperformance, every major ETF sponsor has its
own microcap fund of some type. Here's a list of the available
microcap ETFs along with a brief description:
- First Trust Dow Jones Select MicroCap ETF ( FDM ) - This fund holds
281 different stocks chosen from the two smallest deciles of
companies by market cap, liquidity, and the fundamentals on the
American public stock markets. The fund comes with an annual
expense of .60%.
- iShares Russell Microcap Index Fund ( IWC ) - This fund is
the most diverse, holding 1000 of the smallest stocks in the
Russell 2000 small cap index along with names chosen from the 1000
stocks that follow the 1000 smallest in the Russell 2000 index. The
fund currently holds 1331 different names and charges investors
.71% per year to own the fund. This is the largest ETF with more
than $400 million in assets under management, nearly 10 times
larger than the second-biggest rival.
- Powershares Zacks Micro Cap Portfolio Fund ( PZI ) - This
Powershares fund runs on Zack's picks in the microcap segment of
the public markets. The 400 or so stocks Zack's believes will
outperform are included, and investors are charged .60% per year to
own this fund. So far, the fund has failed to beat its benchmark,
which doesn't bode well for Zack's selection criteria.
- Wilshire Micro-Cap ETF ( WMCR ) - This fund is
built on the back the Wilshire 5000 index, grabbing some of the
smallest 2500 stocks in the index and adjusting for the public
float and market cap weighting each position. The fund currently
holds 865 positions and charges the lowest fee of any microcap fund
at .5% per year.
What's Wrong with Microcap ETFs?
The primary problem with microcap indexes is liquidity. Illiquid
microcaps are very much like illiquid bonds. When an index has to
buy or sell a stock to rebalance for its rules, it arbitrarily
enters trades at the market price, often driving up or down the
price of the security with no respect for the company's true
intrinsic value. This leads to rampant front-running by smaller
investors and active managers. What works in highly-liquid stocks
such as those in the S&P 500 index ( SPY ) does not work in
low liquidity microcaps.
Active microcap managers are generating alpha. Some funds with a
5-year track record for alpha generation by active managers in the
small cap market include funds like Catalyst Value A Shares
((CTVAX)), Wasatch Micro Cap ((WMICX)), and Perritt MicroCap
Opportunities ((PRCGX)). Notice: these funds are all
actively-managed mutual funds, not index exchange-traded funds.
There are, of course, several underperforming active managers in
the microcap space as well.
Fees tend to be significantly higher as fund sizes are
substantially smaller than small, mid, and large cap funds.
Investors who want exposure to small cap investments have much
better opportunities at much lower expense ratios. The popular
Russell 2000 small cap index has two different ETFs tracking it,
while iShares' Small Cap 600 Index ETF (IJR) offers excellent small
cap exposure at a lower price than microcap ETFs. Along the same
lines, if minimizing costs is your focus, here are the 5
lowest cost ETFs on Earth .
Bottom line: Microcaps are simply too small, too illiquid, and
too risky to track with an index. Investors would be better off to
index to slightly larger small caps, getting all the benefits of
higher beta and higher returns in the long haul with less liquidity
risk and lower annual expense ratios.
Disclosure: No position in any tickers
mentioned here.
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