AADR: 4th Quarter 2021 Portfolio Review
Strategy
Performance
International equities provided a tale of two markets in 2021. On the one hand, the MSCI EAFE TR Index, a popular proxy for Developed Markets, posted respectable returns of 11.78%, while the MSCI Emerging Markets TR Index was down -2.22%. This stood in contrast to 2020’s performance where we saw Emerging Markets outperform Developed Markets by over 10%. This type of trend reversal typically doesn’t bode well for momentum strategies, but AADR was able to hold its own and end the year up 6.76% vs. 7.82% for the MSCI All Country World ex-US TR Index. Q4 saw performance marginally below the MSCI All Country World ex-US Index (1.63% vs. 1.82%) and performance was again mostly dominated by Developed Markets with the United Kingdom providing 1.79% of the return. One bright spot in the Emerging Markets for the quarter was India which added 1.01%. Unfortunately, this was roughly cancelled out by dismal performance in Chinese equities which have since rotated completely out of the portfolio.
Holdings
The portfolio continues to be allocated to securities that we believe to display favorable relative strength characteristics. At any given time, the portfolio will be comprised of 30-40 US traded ADR’s from our universe of 300-450 ADR’s. Currently, the portfolio consists of 37 securities with weights ranging from ~1% to ~6.0% with the top 10 holdings comprising roughly 39% of the portfolio. Bicycle Therapeutics was the best performing stock for the quarter (+46.36%), closely followed by Indian stock Tata Motors (+43.2%) and these performances helped mitigate some of the declines seen in other areas.
Top 10 Holdings
| Ticker | Security Description | Portfolio Weight % |
| ASML | ASML HOLDING NV-NY REG SHS | 6.42% |
| LVMUY | LVMH MOET HENNESSY-UNSP ADR | 4.52% |
| DAC | DANAOS CORP | 4.51% |
| TTM | TATA MOTORS LTD-SPON ADR | 3.79% |
| ERJ | EMBRAER SA-SPON ADR | 3.72% |
| BCYC | BICYCLE THERAPEUTICS PLC-ADR | 3.60% |
| BNTX | BIONTECH SE-ADR | 3.20% |
| TX | TERNIUM SA-SPONSORED ADR | 3.12% |
| NXPI | NXP SEMICONDUCTORS NV | 3.08% |
| IBN | ICICI BANK LTD-SPON ADR | 2.96% |
As of 12.31.2021.
Geography
The portfolio’s process of focusing on sectors and the strength of holdings allows the portfolio to look much different than the broad market benchmark. The current allocation though is much closer to the benchmark’s allocation when comparing Developed vs. Emerging Market Exposure. This is largely due to the positive relative performance of Developed Markets over the last year as mentioned before as the strategy seeks to rotate into strength. The portfolio currently stands at 65% Developed vs. 35% Emerging (up from 52% Developed vs. 47% Emerging split at the beginning of Q4 2021). The country allocations, though, are substantially different. As can be seen below, AADR holds no exposure to Japan, China, Canada, Taiwan, or Australia which are all substantial weights in the benchmark.
As of 12.31.20201.
Sector
The buy/sell process of the strategy starts with a look at the strongest sectors within the universe, overweighting strength and underweighting or eliminating relative weakness. The portfolio continues to be actively allocated to sectors in a materially different way than the benchmark. Notably, the portfolio is most overweight in Health Care, Industrials, and Energy while most underweight in Consumer Staples, Information Technology, Utilities and Financials.
As of 12.31.2021.
Respectfully,
John G. Lewis
Nasdaq Dorsey Wright
AdvisorShares Dorsey Wright ADR ETF (AADR) Portfolio Manager
Past Manager Commentary
Before investing you should carefully consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information is in the prospectus, a copy of which may be obtained by visiting www.advisorshares.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest. Foreside Fund Services, LLC, distributor. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. An investment in the Fund is subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal amount invested. Emerging Markets, which consist of countries or markets with low to middle income economics can be subject to greater social, economic, regulatory and political uncertainties and can be extremely volatile. Other Fund risks include concentration risk, foreign securities and currency risk, ADRs which may be less liquid, large-cap risk, early closing risk, counterparty risk and trading risk, which can increase Fund expenses and may decrease Fund performance. The Fund is, also, subject to the same risks associated with the underlying ETFs, which can result in higher volatility. This Fund may not be suitable for all investors. See prospectus for detail regarding risk. Shares are bought and sold at market price (closing price) not NAV and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. Market price returns are based on the midpoint of the bid/ask spread at 4:00 pm Eastern Time (when NAV is normally determined), and do not represent the return you would receive if you traded at other times. Holdings and allocations are subject to risks and to change. The views in this commentary are those of the portfolio manager and may not reflect his views on the date this material is distributed or anytime thereafter. These views are intended to assist shareholders in understanding their investments and do not constitute investment advice.