ETF Beating Market With Gains Less Price Swings: Riskless Return

Investors who bought PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio for protection from stock-market swings when it debuted almost two years ago got an unexpected bonus: They also made more money.

The $4.1 billion exchange-traded fund, which owns the 100 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index with the lowest volatility, gained 30 percent since its inception on May 5, 2011, compared with 21 percent for the benchmark U.S. index. The ETF, the largest of its kind, achieved that performance with about 70 percent of the volatility in the index, giving it a risk-adjusted return double that of the market, according to the BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING.