ALPS Barron's 400 ETF

ALPS Barron's 400 ETF (BFOR) tracks the Barron's 400 Index: 400 U.S. stocks that MarketGrader picks for strong growth, value, profitability and cash flow, then holds in equal amounts. Equal weighting spreads money across large, mid-size and smaller companies, so the top 10 holdings were only 5.34% of assets as of May 31, 2026. The drawback is cost. Its 0.65% expense ratio ranked last of nine similar funds compared, where the average was 0.26%.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, BFOR returned +15.5%, 3rd of 9 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +10.0% and its 10-year +12.7%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 38.3% and regained its old high 4.7 months after the low.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-15.9%); its best was 2021 (+30.7%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 41.3% (Aug 29, 2018 to Mar 23, 2020), recovered by Nov 9, 2020.

As of May 31, 2026, the fund held 397 securities; the ten largest made up 5.34% of assets.

• Over the three months to May 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $2.1M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -5.26%, +7.14%, +1.61%.

BFOR is an index fund. It aims to match the Barron's 400 Index (ticker B400) before fees and expenses, and it must keep at least 80% of its total assets in the index's stocks. The index provider, MarketGrader Capital, LLC, starts with its U.S. Coverage Universe. It scores companies on their fundamentals, meaning the numbers behind the business, in four areas: growth, value, profitability and cash flow. It then screens the top candidates for concentration, market capitalization (a company's stock market value) and liquidity (how easily shares trade), and ends up with about 400 stocks.

Most index funds give bigger companies bigger weights. This one gives each stock an equal weight at every rebalance, so a smaller company counts about as much as a large one. As of May 31, 2026, the fund held 397 stocks. The largest were Dell Technologies (0.64%), Advanced Micro Devices (0.62%) and Sandisk (0.59%), followed by Marvell Technology, Seagate and Micron.

The index rebalances twice a year, on the third Friday of March and September. Between those dates, stocks that rise drift above an equal weight. The prospectus filed March 30, 2026 lists portfolio turnover of 93%, which means heavy trading, and those trading costs are not part of the expense ratio. The fund is passive: it won't sell a struggling company unless the index drops it. It used no leverage or derivatives as of May 31, 2026.

• BFOR charges 0.65% a year, versus an average of 0.26% for the similar funds below (9th of 9, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $66 in the first year and $810 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It is an all-stock fund with a heavy tilt toward mid-size and smaller companies and a high fee for an index fund, so it fits better beside a core holding than as one.

BFOR could add a broad, equal-weighted mix of U.S. companies of many sizes to the stock side of a portfolio. It has also fallen hard. In the 2020 COVID crash it dropped 38.3% between February 20 and March 23, 2020, then took about 4.7 months to recover. In the 2022 bear market it fell 25% and needed about 16 months to regain its peak, which it did in January 2024. Its deepest drop was 41.3%, from August 2018 to March 2020. Its worst calendar year was 2022, at −15.85%. It launched in 2013, so it has no record from 2008. Anyone forced to sell during a slump like these would lock in losses.

Income is small. The yield was 0.52% as of October 27, 2026, and the fund pays once a year. Under the SEC's standard $10,000 example, costs come to $66 after one year and $810 over 10 years. Past results don't predict future ones, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports.