Launched on 01/21/2020, the Counterpoint High Yield Trend ETF (HYTR) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the High-Yield/Junk Bond ETFs category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
Market cap weighted indexes were created to reflect the market, or a specific segment of the market, and the ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on this strategy.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta.
These indexes attempt to select stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance, based on certain fundamental characteristics or a combination of such characteristics.
While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is sponsored by Counterpoint. It has amassed assets over $280.49 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the High-Yield/Junk Bond ETFs. This particular fund, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the CP HIGH YIELD TREND INDEX .
The CP High Yield Trend Index seeks to provide exposure to the US high yield corporate bond market while reducing risk in times of market turbulence.
Cost & Other Expenses
For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for HYTR are 0.79%, which makes it one of the most expensive products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 5.74%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
Taking into account individual holdings, Ishares Broad Us (USHY) accounts for about 39.78% of the fund's total assets, followed by Spdr Bloomberg H (JNK) and Ishares Iboxx Hi (HYG).
Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 100% of HYTR's total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, HYTR return is roughly 0.47%, and is up about 4.08% in the last one year (as of 07/14/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $21.19 and $22.03.
The fund has a beta of 0.23 and standard deviation of 5.08% for the trailing three-year period. With about 5 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers .
Alternatives
Counterpoint High Yield Trend ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the High-Yield/Junk Bond ETFs segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) tracks Markit iBoxx USD Liquid High Yield Index and the iShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (USHY) tracks BofA Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Constrained Index. iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF has $16.85 billion in assets, iShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF has $28.65 billion. HYG has an expense ratio of 0.49% and USHY changes 0.08%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the High-Yield/Junk Bond ETFs
Bottom Line
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Counterpoint High Yield Trend ETF (HYTR): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).