MW This momentum fund has dodged U.S. stocks and trounced the competition
By Philip van Doorn
A momentum strategy can be especially useful for investors across varied markets
Financial advisers always tell their clients to diversify their portfolios. One important way for U.S. investors to diversify is to add exposure to other developed economies.
As an investor, what are you afraid of? We have seen some volatility this week - and the bounceback on Wednesday, following Tuesday's broad decline, may not seem unusual. But after several years of a U.S. bull market led by Big Tech, a long-term investor might be well served by diversifying beyond the concentrated U.S. stock market.
Over the past year, broad international stock indexes have outperformed the S&P 500 SPX. But you may have hesitated to add exposure to non-U.S. stocks in your portfolio. In case you think it is too late to do so, valuations for large-cap U.S. stocks are still high when compared with those in developed markets outside the U.S. And a momentum strategy might be an excellent way for you to invest in those markets.
Over the past year through Wednesday, the S&P 500 returned 15.1% with dividends reinvested, while the MSCI EAFE Index, adjusted for U.S. dollars, returned 31.1%, according to FactSet.
The S&P 500 is the large-cap U.S. benchmark. Like most broad stock indexes, it is weighted by market capitalization. This means the largest three companies in the index (Nvidia (NVDA), Apple $(AAPL)$ and Microsoft (MSFT)) make up 19.4% of the $685 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the index by holding all of its stocks. The S&P 500 is now 39.5% concentrated in its largest 10 companies, according to Ned Davis Research, which has compiled this data all the way back to 1972. Since then, the peak concentration for the index's top 10 companies was 41.3% at the end of October.
The MSCI EAFE Index is made up of 693 large-cap and midcap stocks across 21 developed markets, excluding the U.S. and Canada. It is tracked by the $70 billion iShares MSCI EAFE ETF EFA, which is 13.3% concentrated in its largest 10 holdings.
According to State Street, which manages the SPDR exchange-traded funds, SPY's trailing price/earnings ratio is 27.8. The trailing P/E for EFA is 19.5. While the figure for SPY is based on the past 12 months' reported earnings per share for component stocks, the trailing P/E for EFA is based on its component companies' most recently reported full fiscal years. But the methodologies are close enough to show a much higher valuation for the S&P 500.
Momentum approaches to investing in developed markets outside the U.S.
The Invesco S&P International Developed Momentum ETF IDMO tracks the S&P World Ex-U.S. Momentum Index, which currently includes 181 stocks. The index and the ETF are reconstituted and rebalanced twice a year, on the third Fridays of March and December. At those times, S&P Dow Jones Indices assigns momentum scores to stocks in the S&P World Ex-U.S. Index based on their percentage price changes over the previous 12 months, excluding the most recent month. The momentum scores are adjusted for volatility and then ranked, with the top 20% making up the S&P World Ex-U.S. Momentum Index.
When reconstituted, the component stocks in the index (and therefore IDMO) are weighted by multiplying their market caps by their momentum scores.
The fund has annual expenses of 0.25% of assets under management. This would make for an annual fee of $25 for a $10,000 investment.
It's a rather simple momentum strategy with a volatility component, and it has worked out well since IDMO's strategy was changed to its current one on March 18, 2016. From that date through Wednesday, IDMO returned 206.4% with any dividends reinvested, while EFA returned 132.6%, according to FactSet.
Back in November, this analysis of nine Invesco factor funds taking various approaches to narrowing down the S&P 500 showed that the momentum approach was the best performer across several periods.
Nick Kalivas, Invesco's head of factor strategy for ETFs, said during an interview with MarketWatch that "in the global perspective, there is more dispersion in return."
"In the U.S., people are comfortable with the S&P 500. When you go overseas, there are more choices and more countries," he said. Kalivas called the momentum strategy "a useful tool because of the vast differences in opportunities and choices overseas."
He added that the idea was "resonating" with Invesco's clients, with net inflows of $230 million into IDMO so far in 2026, bringing the fund's assets under management to $2.7 billion.
Performance comparison
Invesco cites the MSCI EAFE Index as a performance benchmark for IDMO. The following table shows IDMO's performance for various periods, along with that of EFA (which tracks that benchmark) and then five funds listed as IDMO peers by FactSet. Those five funds are sorted by average five-year total return.
ETF 1-year return through Jan. 21 Avg. 3-year return Avg. 5-year return Expense ratio Invesco S&P International Developed Momentum ETF 40.0% 23.5% 13.6% 0.25% iShares MSCI EAFE ETF 30.9% 15.4% 8.9% 0.32% Pacer Developed Markets International Cash Cows 100 ETF 39.4% 16.0% 10.0% 0.65% Invesco Dorsey Wright Developed Markets Momentum ETF 38.1% 21.9% 9.9% 0.80% Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta International Equity ETF 31.2% 15.7% 8.9% 0.25% iShares MSCI International Momentum Factor ETF 35.6% 19.5% 8.9% 0.30% iShares MSCI International Quality Factor ETF 24.8% 13.1% 7.8% 0.30% Source: FactSet
The return figures are net of fund expenses. The total return figures include reinvested dividends.
The IDMO strategy makes for high turnover when the fund's underlying index is refreshed every six months. But for investors concerned about taxable capital-gain distributions, Kalivas said that the ETF structure's tax advantages meant that it had never distributed a capital gain.
Top holdings of IDMO
Here are the largest 10 holdings of the Invesco S&P International Developed Momentum ETF:
Company Country % of IDMO portfolio HSBC Holdings PLC U.K. 3.7% Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC U.K. 3.6% Banco Santander S.A. Spain 3.0% Siemens Energy AG Germany 2.9% Rheinmetall AG Germany 2.7% Allianz SE Germany 2.6% British American Tobacco PLC U.K. 2.3% UniCredit S.p.A. Italy 2.2% Shopify Inc. Class A Canada 2.2% Toronto-Dominion Bank Canada 2.1% Source: FactSet
Click on the tickers for more about each company.
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-Philip van Doorn
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January 22, 2026 10:52 ET (15:52 GMT)
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