Low Volatility vs High Beta

One of the things I love doing is comparing different sector performance against each other.  With the advent of ETF's this is so easy to do and interesting.  One of my favorite pairs is the S&P Low Volatility(SPLV) & High Beta(SPHB) ETF.


Most the year SPLV outperformed SPHB. In essence low growth, stable industries, and consistent dividend payers were doing quite well all the way through Brexit versus their more volatilie, cyclical oriented peers. Here is January-June





Then in July the switch flipped. High Beta was back in vogue as investors clamored back into the shares. In fact the out-performance has been quite notable. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year pans out. Here is July-Sept 16.