"Can you recommend some non-traditional mutual funds or ETFs? I'm looking for something that deviates from the usual market capitalization/value-growth funds that dominate the available offerings."
Behold our two favorite ETFs...
Direxion All Cap Insider Sentiment Shares ETF (Ticker: KNOW)
Profile: This fund holds a portfolio of 100 stocks that reflect positive sentiment among “insiders” closest to a company’s financials and business prospects such as top management, directors, large institutional holders, and the Wall Street analysts who closely follow the company
Put simply: If people close to the company are buying shares in the company, this fund buys them too
Why this fund? One of the most prevalent concerns in today’s markets are that stocks are too expensive and all of the “smart money” (a.k.a. hedge funds and insiders) are selling their shares to get out before the markets decline. This helps to manage that risk by only buying securities that insiders are [legally] buying, all while diversifying across 100 stocks. It’s also important to note that companies are only eligible to appear in this fund’s portfolio if they are members of the S&P 1500 Index (so you don’t have to worry about insiders of micro-cap companies buying up their stock to appear in this ETF)
Market Vectors Wide Moat ETF (Ticker: MOAT)
Profile: This fund invests in companies that are considered to have wide economic moats. The term “economic moat” was coined by Warren Buffett and states that the wider the company’s economic moat, the larger and more sustainable the competitive advantage. By having a well-known brand name, pricing power, and a large portion of market demand, a company with a wide moat possesses characteristics that act as barriers against other companies wanting to enter into the industry
Put simply: Wide moat companies are able to sustain higher profits for longer and historically outperform their peers in bear markets
Why this fund? In today’s markets, you want to invest in rock-solid companies that are least susceptible to major profit/revenue loss in recessionary periods. Wide moat companies fit the bill because they are more or less essential components of their markets, sectors, and/or industries