ETF Investors Are Preparing for an Economic Slowdown

  • Selling value funds is sign of late cycle trading activity
  • Vanguard, iShares value ETFs are seeing heavy volume this week
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Value stocks were supposed to have a stellar year. Instead they’re bleeding assets, which could portend dangerous times ahead for the stock market.

An index tracking a market-neutral value strategy, which picks shares that are cheap relative to the underlying company’s assets, is trading at its lowest level since 2013 and is on pace for a third consecutive month of declines. A couple of value-focused exchange-traded funds absorbed big block sales on Tuesday, boosting trading volumes for the ETFs.