The iShares Global Equity Factor ETF (GLOF) was launched on 04/28/2015, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Global Large-Cap Blend Equity ETF category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
Non-cap weighted indexes try to choose stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, which is based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a mix of other such characteristics.
Even though this space provides many choices to investors--think one of the simplest methodologies like equal-weighting and more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting--not all have been able to deliver first-rate results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
GLOF is managed by Blackrock, and this fund has amassed over $201.83 million, which makes it one of the average sized ETFs in the Global Large-Cap Blend Equity ETF. Before fees and expenses, this particular fund seeks to match the performance of the STOXX GLOBAL EQUITY FACTOR INDEX .
The STOXX Global Equity Factor Index comprises of large and mid-capitalization developed and emerging market stocks that have favourable exposure to target style factors subject to constraints.
Cost & Other Expenses
When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor. And, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
With one of the least expensive products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.20%.
GLOF's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 1.53%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Looking at individual holdings, Nvidia Corp (NVDA) accounts for about 4.56% of total assets, followed by Apple Inc (AAPL) and Alphabet Inc Class C (GOOG).
The top 10 holdings account for about 23.29% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has gained about 10.86% and it's up approximately 34.33% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/12/2026), respectively. GLOF has traded between $45.63 and $58.54 during this last 52-week period.
GLOF has a beta of 0.91 and standard deviation of 13.87% for the trailing three-year period. With about 727 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
iShares Global Equity Factor ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Global Large-Cap Blend Equity ETF segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Global 100 ETF (IOO) tracks S&P Global 100 Index and the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWI) tracks MSCI All Country World Index. iShares Global 100 ETF has $8.75 billion in assets, iShares MSCI ACWI ETF has $32.14 billion. IOO has an expense ratio of 0.40% and ACWI changes 0.32%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Global Large-Cap Blend Equity ETF
Bottom Line
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
