Hello! This week’s ETF wrap looks at the so-called human capital factor and how one firm is approaching it as a measure of corporate culture that influences equity performance. Meanwhile, actively-managed exchange-traded funds have been attracting a higher percentage of overall ETF flows than usual, according to CFRA Research. Please send feedback and tips to christine.idzelis@marketwatch.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at @cidzelis and find me on LinkedIn.
Sign up here for our weekly ETF Wrap. Human capital is a factor that can be scored to potentially drive gains in the stock market, according to Harbor Capital Advisors. People are the most important assets at companies, said Kristof Gleich, president and chief investment officer of Harbor Capital Advisors, in a phone interview. “Ultimately it’s the quality of the people” and how they work together that “delivers value for clients and for the firm.” The Harbor Corporate Culture ETF
HAPI,
+0.95%,
which launched in October, has gained 3.7% this year through Wednesday, according to FactSet data. That surpasses the S&P 500’s rise, with shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
SPY,
+0.78%
up 3.2% over the same period. Harbor, which also has a Harbor Corporate Culture Leaders ETF
HAPY,
+1.84%,
plans to launch additional ETFs around the “human-capital” factor, according to Gleich. Harbor has partnered with Irrational Capital, co-founded by behavioral economist Dan Ariely, to design ETFs that invest in stocks based on the ranking of their human-capital factor. The idea is that “businesses that do the best job of investing in their people and creatin …