This month’s ETF First Cut seeks out international stock funds that have a consistent history of outperforming their peer group.

There are over 480 international stock exchange-traded funds in the AAII universe of ETFs. The first filter excluded the 49 world ETFs that invest in both domestic and international stocks. The screen then focused on consistent performance by requiring above-average one-, three- and five-year returns relative to their peers in each international ETF category. To help take costs into consideration, the screen required that the ETF’s expense ratio be below average for the category. ETFs designated as leveraged or inverse were excluded. ETFs in the miscellaneous region category were also excluded, as their returns may not be comparable within the category.

The final filter required minimum total assets of $25 million and average daily trading volume of at least 5,000 shares. In total, 27 ETFs passed all of the filters, and they are grouped by their international category and ranked by their one-year return. The passing table also lists the ETF’s category risk index, which relates an ETF’s volatility over the last three years to the average volatility of ETFs in the same category. ETFs with a category risk index of 1.00 had average volatility within the category. ?

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