AscentXmedia/E+ via Getty Images As the investing world scratches its collective head as to why the market ( SP500 ) has been highly volatile but effectively flat since the start of the year and a consensus-thrashing Q4 by Nvidia ( NVDA ) led to a mid-single-digit decline, I'd like to showcase one specific ETF that seems to have captured ex-developed-market upside in a strong way and continues to ...
AscentXmedia/E+ via Getty Images As the investing world scratches its collective head as to why the market ( SP500 ) has been highly volatile but effectively flat since the start of the year and a consensus-thrashing Q4 by Nvidia ( NVDA ) led to a mid-single-digit decline, I'd like to showcase one specific ETF that seems to have captured ex-developed-market upside in a strong way and continues to do so. SA The Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF ( FRDM ) is our dissection subject of the day. We're going to be looking at the fund itself, how it's built and for what purpose, and all that great stuff, but I think what's even more important is why the fund is behaving the way it is, and whether that's sustainable for the long haul. Let's get started. The FRDM Fund for Top EM Equities Just so you know where the fund's coming from , the "freedom" part refers to the portfolio strategy of weighting the equities using "personal and economic freedom metrics" as the basis for inclusion and allocation. Lady Liberty herself graces the ETF's webpage, and the fund seems to have distilled the level of protection provided to personal and economic freedom across 24 target EM countries and 87 individual metrics into a completely automated algorithm. This "freedom-weighting" is then applied to rank the top ten companies in each of these EM countries, after which a market-cap weighting is applied on top. The result is a portfolio of about 120 equities ranked by their freedom weights and market caps. The Life + Liberty Index acts as the benchmark, so this is a simple index fund but with specific criteria being used to compile the index and FRDM's portfolio. The fund has an AUM of $2.97 billion as of February 26, with an expense ratio of 0.49%, or about average for the ETF universe. I'd have thought an automated portfolio that's little more than a fancy index fund would have much lower expenses, but that's not the case. The fund has been around since May 2019, so there's plenty of data to wo...
According to a February 17, 2026, SEC filing , Starboard Value LP disclosed a new position in Clearwater Analytics (NYSE:CWAN) , purchasing 9,959,031 shares. At quarter-end, the holding was valued at $240.21 million, with the change reflecting the purchase of a new position. This was a new position, representing 4.55% of Starboard’s 13F reportable assets under management as of December 31, 2025 To...
According to a February 17, 2026, SEC filing , Starboard Value LP disclosed a new position in Clearwater Analytics (NYSE:CWAN) , purchasing 9,959,031 shares. At quarter-end, the holding was valued at $240.21 million, with the change reflecting the purchase of a new position. This was a new position, representing 4.55% of Starboard’s 13F reportable assets under management as of December 31, 2025 Top holdings following the filing: Continue reading
Thicha Satapitanon/iStock via Getty Images Quarterly review The fund underperformed the Russell 1000 Value Index for the fourth quarter. Stock selection in the communication services and utilities sectors contributed the most to relative performance. Stock selection in the information technology ('IT') and health care sectors detracted the most from relative performance. Market review During the q...
Thicha Satapitanon/iStock via Getty Images Quarterly review The fund underperformed the Russell 1000 Value Index for the fourth quarter. Stock selection in the communication services and utilities sectors contributed the most to relative performance. Stock selection in the information technology ('IT') and health care sectors detracted the most from relative performance. Market review During the quarter, equity investors digested easing inflation data, a softening labor market, and some caution around the artificial intelligence ('AI') buildout. The AI trade continues to dominate large-cap investors' focus, but we are beginning to see some signs of broadening outside of the Magnificent 7 stocks—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla. As the infrastructure buildout continues, we expect investors to be more discerning around capital expenditures and the timing of returns on those investments. We expect companies with flexible balance sheets and sustainable free cash flow to be the long-term winners as we move into phase two and three of the AI revolution. The Russell 1000 Value Index was the best performing of the nine Russell style boxes, returning 3.81% for the quarter. Within the index, the IT (+11%), communication services (+8%), and health care (+8%) sectors were the best performing in the quarter. Meanwhile, the interest-rate-sensitive real estate (-2%) and utilities (-1%) sectors were the worst performing within the index. The fund underperformed its benchmark for the quarter as the market's narrow thematic focus created some headwinds for our process, which focuses on companies with competitively advantaged asset bases, sustainable free cash flow, and flexible balance sheets. We have seen this in the early innings of past rotations and technological advancements, and we believe our fund is well positioned to benefit as investors begin to focus on the next stage of the infrastructure buildout and market cycle. Fund performance and attributi...
Feb 27 (Reuters) - Nvidia plans to launch a new processor designed to help OpenAI and other customers build faster, more efficient AI systems, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people
Feb 27 (Reuters) - Nvidia plans to launch a new processor designed to help OpenAI and other customers build faster, more efficient AI systems, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people
The UN rights chief on Friday decried mounting threats to women’s rights worldwide, highlighting rampant femicide and horrific abuse exposed in cases like that of US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk denounced “social systems that silence women and girls” allowing powerful men to abuse them with impunity. “Violence against women...
