Emerging Markets Saved the Week

Eight of our holdings rose and six fell, and REQT ended the week +0.06%.

Monday and Tuesday both went the wrong way, Tuesday the worst of them at −0.76%, and by the halfway point we were properly down for the week. Then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all came back the other way, Thursday doing most of the repair at +0.93%. Three sessions up at three against two down, and the two halves of the week almost exactly offset.

The U.S. holdings were the drag, and one fund was most of it. FCUV fell −1.54% over the five sessions and took −0.15% out, the biggest hole on the sheet by a distance. FCMO, the momentum half of the same pair, went the other way at +0.60% and put +0.06% back. Same weight, same region, opposite directions, and the value side moved much further, so the pair didn't cancel this time. Add ZSP at −0.41% on top and the sleeve returned −0.43% and cost −0.17%, which on 40% of the model is the whole reason we didn't finish green by more. ZEM was the offset. Up +2.03%, worth +0.10%, the best line we had, and it's one of the smaller slices we hold. That's what carried International to +0.87% and +0.17%.

Value was the better side in Canada only, where FCCV beat FCCM by +0.62%. The U.S. gap at −2.14% is wide enough that it drags the average to −0.60% on its own. We hold momentum and value at equal weight inside every region, no lean toward either, so a gap like that shows up as one fund's loss and the other fund's gain sitting next to each other rather than as anything in our return. It tells you what the market paid for last week. Not what we earned.

Innovation did almost nothing, −0.07% on the sleeve and −0.01% of contribution, with FINN at −0.55% and ORBX at +0.41% pulling against each other again. After the last few weeks we'll take it. Canada was quietly fine at +0.33%, mostly FCCV at +1.00%.

We came out ahead of six of the eight all-in-one funds, with GEQT well clear of everyone at +0.64% and CAGE the other one in front of us at +0.12%. FEQT was at the back with −0.26%. Normally Innovation is what puts space between us and that group in either direction, since none of them hold global innovators or space technology, and this week that sleeve was too quiet to do anything. So the gap is really ZEM and our U.S. value fund arguing with each other. Total absolute contribution across the sheet was +0.63%, more than the headline suggests but not a big week.

Year to date REQT sits at +18.96% and the trailing year is +27.06%. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you after next Friday's close.