Screening Filters
Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $500,000
- Purpose: Ensure the ETFs are sufficiently liquid and tradable.
- Rationale: When asking for the “best” energy ETF, liquidity is a core quality metric.
- Higher dollar volume typically means tighter bid–ask spreads and easier entry/exit, especially for larger orders.
- It avoids small, niche ETFs that may look good on paper but are hard or costly to trade in practice.
Sector = Energy
- Purpose: Restrict results to ETFs whose primary sector exposure is energy.
- Rationale:
- This aligns directly with your request for an “energy ETF,” not a broad market or mixed-sector fund.
- It filters out general commodity funds or diversified sector funds that only have partial energy exposure.
Themes = “Energy Equities”, “Oil & Gas”
- Purpose: Focus on ETFs that invest in energy-related stocks, especially oil & gas companies.
- Rationale:
- “Energy Equities” ensures we’re looking at stock-based ETFs, not futures- or derivatives-only products that behave very differently.
- “Oil & Gas” targets the core traditional energy segment that dominates the energy ETF universe, where most of the large, well-known “best-in-class” funds are found.
- Together, these themes narrow the search to ETFs whose economic exposure is clearly tied to the energy industry rather than peripheral energy-related themes.
Expense Ratio ≤ 0.75%
- Purpose: Exclude ETFs with excessively high fees.
- Rationale:
- Cost is a major determinant of long-term performance; a “best” ETF should not be unjustifiably expensive.
- A 0.75% cap is high enough to include some specialized energy funds but low enough to filter out the most costly, niche products.
- This increases the likelihood that candidates are reasonably efficient vehicles for gaining energy exposure.
Inception Date ≤ 2015-01-01
- Purpose: Require a longer performance and behavior track record.
- Rationale:
- Older ETFs have lived through multiple market conditions (oil price crashes, recoveries, rate cycles, etc.).
- This makes it possible to evaluate how the fund behaves across cycles, which is crucial when judging what might reasonably be considered “best.”
- It avoids brand-new ETFs that may not have proven their tracking quality, liquidity, or risk characteristics yet.
Why Results Match Your Question
- The sector and theme filters directly target ETFs whose primary economic exposure is to energy, especially oil & gas equities—what most investors mean by an “energy ETF.”
- The liquidity filter (dollar volume) ensures that candidates are actually investable and practical to trade, which is an essential quality component.
- The expense ratio cap focuses the search on reasonably priced funds, improving the odds of finding ETFs that are competitive on net performance over time.
- The seasoned inception date filter ensures a sufficient history for evaluating performance, volatility, and tracking versus benchmarks—necessary inputs when trying to judge which might be “best.”
Together, these filters don’t guarantee a single “best” ETF—since “best” depends on your goals and risk tolerance—but they create a focused, high-quality universe of established, liquid, and cost-conscious energy ETFs from which a top choice can realistically be identified.
This list is generated based on data from one or more third party data providers. It is provided for informational purposes only by Intellectia.AI, and is not investment advice or a recommendation. Intellectia does not make any warranty or guarantee relating to the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of any third-party information, and the provision of this information does not constitute a recommendation.