Here’s what we hang our hat — ahem, jester cap — on…
All of our active fund managers came up through the ranks of Foolish investing at our parent company, The Motley Fool, LLC, and embrace the same core tenets of stock analysis.
While The Motley Fool, LLC delivers the Foolish philosophy through its web content, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium stock recommendation services, we at Motley Fool Asset Management deliver the Foolish philosophy through our ETF products.
But we aren’t just picking an independent collection of stocks – we’re creating diversified portfolios with companies that we find to complement each other, and that we believe should outperform in the long-run.
We’re not buying stocks. We’re becoming business owners.
The stocks in our funds are intended to be held for multi-year periods, not just a few days, weeks, or months. We believe holding stocks for longer periods greatly increases the chances of positive returns while minimizing volatility.
Time in the market is better than timing the market.
While good timing can potentially lead to great returns, we’ve yet to see any investors time the market consistently over any substantial time horizon.
In the battle between Growth and Value, Quality is king.
Our definition of a Quality company eschews hard-and-fast rules in favor of analysis that can take both qualitative and quantitative factors into account.
Companies that are improving the world can often do the same for our portfolios.
We seek opportunities to invest in companies that we believe are making the world a better place for not just their stakeholders, but for their customers, communities, and environments too.
What does it mean to be Motley?
Very little can be described as truly “Motley”... it’s OUR strongest advantage.
- We’ve assembled Fools with diverse backgrounds, prior experience, and analytical methods.
- We combine fundamental quantitative analysis with qualitative factors like management, culture, and trajectory.
- Our holistic approach puts Quality above all.
Discover our Active ETFs
TMFS
Motley Fool Small-Cap Growth ETF: Provides exposure to high-quality U.S. small-cap companies that we believe are under the radar or underappreciated.
TMFM
Motley Fool Mid-Cap Growth ETF: Get exposure to faster-growing mid-cap U.S. companies with a history of revenue traction that we find are currently in the growth phase of their lifecycle.
TMFG
Motley Fool Global Opportunities ETF: Actively targets sustainable growth anywhere in the world, and harnesses the power of geographic diversification.
Let's take a look at our Quality framework
Our Portfolio Managers created a rigorous stock evaluation process built on a Quality framework, which we apply to each and every company we hold.
Make no mistake! “Quality” may seem like a broad term. But we’ve made it mean something very specific. Every stock included in an active fund has what we believe to be:
- An excellent management team and thriving corporate culture
- Strong, scalable business models
- Advantages over their competitors
- Strong growth potential over a span of several years
Notice, this is not a checklist; it is a qualitative analysis framework through which we can whittle down the nearly 4,000 publicly traded companies in which we might invest to just the hundred or so in which we do.
What makes our active funds so Foolish?
Concentrated Holdings
There’s no reversion to mean here! Only our highest conviction stocks are included in our active products (generally 35-45 holdings per fund). This allows each individual company to contribute meaningfully to performance.
High Active Share
The numbers don’t lie. Active share measures the percentage of stocks in a portfolio that deviates from the benchmark index. The range is from zero to 100 – where zero indicates that the portfolio holdings mirror the benchmark index and 100 indicates they have no holdings in common with their benchmark.
So, the higher the active share of an ETF, the more unique stocks it contains. Our actively managed ETFs typically have an active share over 90.* We wear that score as a badge of honor. Our goal isn’t to find companies that mimic the S&P 500. Instead, we seek those that may be under the radar or under-appreciated, in alignment with our Foolish values of uniqueness and independent thinking.
Adding ETFs with a high active share to your portfolio could help you outperform the generic market indexes over the long-term, while complementing your more passive strategies.
Low Turnover
We own businesses because we believe they have competitive advantages, and until they prove otherwise, we’ll keep owning them. Our goal is to determine which companies may have the staying power to deliver outsize returns in the long-term, therefore, we aim to hold equities over multi-year spans.
Transparency
Transparency is built into the fabric of ETFs. Unlike mutual funds which only report their holdings monthly or quarterly, ETFs disclose their holdings every single trading day – making it much easier to access information about a fund’s exposure to different geographies, sectors, industries, and individual stocks.
We’re proud to share our high-conviction stocks with you on a daily basis, because we believe in their potential to beat the market long-term. But we aren’t day traders. Transparency is more than just knowing where your money is going when you own an ETF – it’s knowing why our Portfolio Managers pick stocks that we’re willing to hold onto for years. And our “why” is in the Quality framework we use to vet every company we buy.
Some ETFs claim to have a “secret sauce.” Our strategy may have a unique flavor, but it’s no secret. Dive into TMFS, TMFM, and TMFG to discover the ins and outs of our approach with each fund.
Get to know our team of investors
Bryan Hinmon, CFA®Chief Investment Officer
Bryan is responsible for leading the investment team, while managing the firm's total assets.
Tony Arsta, CFA®Portfolio Manager
Tony serves as Lead Portfolio Manager on Motley Fool Global Opportunities (TMFG) with a focus on statistical analysis and investor psychology.
Jeremy Myers, CFA®Portfolio Manager
Jeremy generates ideas and conducts analysis for all three Motley Fool Asset Management active ETFs.
Michael Olsen, CFA®Portfolio Manager
Michael focuses on dividend-oriented stocks, small-cap companies, and international equities.
Charly TraversPortfolio Manager
Charly manages Motley Fool Small-Cap Growth (TMFS) and our three passive funds (TMFC, TMFX, TMFE).
Nate Weisshaar, CFA®Portfolio Manager
Nate works as Lead Portfolio Manager for the Small-Cap Growth Fund (TMFS) and specializes in international and banking stocks.
Shelby McFaddin, CFA® Investment Analyst
Shelby conducts deep-dive research into specific companies under consideration for Motley Fool Asset Management funds.
Ben WongInvestment Analyst
Ben conducts deep-dive research into specific companies under consideration for Motley Fool Asset Management funds.
