Screening Filters
Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $500,000
- Purpose: Ensure the ETF is sufficiently liquid and easy to trade.
- Rationale: When someone asks “Which ETF should I buy?” without specifying niche preferences, it’s reasonable to assume they want something mainstream and practical. A minimum dollar volume filter helps:
- Reduce the risk of wide bid–ask spreads (which increase trading costs).
- Make it easier to enter and exit positions without moving the market.
- Avoid obscure, thinly traded funds that may be harder for a typical investor to use.
Theme: Large Cap Blend Equities
- Purpose: Focus on broad, core stock-market exposure rather than narrow or speculative themes.
- Rationale: Large-cap blend equity ETFs typically:
- Hold many of the biggest, most established companies (e.g., S&P 500–style exposure).
- Mix growth and value (“blend”), giving balanced exposure instead of a style bet.
- Serve well as a “core” holding for many investors, which is often what people mean when asking what ETF to buy.
This aligns the screen with diversified, general-market funds rather than sector, thematic, or leveraged products.
Stock Position %: MoreThan90Pct
- Purpose: Ensure the ETF is predominantly invested in stocks, not bonds, derivatives, or cash.
- Rationale: The user did not ask for bond, commodity, or alternative ETFs. A >90% stock allocation:
- Targets “true” equity ETFs, consistent with a broad stock-market exposure.
- Avoids balanced or multi-asset funds that may not match someone simply seeking “an ETF to buy” for stock exposure.
Expense Ratio ≤ 0.05 (5 bps)
- Purpose: Limit results to very low-cost ETFs.
- Rationale: For broad equity ETFs, cost is one of the best predictors of long-term net performance:
- Very low fees are a key attribute of the most widely recommended core ETFs.
- Lower expenses mean more of the fund’s return stays in the investor’s pocket.
- This filter steers away from niche, actively managed, or expensive products that may not be ideal as a default “which ETF should I buy?” answer.
Inception Date ≤ 2015-01-01 (at least ~10 years of history)
- Purpose: Prioritize ETFs with a long track record and proven viability.
- Rationale: When choosing a core ETF:
- A longer history allows investors to see how it behaved across different markets.
- Older funds tend to be larger, more stable, and less likely to be closed or merged.
- This helps avoid very new products that have not yet proven their liquidity, tracking, or durability.
Why Results Match the User’s Question
- The user’s generic “Which ETF should I buy?” is interpreted as a request for solid, broadly diversified, mainstream equity ETFs suitable as a core holding.
- The combination of:
- broad large-cap blend equity exposure,
- high stock allocation,
- good liquidity,
- ultra-low fees, and
- long operating history
focuses the screen on exactly those types of widely used, high-quality core ETFs that professional analysts, financial planners, and long-term investors commonly consider when answering this kind of open-ended question.
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.