artisteer/iStock via Getty Images I believe the FlexShares US Quality Low Volatility Index Fund ETF ( QLV ) will more likely underperform the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF ( IVV ) this year and beyond, unless the Iran war spirals into a protracted conflict inflicting severe economic damage and triggering interest rate hikes and a bear market, a worst-case scenario I consider unlikely to materialize at ...
artisteer/iStock via Getty Images I believe the FlexShares US Quality Low Volatility Index Fund ETF ( QLV ) will more likely underperform the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF ( IVV ) this year and beyond, unless the Iran war spirals into a protracted conflict inflicting severe economic damage and triggering interest rate hikes and a bear market, a worst-case scenario I consider unlikely to materialize at this point. At the same time, QLV does offer a few advantages, including the high quality of its portfolio and the possibility to minimize downside capture (though at the expense of the ability to match the market's pace during a recovery) thanks to the low beta holdings and a value tilt. I suppose it is also possible for QLV to outperform IVV on a risk-adjusted basis this year (i.e., eke out higher Sharpe and Sortino ratios even despite having a weaker total return). In this regard, I initiate coverage with the Hold rating. QLV Strategy And Portfolio As we know from the FlexShares website , the Northern Trust Quality Low Volatility Index is the cornerstone of QLV's strategy. As described in the summary prospectus, components are selected from the Northern Trust 1250 Index using quality and low volatility screening. More specifically, in the first step, ...the index provider (the “Index Provider”) ranks all con stituents of the Parent Index using a Northern Trust pro prietary quality factor. This factor is a quantitative ranking based on: (a) management efficiency (e.g., corporate finance activities); (b) profitability (e.g., reliability and sustainability of financial performance); and (c) cash flow (e.g., cash flow generation). After that, "the lowest quintile of constituents ranked accord ing to the quality factor" is filtered out, and " an optimization process to select and weight eligible securities in order to (a) seek to reduce overall portfolio volatility and (b) maximize the overall quality factor relative to the Parent Index" is applied. Also, during the optimizat...
matdesign24/iStock via Getty Images Thesis Angel Oak Capital Advisors somehow nabbed the MBS ticker on the Nasdaq exchange and have assigned it to their Angel Oak Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF ( MBS ). The ticker is very appropriate because it is the shorthand for mortgage-backed securities, a type of mortgage-based debt. MBS as an ETF focuses on mortgage-backed securities and is a growing fund f...
matdesign24/iStock via Getty Images Thesis Angel Oak Capital Advisors somehow nabbed the MBS ticker on the Nasdaq exchange and have assigned it to their Angel Oak Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF ( MBS ). The ticker is very appropriate because it is the shorthand for mortgage-backed securities, a type of mortgage-based debt. MBS as an ETF focuses on mortgage-backed securities and is a growing fund from Angel Oak. In today's article, we are going to explore MBS in depth and compare it to other mortgage offerings in the market as well as a different mortgage focused ETF from the same manager. Composition - Just MBS Securities Let us start with the fund objective as stated on their website: The Angel Oak Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF is an actively managed, pure-play residential mortgage credit ETF that seeks to deliver the best risk-adjusted opportunities in fixed income, offering the potential for both stable income and price appreciation. The Fund provides exposure to residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), primarily investing in both agency and non-agency RMBS. The fund is an active one, and thus does not follow a particular index, although it does consider the Bloomberg U.S. Mortgage-Backed Securities Index as a benchmark for its net performance. The fund contains the following: Non-Agency MBS: 51.5% Agency MBS: 42.5% Cash: 6% The ratings breakdown is as follows: Investment grade: 97.6% Below Investment grade: 1.5% Unrated: residual We have written in the past extensively regarding the Angel Oak Income ETF ( CARY ), a multi-sector fixed income ETF that we own. CARY contains other asset classes, although it is overweight in mortgages: Non-Agency MBS: 29.8% Agency MBS: 16.4% ABS: 13.6% Corporate credit: 12.6% CLO: 10.7% CMBS: 3.7% Cash: 13.2% CARY also contains a fair amount of below-investment-grade credits: Investment grade: 60.3% Below Investment grade: 32.5% Unrated: residual We are going to compare MBS with CARY throughout the article because MBS comes wi...
They are sipping smoothies, snapping phone pics, dealing with crashed email and fixing broken toilets: astronauts, they are just like us. The four crew members zipping through space towards the moon are carrying out a mission unlike any before it, but they are also still muddling on through life’s mundanities – all while they float around together in a square footage equivalent to two minivans. Mi...
They are sipping smoothies, snapping phone pics, dealing with crashed email and fixing broken toilets: astronauts, they are just like us. The four crew members zipping through space towards the moon are carrying out a mission unlike any before it, but they are also still muddling on through life’s mundanities – all while they float around together in a square footage equivalent to two minivans. Mission specialist Christina Koch, the first woman to venture into deep space, said preparing for the...
