iShares Russell 2000 Value Index (ETF) (IWN)

Over the long haul, it's tough to beat small cap value

Time to go long micro-cap. It should be a part of anybody's allocation anyway, particularly those with a long time horizon. I am only slightly trying to time this one. I may still be early, but it's time to pull the trigger and get set up for the future run up.

Small-cap value = superior long-term performance.

I've owned shares for a couple of years now. IWN lost value at about half the rate of my other funds, and turned around quicker into the gainers group. It has been fairly consistent at gaining value over term, with more up days than down. No swift excitement here; but no huge upset either.

Has stayed strong in the past year despite down turn in market and higher than when the market popped last November.

3 to 5 star stock in one year.

hoping for a rebound

Small caps are down, but long term should out-peform the S&P. Nice index to save you from hours of digging into individual company financials.

value in january will send this way up

Now's a good time to get in super long term. Actually, I might be a little early considering the financial unknown here, but the current state of financials makes this more of a value play than ever. Long term S&P stomper.

iShares Russell 2000 Value Index Fund primarily invest in the small capitalization value sector of the U.S equity markets and is a subset of the Russell 2000 index, accounting for approximately 50% of the same. The selection criteria would be in the form of stocks that have low price to book ratios and lower forecasted growth. With total net assets worth $4.5 billion, it has a price to book multiple of 2.25.

The past performance of the fund has been good with average annualized return of 15.14% for the past five years. It has generated impressive returns managing to out perform majority of its competitors. It owes its success to the significant stake of about 10% in Real Estate Investment Trust. More than one third of the corpus is invested in the financial services, sending mixed signals with real estate prices cooling on one side and interest rates reviving on the other. With less exposure to the traditional banking, investment banking, asset management and brokerage business and more exposure on real estate makes the funds return uncertain. Consumer discretionary, materials and processing and utilities account for 17.5%, 9.67 and 7.03 respectively.

Outlook for the software and hard sub sector on the technology front looks neutral with expectations of reduced IT spending and increasing competition leading to pricing pressure. Exposure to healthcare and energy really adds confidence to the fund but would not make a big impact with its low weightage. The defensive nature of the consumer staples would help in times of slowing economy. The expense ratio for the fund is marginally higher due to reconstitution cost. Further it is more volatile that most of its traditional small cap peers and may fall short of expectations in 2007.

Over time, the Russell 2K has always outperformed the S&P 500. Why stop now?

The iShares Russell 2000 Value Index Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the small capitalization value sector of the U.S. equity market, as represented by the Russell 2000 Value Index. The index represents approximately 50% of the Russell 2000 Index.

A small cap ETF with a great history

what goes up......

This ETF is exactly the type of investment I love--impressive long term returns and less downside risk than growth.

Long Small Value

Small cap value rules!

The ETF of value investing. Betting against IWN is betting against value investing.