Equal Sector ETF Marks Its 1st Anniversary by
Beating the S&P 500
July 27, 2010 12:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time
DENVER--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Equal Sector investing notched another victory earlier this month when
the ALPS Equal Sector Weight Exchange Traded Fund (“ETF”) (NYSE: EQL) outperformed the S&P 500 Index
in its first year of operations. EQL, which was launched on July 7, 2009, generated a total return of 17.06% vs.
16.74% for the S&P 500 for the year ended July 7, 2010.1
Performance as of 6/30/2010.
*Market price returns are based on the midpoint of the bid/ask spread at 4 p.m. ET and do not represent the
returns an investor would receive if shares were traded at other times.
Performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future
results. Current performance may be higher or lower than actual data quoted. Call 1.866.675.2639 or
visit www.alpsetfs.com for current month end performance.
While the concept of equal-weight indexing is not altogether new, Equal Sector investing takes a slightly different
approach. “Most equal-weight indexes are based at the stock level” states ALPS Director of Investment Research
and Strategy, Jeremy Held.* “EQL is an important extension of the equal-weight concept in that it specifically
addresses sector risk, which we consider to be a much more important and fundamental risk to client portfolios than
individual stocks.”
“Over the last 30 years the largest annual declines in the S&P 500 have been precipitated by a crash in the market’s
largest sector. In 1981 it was Energy. In 2000 it was Technology stocks. Most recently in 2008 it was the Financial
sector. An Equal Sector strategy can minimize the negative impact of any one sector. At the same time by offering
meaningful exposure to each sector of the market, it allows investors the ability to participate in market rallies
regardless of where they occur.”
There are signs that the Equal Sector concept may be catching on. In what has been a very c