Hanizam/iStock via Getty Images For more than a decade, the hottest asset class on Wall Street was private credit and private equity funds, where assets held by the funds rarely changed hands and ‘estimated’ values were steadily marked higher by the managers. Now, an increasing number of investors are trying to exit but finding they can’t. Cliffwater is one of many recent examples; see He Brought ...
Hanizam/iStock via Getty Images For more than a decade, the hottest asset class on Wall Street was private credit and private equity funds, where assets held by the funds rarely changed hands and ‘estimated’ values were steadily marked higher by the managers. Now, an increasing number of investors are trying to exit but finding they can’t. Cliffwater is one of many recent examples; see He Brought Private Credit to the Masses. Now the Masses Are Fleeing: After a handful of high-profile defaults, investors are pulling so much money out of industry funds that managers are restricting withdrawals . Shares of big firms are dropping. “Cliffwater is the poster child for success in semiliquid funds,” said Brian Moriarty, a senior researcher at Morningstar, referencing the type of fund that allows investors to cash out slowly over time. “But they haven’t had to manage through a downturn, and that kind of experience tests a firm.” Private funds are not the only ones that haven’t successfully managed through an extended bear market. Few advisors, managers and investors today have. Everyone is in the buying business; very few have a method or plan to protect against significant capital drawdowns. When everyone is paid to bring in assets, very few pay attention to how capital can get out. As one hedge fund manager put it, the typical growth strategy is “all gas, no brakes.” Meaningful risk management is very rare. Buyers should beware. Disclosure: No positions Original Post Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
Sergii Kolesnikov/iStock via Getty Images Shares of diversified drug concern ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. ( ANIP ) are down by roughly a quarter since reaching an all-time high of $99.50 in Sept 2025, falling again after a stellar 4Q25 report and FY26 outlook. I last posted a piece on this biopharma company back in October 2024. The company’s increasing reliance on Cortrophin Gel, which delivered 39% ...
Sergii Kolesnikov/iStock via Getty Images Shares of diversified drug concern ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. ( ANIP ) are down by roughly a quarter since reaching an all-time high of $99.50 in Sept 2025, falling again after a stellar 4Q25 report and FY26 outlook. I last posted a piece on this biopharma company back in October 2024. The company’s increasing reliance on Cortrophin Gel, which delivered 39% of its FY25 top line and is projected to contribute 52% of the total in FY26 due to 60% growth, may have the market concerned. Trading at 8.2 times fairly visible FY26E non-GAAP EPS that represents 15% growth versus a strong FY25 protected somewhat by a complex Cortrophin Gel formulation, ANI merited another look. An updated analysis around ANI Pharmaceuticals follows below. ANIP Stock Chart (Seeking Alpha) As a reminder, ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a Baudette, Minnesota-based biopharmaceutical concern focused on the development, manufacture, and marketing of branded and generic drugs primarily in the U.S. The company currently peddles ~120 generic drugs and ~20 branded meds with an emphasis on rare disease products, led by Cortrophin Gel, which was responsible for 39% of the company’s net revenue in FY25. ANI was formed as Ben-Abraham Technologies in 1996, changed its name to BioSante Pharmaceuticals in 1999, and publicly debuted as a penny stock in 2000 with its first transaction conducted at $185.63 a share, after giving effect to one 1-for-10 and two 1-for-6 reverse stock splits. It changed to its current moniker after merging with ANIP Acquisition Company in 2013, the same year it listed on the NASDAQ. Shares of ANIP trade around $76.00 a share, translating to an approximate market cap of $1.6 billion. February 2026 Company Presentation Disaggregation of Revenue The company disaggregates its revenue into two categories: Rare Disease and Brands; plus Generics and Other. Supported by three manufacturing facilities in the U.S. encompassing ~300,000 sq. ft. that are capabl...
Over the past decade, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) has been one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies in the world. Since its launch back in July 2015, Ethereum is up a phenomenal 68,400%. However, Ethereum is now down over 30% in 2026, and currently trades at a 57% discount to its all-time high of $4,954 from last year. To say that things are headed in the wrong direction would be an understatement. W...
Over the past decade, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) has been one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies in the world. Since its launch back in July 2015, Ethereum is up a phenomenal 68,400%. However, Ethereum is now down over 30% in 2026, and currently trades at a 57% discount to its all-time high of $4,954 from last year. To say that things are headed in the wrong direction would be an understatement. With that in mind, are there any Ethereum alternatives worth buying instead? To answer that question, it's important to understand the current competitive landscape for Ethereum. When it launched a decade ago, Ethereum was the first Layer-1 blockchain network. It quickly became a core building block of the emerging blockchain and crypto world, and helped to pioneer many fundamental innovations (such as smart contracts ) that still drive value today. Continue reading