David Kreinces is a portfolio manager with ETF Portfolio Management. Before founding the Newbury Park, Calif.-based firm in 2007, he was a portfolio manager in Merrill Lynch's global private client group, specializing in absolute return strategies using exchange-traded funds.

Kreinces is one of a growing number of independent portfolio advisers offering all-ETF portfolios that implement hedging strategies.To find out more about his unique quantitative-based methodology, IndexUniverse.com's Managing Editor Murray Coleman recently caught up with him at ETF Portfolio Management's southern California headquarters.

IU.com: How do you implement ETFs in absolute return strategies?

Kreinces: Our strategies are built around quantitative, rules-based models. And they don't use leverage at all. That's an important point. By not using leverage, we feel like our ability to limit volatility and control portfolio risk is greatly enhanced. But this has been an unusual period. In the past 18 months, we've had record activity in terms of shifting positions. During this time, it has been rare for us to hold funds for more than a few weeks at a time. But this isn't designed as a short-term trading strategy.

IU.com: What's your fee structure for your various strategies?

Kreinces: Our core passive portfolios have no advisory fees. We offer three of these. One follows the basic recommendations for an all-ETF portfolio created by David Swensen, the manager of Yale University's endowment program. It basically follows the strategy described in his book, "Unconventional Success."

The second passive core portfolio is designed for novice investors and takes a more basic approach to diversification. A third passive portfolio takes a more diversified approach by not discriminating as much against emerging markets and commodities. Again, all three are passively managed buy-and-hold strategies using ETFs where our clients don't pay advisory fees.

IU.com: How do you make money then?

Kreinces: We make money because most clients, after seeing the results of our absolute return strategies, put at least a portion of their assets into those portfolios. After 2008, when the buy-and-hold strategy hit a pothole, about 90% of our client assets have moved into absolute return strategies.

IU.com: How much do you charge for those strategies?

Kreinces: Last year, we charged 50 basis points for our global growth model and 100 basis points for our long-short strategy and aggressive growth strategy. This year, they're all charging 200 basis points. That's because all of the strategies outperformed strongly in 2008. And we don't charge a performance fee.

IU.com: Can you provide a recent example of how you achieve positive returns in a down market?

Kreinces: Our global growth model in 2008 went into cash and stayed in cash for a large part of the year. When the model moved into equities, it was very selective about which ETFs it picked. Probably the broadly diversified ETFs we traded most often last year were the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM), the iShares Russell 2000 Value Index (NYSE: IWN) and the iShares MidCap 400 Index (NYSE: IJH).

IU.com: What are you doing this year?

Kreinces: The global growth model is a long-only strategy. This year, it's long in large-cap growth. And what is driving that part of the market is technology. We use ETFs such as the PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQQ) to capture large-growth with a tilt towards technology. We're also investing in emerging markets through EEM and the Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE: VWO). But we continue to be very greatly invested in cash in the diversified global growth strategy.

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