it seems that excel is what many are using now for screening and backtesting. i am still unlcear if it's the best choice, but it seems to be the most customizable. if anyone reads this and has some extensive knowledge using excel for etf rotation feel free to comment.
I would not mind having to review a couple of times per year the ETFs that I include/exclude from my investment activities. That's a small price to pay.
I agree with you, but I meant my broker does not supply an updated ETF list so I have to do this myself by pasting in almost 4000 symbols every 6 mos. Long process.
I agree that that sounds like quite a lot of work. I would investigate how much of that I could automate. For example by scraping the information from the internet.
I don't see why you would bother with the entire ETF universe. You quickly get into illiquid junk when you start breaking down all the available ETFs. My current basket is about 50 and that covers a whole lot of ground and the world. US Equity I don't bother with sectors because it just isn't that hard to replicate a sector returns with common stock directly. If using Excel it is easy to make a heatmap of returns with conditional formatting.
%% 20% of 4,000 could work well; especially when they close an ETF, could be an expensive lesson. Dont regret trading IBUY or excluding it now. cute name + downsloping volume is a good exclusion....... Dont regret doing my cash metals business also. WSJ + IBD have paper good ETFs lists
As many on this site knows, I will buy ETFs then do covered calls. Many may be way out of the money...Just for extra income. If it gets called away I may get (example); 5-7% profit, 2% from the option, and maybe 2-3% dividend. It it doesn't get called away, I still have; the EFT, option money, and the dividend. Just how I work (some) of my ETFs...