CWS ETF

CWS is an actively managed investment fund that follows the Crossing Wall Street "Buy List." Even though five stocks were replaced earlier this year, CWS still holds high-quality, expensive companies with average growth potential. Although I have a positive outlook on CWS, its past performance has consistently trailed behind IVV since its inception, with only occasional moments of success.

From 2006-2023, The Crossing Wall Street's "Buy List" beat the S&P 500 Index by 130%. In 2016, CWS launched, allowing investors the chance to benefit from the simple 25-stock ETF. But there are two catches. The first is how much CWS's 0.84% expense ratio diminishes returns. The second is how most of this outperformance was isolated to a single year. It's reasonable to question whether Eddy Elfenbein, Crossing Wall Street's founder, can generate alpha moving forward. Since the ETF's launch, it's lagged SPY by 0.73% per year.

CWS offers a unique, concentrated take on U.S.-listed equities; the strategy is essentially a variant of the buy-and-hold philosophy. CWS has a solid assemblage of high-quality stocks, sporting an adequate earnings yield; growth exposure is acceptable but hardly spectacular. CWS has underperformed the S&P 500 since the previous note, with MLR solidly contributing to its return and SCL significantly detracting from it.