Two purchases (USMV, MVOL.L) and the ETF-of-the-Month spotlight plus its non-US equivalent (IQLT, IEQU) are Positive. Existing book holdings disclosed with their weights and purchase histories are Neutral — they are reported, not re-rated. ETFs get SA·STK research links (Qualtrim has no fund pages); European lines link to their local listing. Three lines in the published transaction sheets appear under fund names whose tickers the post never prints — the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Multifactor Fund, the Tema Durable Quality / Monopolies and Oligopolies ETF, and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets and iShares S&P 500 Equal Weight UCITS lines — and are left to the talking points rather than given rows, as in the February ETF issue. IQLT's top-ten holdings (ASML, Shell, Novartis, Allianz, Roche, AstraZeneca, Nestlé, ABB, Zurich, Schneider) are the fund's positions, not Compounding Quality's, and are likewise left to the talking points. Written post with no timestamps — the At link opens the article.
| Ticker | Name | Research | View | What he said | At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IQLT | iShares MSCI Intl Quality Factor ETF | SA · STK | Positive | ETF of the Month (spotlight) — not purchased. TER 0.30%, physical, ISIN US46434G1004, "only available for investors in North America." The screen is the quality factor applied to international developed large- and mid-caps, on three inputs: "Return on Equity (ROE) · Earnings variability · Debt-to-equity (D/E)." The justification is one line: "Companies with a high ROE, stable earnings, and good balance sheets tend to outperform." Top ten disclosed and heavily European — ASML at 5.97%, then Shell, Novartis, Allianz, Roche, AstraZeneca, Nestlé, ABB, Zurich and Schneider Electric. | read ↗ |
| IEQU | iShares Edge MSCI Europe Quality Factor UCITS ETF | STK | Positive | The non-American equivalent of the spotlight, named for access reasons. "Non-American investors can look at the iShares Edge MSCI Europe Quality Factor UCITS ETF (IEQU). It's got a slightly lower expense ratio (0.25%) and the top holdings are nearly identical to IQLT." Note the substitution is not exact — IQLT is international developed (which includes Japan and Australia), IEQU is Europe only; the post treats them as interchangeable on the strength of the top-ten overlap. | read ↗ |
| USMV | iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF | SA · STK | Positive | BOUGHT — $500 at Monday's open, stated price $91.12. The American half of the month's transaction: "We'll create some to our minimum volatility stocks." It is the smallest position in the American book at 5.3% and its weakest line — one prior purchase, April 2025 at $90.70, marked at $91.61 for +1.00%. So the add goes into the laggard, at a price barely above the original entry. | read ↗ |
| MVOL.L | iShares Edge MSCI World Minimum Volatility UCITS ETF | STK | Positive | BOUGHT — €500 at Monday's open, stated price €72.57. The non-American twin of the USMV purchase; the split exists purely for access ("If you live in the US, you can't buy non-US ETFs. And if you live outside the US, you can't buy US ETFs"). Unlike its American counterpart it is not the laggard — the paired chart shows it at roughly +16% against USMV's +1%, the widest divergence between the two books. | read ↗ |
| VB | Vanguard Small-Cap ETF | SA · STK | Neutral | Disclosed holding, not re-rated. The largest position in the American book at 22.7% and its best performer at roughly +44%. Four purchases: December 2023 at $212.8 (+20.44%), March 2024 at $224.6 (+14.11%), October 2024 at $242.7 (+5.57%) and February 2026 at $277.32 — the last of which is marked at $256.25 for −7.60%, the book's only losing line alongside the second Tema purchase. | read ↗ |
| RSP | Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF | SA · STK | Neutral | Disclosed holding, not re-rated. 18.4% of the American book and its oldest line. Three purchases: October 2023 at $140.3 (+34.46%, the single best transaction in the sheet), May 2024 at $164.0 (+15.06%) and July 2025 at $184.75 (+2.11%), all marked at $188.65. The structural answer to the same index-concentration argument made in the Buy-Hold-Sell issue ten days earlier. | read ↗ |
| MOAT | VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF | SA · STK | Neutral | Disclosed holding, not re-rated. 12.5% of the American book at roughly +19%. Two purchases: November 2023 at $73.5 (+28.75%) and April 2024 at $85.8 (+10.32%), marked at $94.63. Its non-American twin (GOAT.AS) is at roughly +11% over the same period — the moat screen has worked materially better in the US. | read ↗ |
