ETF pages, model portfolios, and the portfolio builder

Start from the ETF hubs

If you're new to ETFs: a ticker (SPY, VFV, etc.) is the symbol for a fund on an exchange. Our write-ups describe what each fund does. They are educational only, not a recommendation to buy or sell anything.

The ETF hubs list every fund we've written up with live price history. US ETFs covers US-listed names on both editions. CA ETFs covers Canadian-listed funds on the Canadian edition. Use CA ETFs when you care about Canadian-listed products and quotes; use US ETFs when you hold or research US-listed funds (many investors use both).

Each page covers what the fund does, who runs it, and when it tends to earn, plus a total-return chart you can switch across time ranges. Letter grades summarize capital efficiency or return-stacking; tooltips on each page explain how they're calculated. Footnotes flag when history is extended with a modeled proxy.

Use sample portfolios as templates

The model portfolios section is the fastest way to see a full mix: each live portfolio page shows each holding's weight, a chart versus the S&P500 index, and a holdings table you can read next to the ETF pages.

Portfolio Builder

Open the portfolio builder. Add one row per position, choose tickers from the dropdown, and enter allocation percentages. Optional filters narrow the list by efficiency grade if you want to stay in that framework.

Once the percentages add to 100%, hit the Generate button and the tool draws a portfolio chart: switch time ranges, compare your line to the benchmark, and read total return and drawdown for the period. Try small changes (fewer funds, different weights) to see how sensitive the modeled outcome is.

How backtests are built

Many funds we cover launched recently, so their own price history is short. To show a longer chart, we extend the history with a proxy. Our proxy is not a simulated or synthetic return stream. It is a real, older ETF in the same category, the next-best fund an investor could actually have held before the newer one existed.

For example, a managed-futures fund launched in 2024 might be extended with an established managed-futures ETF that has traded since 2019. The pre-launch part of the line is that older fund's actual total return, picked because it is the closest match in the same strategy. When a chart uses a proxy, the page says so in a footnote.

This keeps the backtest honest, but it is not perfect. The proxy and the newer fund differ in fees, exact holdings, and leverage, so the older segment shows what the strategy did, not what this specific fund would have done. Once a fund has enough live history, it stands on its own and the proxy drops away.

Limitations

Charts are backtests and live history, not forecasts. They ignore taxes, transaction costs, rebalancing friction, and funding costs except where explicitly modeled in footnotes. Leveraged and alternative funds can fail or change behavior in ways history doesn't capture. Use the builder to clarify trade-offs, not to predict outcomes.