The UN rights chief on Friday decried mounting threats to women’s rights worldwide, highlighting rampant femicide and horrific abuse exposed in cases like that of US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk denounced “social systems that silence women and girls” allowing powerful men to abuse them with impunity. “Violence against women, including femicide, is a global emergency,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the UN’s...
Tippapatt/iStock via Getty Images Performance Recap PGIM Jennison Rising Dividend Fund advanced for the quarter and outperformed the 2.7% return of the S&P 500 Index. Overall, dividend-paying stocks underperformed the broader market in the quarter. Security selection within the industrials, health care, financials, information technology, and consumer staples sectors added the most value during th...
Tippapatt/iStock via Getty Images Performance Recap PGIM Jennison Rising Dividend Fund advanced for the quarter and outperformed the 2.7% return of the S&P 500 Index. Overall, dividend-paying stocks underperformed the broader market in the quarter. Security selection within the industrials, health care, financials, information technology, and consumer staples sectors added the most value during the period. Stock selection within the communication services and energy sectors, along with an overweight to utilities detracted the most from relative performance during the quarter. Notable absolute performance contributors for the period were Eli Lilly ( LLY ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ), Caterpillar ( CAT ), AstraZeneca ( AZN ), and Cisco ( CSCO ). Notable absolute performance detractors were Chenier Energy ( LNG ), Meta Platforms ( META ), AT&T ( T ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), and Vistra Corp ( VST ). Positioning & Outlook U.S. equity markets capped a strong year of performance with modest gains in the fourth quarter. Resurging concerns about the durability of artificial intelligence ('AI') development and the enormous levels of investment spent on AI infrastructure led to volatility during the last three months of the year. Despite these fears, and associated valuation worries, the Federal Reserve's easing monetary policy, moderating but still positive economic growth, and the ongoing penetration of AI buoyed the markets as the year ended. The S&P 500 Index advanced by 2.6% for the quarter and, after a long stretch of outperformance by growth and large cap equities, market participation broadened out during the period. The tech-heavy Nasdaq outperformed the Index due to continued concentrated strength in mega-cap tech and AI beneficiaries. However, modest cooling in AI-led growth leadership and a rotation away from highly concentrated, premium valuation growth toward discounted cyclical and defensive sectors led to the outperformance of value stocks. Expectations of a lower interest...
OpenAI said it has reached an agreement with the US Department of War to deploy its models in their classified network. Two of OpenAI’s most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems, CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X . “The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law...
OpenAI said it has reached an agreement with the US Department of War to deploy its models in their classified network. Two of OpenAI’s most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems, CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X . “The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement,” he said. “We also will build technical safeguards to ensure our models behave as they should, which the DoW also wanted.” Read more: Pentagon Casts Cloud of Doubt Over Anthropic’s AI Business
Kostas Koufogiorgos/iStock via Getty Images I am of the opinion that the Convergence Long/Short Equity ETF ( CLSE ), an actively managed vehicle I initiated coverage of in June and assessed the previous time in November 2025, remains a Buy. The main factor that reinforces the rating is that CLSE has masterfully adapted to the capital rotation, delivering impressive outperformance versus the iShare...
Kostas Koufogiorgos/iStock via Getty Images I am of the opinion that the Convergence Long/Short Equity ETF ( CLSE ), an actively managed vehicle I initiated coverage of in June and assessed the previous time in November 2025, remains a Buy. The main factor that reinforces the rating is that CLSE has masterfully adapted to the capital rotation, delivering impressive outperformance versus the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF ( IVV ) and the iShares Russell 3000 ETF ( IWV ) since the beginning of the year. Besides, since November 24, when my previous analysis was published, CLSE has delivered a total return of 6.59% as of writing this article, significantly beating the S&P 500 index. Seeking Alpha And looking at its current portfolio composition, which I will be giving due attention to below in the article, I believe it is reasonable to assume that it will be capable of maintaining its edge over the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF going forward. CLSE Strategy And Portfolio Before we proceed to the discussion of how the CLSE portfolio has evolved since November, I believe it is worth recapping the strategy. But first, I should mention that CLSE was incepted in December 2009 and existed as a mutual fund before it was converted into an ETF in February 2022. In short, as explained on its website , CLSE ...seeks alpha from a net long portfolio. The ETF goes long positions in fundamentally strong equities and short positions in broken and declining business models. This is a decades-old strategy, and for CLSE, it works (though there are nuances). In the summary prospectus, it is elaborated on what lies at the crux of the strategy, and it is "a proprietary stock ranking process." In making investment decisions for the Fund, the Adviser utilizes a proprietary stock ranking process. This stock ranking process is based on the philosophy that fundamentally sound companies are rewarded while fundamentally inferior companies are punished. Additionally, this process was designed to capture the bes...