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Eric Balchunas recently tweeted out the following:
 

Meb Faber, who runs Cambria, replied, "I doubt this will happen again in my career, but at least for today, cheers!" While it was probably just an off-the-cuff reaction, there is a useful point of understanding embedded in the comment.

The exposure that Cambria Global Value ETF (GVAL) provides can certainly be a valid way to go, no question, but it is not always going to be optimal. Whatever strategy you believe in will not always be an optimal one, which is just fine.
 

Yes, the GVAL fund has lagged iShares MSCI ACWI ex U.S. ETF (ACWX), but in 13 full and partial years in the backtest, per Testfol.io, GVAL has been the better performer six times, which is almost a coin flip.

If you look for yourself on a year to year basis, although they are both proxies for foreign equities, the GVAL ETF does differentiate itself quite a bit. In four out of 13 years, the spread between GVAL and ACWX was more than 1500 basis points. Differentiation is a positive attribute in my opinion, but it can be difficult to endure.

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