Hoshang Daroga: Not all ETFs are created equal

Over the past decade, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have come a long way. Originally just a simple way to track a market, they can now track a broad range of indices using alternative - non-capitalisation - weighting schemes.  More active in nature, this next generation of funds are more popularly known as ‘smart beta ETFs'. Smart beta is a broad term used to describe ETFs that track indices in which securities are not weighted based on market capitalisation.  Instead the weighting scheme is based on certain characteristics known as ‘factors', such as size, value, quality, volatility, mom...