Investing Philosophy
Reimagining Indexing for
Long-Term Wealth Creation
We believe in the power of indexing to drive investor prosperity—but we do it differently. Grounded in fundamental analysis, our philosophy emphasizes disciplined, transparent equity ownership in the world’s most productive companies, helping investors harness the engines of enterprise, innovation, and human progress.
We believe in the power of indexing to build long-term investor wealth—but we don’t believe all indexes are created equal. MarketGrader reimagines indexing by grounding it in fundamentals. Instead of simply mirroring the market, our custom indexes apply a disciplined, rules-based methodology that systematically selects the companies best positioned to create long-term shareholder value. By emphasizing sustainable growth, profitability, valuation, and cash flow, our approach helps investors harness the benefits of indexing—broad exposure, scalability, transparency—while aiming to outperform traditional benchmarks over full market cycles.
The companies that consistently create long-term shareholder value are those that generate real, durable economic value. At MarketGrader, we believe this value creation is not random—it can be identified systematically. Our approach is rooted in the conviction that key fundamental attributes—growth, profitability, cash flow, and reasonable valuations—are the primary drivers of sustainable equity returns. By evaluating all public companies through a disciplined, evidence-based lens, we isolate the businesses that demonstrate financial strength, operational efficiency, and prudent capital allocation—hallmarks of true long-term wealth creators.
We believe that equities are the most powerful engine for long-term wealth creation. More than just financial assets, they represent ownership in the world’s most innovative and value-creating businesses. By allocating capital to high-quality companies, investors become participants in global progress—sharing in the prosperity generated by entrepreneurship, innovation, and free enterprise. MarketGrader indexes are designed to facilitate this ownership by identifying the companies best positioned to create enduring value over time.
Our Take on Smart Beta
Enter Smart Beta
The term “smart beta” was coined by consultants at Willis Towers Watson in 2006 to describe index strategies that depart from traditional market‑capitalization weighting and instead apply rules‑based weighting or selection schemes. The label became popular in the 2000s among industry practitioners and academics who sought to combine the systematic nature of indexing with the intentional design of active strategies. Initially, it described indexes that aimed to improve upon market-cap weighting by rebalancing exposure around alternative factors like value, momentum, quality, or low volatility.
Over time, however, the label “smart beta” became a catch-all category, used by asset managers to describe virtually any non-traditional index, regardless of rigor, transparency, or repeatability. The original promise of bringing discipline and structure to fundamental investing became muddled by inconsistent methodologies and performance outcomes.
Still, the demand for smart beta solutions has surged. According to BlackRock, global smart beta ETF assets totaled over $1.4 trillion as of Q1 2025, reflecting more than a 5x increase over the past decade.6 Investors continue to seek cost-effective strategies that aim to improve on traditional benchmarks without reverting to the pitfalls of discretionary stock picking.
Where MarketGrader Fits
MarketGrader occupies a deliberate and disciplined space between pure passive indexing and discretionary active management. We embrace the core principles of indexing—broad market participation, transparency, and scalability—while rejecting the notion that investors must accept every company in the index, regardless of merit.
Every MarketGrader Index is built on a globally consistent, fundamentals-first methodology that evaluates 41,000 public companies daily across 24 key indicators of Growth, Value, Profitability, and Cash Flow. This allows us to construct indexes that harness the return potential of global equity markets while tilting systematically toward companies that are fundamentally superior.
In this way, we preserve what indexing gets right and fix what it gets wrong—offering investors a smarter foundation on which to build wealth.
How the MarketGrader Indexes Straddle Passive & Active Investing
Data sources:
1. Morningstar Direct. “Passive Funds Surpass Active in Assets.” Data as of December 31, 2023.
2. Research Affiliates. “The Impact of Passive Investing on Market Efficiency.” July 2023.
3. Visual Capitalist. ‘Visualized: The Rising Concentration of the S&P 500.” May 22, 2025.
4. S&P Dow Jones Indices. SPIVA® U.S. Scorecard, Year-End 2024.
5. Apollo Academy. “The Myth of Active Outperformance.” June 2024.
6. BlackRock. “Smart Beta ETF Industry Review.” Q1 2025.
From Research to Portfolio Implementation
Our research philosophy is not theoretical—it powers over 80 smart beta indexes used across ETFs, SMAs, and institutional portfolios worldwide.
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