There was no change to the Franklin International Equity Rotation Model this week.

Asia-Pacific has been one of the strongest regions of international equities, and chief among the group has been the incredible performance of South Korea. Those looking to gain exposure to the region could look towards the Franklin FTSE South Korea ETF (FLKR), which holds an extremely strong fund score of 5.17 that is 0.75 points higher than the average South Korea fund. Over the last year, FLKR has gained more than 130%, and it is up 34.3% since the start of the year. Global conflict has caused the fund to pull back in recent weeks, seeing FLKR move to two consecutive sell signals. However, the fund was previously extremely overbought, so some normalization isn’t too abnormal. Despite some recent weakness, the fund continues to maintain a strong long-term technical outlook. FLKR was also added to the Franklin model in November, and it has since gained 34.5% over that span. Initial support for the fund lies at $39.50.

This section of the report categorizes select Franklin ETFs by their respective broad group. Along with each group, you can view the Average Group Score, which is an average of the scores of all funds represented in that particular group. Those Franklin ETFs that meet or exceed the Average Group Score will be highlighted in green in order to easily view those ETFs that have superior strength within their respective group. You want to focus on those ETFs that exhibit superior strength when looking to add new exposure to a particular group.

The distribution curve places each ETF on a bell curve according to their respective degrees of overbought or oversold status using a 10-week distribution. ETFs that are statistically oversold will appear on the left-hand side of the bell curve, while those that have become statistically overbought will appear on the right-hand side of the bell curve. Perhaps the most useful attribute of this feature is that it displays the entire universe on the curve at one time to give us a general picture of whether the Franklin ETF universe is generally overbought on a near-term basis, or generally oversold. Our best opportunities are to buy strong relative strength ETFs that have regressed back toward mean conditions based on market weakness, or have become oversold based upon extreme market weakness. Weekly Distribution is a short-term gauge that is most helpful in timing entry and exit points, while the longer-term information of trend and relative strength is a more controlling factor in the decision of whether to buy or sell.

Legend:

• UPPERCASE indicates that the RS chart is on a buy signal.
• lowercase indicates that the RS chart is in a sell signal.
• GREEN lettering indicates the ETFs trend chart is on a buy signal.
• RED lettering indicates the ETF is on a sell signal.
• Box Color indicates the Sector Status Rating. Green = Favored, Yellow = Average, and Red = Unfavored.

The Franklin LibertyShares International Model is designed to identify major country and regional themes in the international marketplace through the use of the Point & Figure relative strength tools. For more information on the portfolio construction and back testing, see the model info file on the models page.  (Note: The Franklin LibertyShares ETF Models will be updated Thursday mornings by 9:30 am EST) 

Weekly Changes: 

* - Dates prior to 09/01/2018, which is when the Franklin LibertyShares ETF Model became available on the NDW Research Platform, are representative of when the position was added to the backtested model.