| XMHQ | Invesco S&P MidCap Quality ETF | SA · STK | Neutral | Disclosed holding, not re-rated. 11.3% of the American book and one of its weaker lines at roughly +8%. Two purchases: January 2024 at $89.4 (+12.60%) and July 2024 at $96.9 (+3.92%), marked at $100.66. Its paired non-American line (the iShares Edge MSCI World Multifactor ETF) is at roughly +29% — the largest paired gap in the book after small-cap. | read ↗ |
| IUSN.DE | iShares MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF | STK | Neutral | Disclosed holding, not re-rated. 18.2% of the non-American book — its second-largest position — at roughly +15%. The paired comparison is the issue's sharpest: the same size factor delivered ~+44% through the US small-cap line and ~+15% through the global one, which is itself an argument for the geographic diversification the article is making. | read ↗ |
| GOAT.AS | VanEck Morningstar Global Wide Moat UCITS ETF | STK | Neutral | Disclosed holding, not re-rated. The smallest position in the non-American book at 10.8%, at roughly +11% against MOAT's +19%. The non-American twin of the wide-moat screen. | read ↗ |
Stance = how each line is framed in this post. Four ETFs appear in the transaction sheets and weight charts under fund names without tickers — the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Multifactor Fund (19.2% of the American book), the Tema Durable Quality / Monopolies and Oligopolies ETF (10.5%), the iShares S&P 500 Equal Weight UCITS ETF (16.7% of the non-American book) and iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets (15.7%) — and are covered in the talking points rather than given rows, as is the non-American book's largest position (21.8%), whose label is truncated in the published chart. The factor design and the paired-book method are on the actionable insights page.
A jargon-free summary of the thesis behind each argued line. (Renders on each name's consolidated page.)
IQLT buys large and mid-sized companies in developed markets outside the United States, but only the ones that pass three quality tests: they earn a high return on shareholders' money, their profits do not swing about much year to year, and they do not carry too much debt. It charges 0.30% a year and actually owns the shares rather than using derivatives.
The reason it is the pick this month is geography rather than the screen. US shares have beaten everything since 2009, but in 2025 Europe returned 36.4%, Asia 32.7% and emerging markets 25.9% against the S&P 500's 18.1% — and America is now the expensive market. This is the way to own quality businesses where the prices are lower.
What you actually get is a European blue-chip portfolio: ASML is nearly 6% of the fund, followed by Shell, Novartis, Allianz, Roche, AstraZeneca, Nestlé, ABB, Zurich and Schneider Electric. Americans only — everyone else is pointed at the near-identical IEQU.
This exists only because of a rules problem, not an investment one: Americans cannot buy European funds and Europeans cannot buy American ones. IEQU is the version of the same quality screen that non-Americans are allowed to own, and it is slightly cheaper at 0.25% a year.
Worth noting a small imprecision in the substitution. IQLT covers developed markets worldwide outside the US — which includes Japan, Australia and Canada — while IEQU is Europe only. The post treats them as interchangeable because the largest holdings are almost the same, which is true at the top of the fund and less true further down.
The month's actual purchase for American readers: $500 at $91.12. USMV holds the US shares that have historically moved around least — the idea being that steadier companies deliver similar returns with fewer frightening drops.
It has not worked so far. It is the smallest holding in the book at 5.3%, and the single earlier purchase (April 2025 at $90.70) is up 1% after nearly a year. So this is another instalment into the weakest line — which is what a fixed monthly schedule does by design, and the reason it is worth watching whether the addition is a rule or a judgment.
The non-American twin of the USMV purchase: €500 at €72.57, buying the same low-volatility idea across developed markets worldwide rather than just the US.
The interesting detail is that the two have behaved completely differently. The global version is up around 16% while the American one is up about 1% — the widest gap between any paired holdings in the two books. Same factor, same manager, same month; the only difference is where the shares are listed. That divergence is the strongest evidence in the issue for the geographic argument it is making.
Summary derived from the archived Compounding Quality post (text in transcript.txt) for personal study. Not investment advice. © Compounding Quality / Pieter Slegers for source material.