The Global Size & Style channel is the comprehensive starting point for navigating the entire global equity landscape. This channel brings together strategies that provide a truly “all-cap, all-world” view. By combining various regional exposures and cap-size segments, this channel provides the framework to segment the total global market into precise, actionable investment blocks.
At ETF Action, we move beyond simple labels. This channel is powered by a multi-faceted classification system designed to provide transparency into how every global strategy is built and managed. While our foundational architecture is consistent across all channels, the fields here are specifically tailored to the nuances of the Global universe.
The “What”: Defining the Sandbox
Global Size & Style ETFs focus on the total global equity market. To be included in this channel, a strategy must have a stated mandate to invest across all markets, maintaining material exposure to both U.S. and International stocks.
The primary distinction between this channel and our Global Ex-U.S. channel is the inclusion of the United States; while Global Ex-U.S. focuses purely on international markets, the Global channel provides a unified view of the entire worldwide opportunity set. These funds are designed to offer a “one-stop” solution for total global equity allocation.
The “How”: Three Paths to Navigation
While our tools allow you to filter, group, or sort by any field to align with your own proprietary process, we generally see users navigate the Global channel through three primary paths:
Path 1: Traditional Size & Style (The Global Categories)
For investors looking for standard building blocks, the Category filter is your primary tool. This groups funds into the traditional grid including:
- Global Large Cap – Blend
- Global Large Cap – Value
- Global Large Cap – Growth
- Global Small | Mid Cap
- The Reality of the Grid: Traditional global categories are essential for institutional benchmarking and creating clean datasets for ratings, flows, and peer analysis. However, it is important to note that a large number of funds—whether by intentional strategy design or the natural evolution of their holdings—do not align neatly with these standard groupings.
- Use Case: Building a “world” core allocation or benchmarking a global multi-cap manager against their style-specific peer group.
Path 2: Advanced Factors (Market, Segment, Strategy & Selection)
For those seeking more specific solutions, we recommend starting with the Market (Development) and Segment to define your universe, then applying Strategy and Selection filters.
1. Define Your Universe (Market & Segment) Global investing usually begins with a decision on economic scope and capitalization:
- Market (Development): Highlighting the broad economic scope. This includes Global (U.S. + International), Developed (U.S. + Dev Ex-U.S.), and Emerging (Emerging markets only).
- Segment: We use broad groupings to solve for overlapping cap-size mandates:
- Total Market: Captures strategies focusing across all market capitalizations globally.
- Extended Market: Groups global Mid and Small cap strategies together.
2. Identify the Objective (Strategy & Selection) Once the segment is set, these two fields work together to define the “how” of the fund:
- Strategy: The broadest grouping level: Beta, Factor, Tactical, or Specialty.
- Selection: Refines the Strategy to show exactly how securities are chosen:
- Beta: Identical to Strategy; the goal is to track a broad market cap index.
- Factor: Identifies equity drivers like Dividends, Momentum, Quality, Growth, Value, or Multi-Factor.
- Tactical: Highlights dynamic moves like Sector/Factor Rotation or a Cash Toggle (de-risking into cash).
- Specialty: Captures sophisticated equity mandates including Hedged Equity or Long | Short.
Path 3: Strategy Isolation (The Technical Filters)
Once you have defined your broad sandbox, use our secondary classification fields to isolate specific types of strategies:
- Discipline: Filter for Active vs. Passive to compare managers side-by-side.
- Group: Identify unique structural exposures such as Ex-U.S. strategies, Ex-China, Ex-SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises), or Recent IPOs.
- ESG Flag: Quickly identify funds with a stated objective to screen for ESG criteria.
- Implementation: Distinguish between standard Market Cap weighting and Equal Weighted or proprietary Scored methodologies.
Your Process, Your Navigator
The real power of the ETF Action classification system is its flexibility in how you consume global data. You can interact with the data in two primary ways:
- Specific Database Searches (Filtering): Use the filtering pane to isolate a “qualified shortlist” of funds. Example: Filter for Market (Development): Global and Strategy: Factor to see all global smart-beta strategies.
- Broad Navigation & Monitoring (Grouping): Use the Navigator tool to build custom dashboards. You can Filter on a broad field and then Group by another (e.g., Group by Segment) to see aggregated stats and flows.
Proprietary Benchmarking & ETF Proxies Every custom view remains anchored by our proprietary benchmarking. To ensure these tools remain accessible and free for our users, we utilize ETF Proxies rather than expensive licensed indices:
- Risk Benchmark: We use ACWI (iShares MSCI ACWI ETF) as the universal yardstick for total global risk.
- Beta Tracker (Best Fit): Because this channel is dedicated to funds with a mandate to invest across all markets, the primary Beta Tracker for the Global channel is ACWI. This provides an immediate characteristic and performance comparison against the total global opportunity set.
Ready to start screening?
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