# ETF Research Center

Holdings-level ETF research — overlap, stock locator and fundamentals rolled up per fund.

**Best for:** investors and advisers who judge an ETF by what it holds, check overlap between two funds and look for which ETFs own a stock; not for flows, intraday data or an API.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/etf-research-center · ETF Research & Screeners*

## Facts

### At a glance

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Vendor | AltaVista Research |
| Category | ETF Research & Screeners |
| Job | etf_analytics |
| Website | https://www.etfrc.com |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Free tier | true |
| Open source | false |
| Licence | none |
| Self-hosted | false |
| Tested hands-on | no |
| Claimed by vendor | no |
| Last updated | 2026-10-07 |

### Pricing

| Tier | USD | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic | 0 USD | month |
| Individual | 29 USD | month |
| Professional | 99 USD | month |

### Coverage

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Asset classes | etf |
| Markets | us, ca, eu, uk |
| Works outside the US | true |
| Data latency | eod |
| Platforms | web |
| AI features | none |

### Interfaces

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| API | false |
| Webhooks | false |
| Scripting | none |
| Python | false |
| Spreadsheet add-in | false |
| MCP server | false |
| Export | pdf |

### Capabilities

Yes: screening

No: charting, scanning, backtesting, automation, live_trading, paper_trading, portfolio_tracking, broker_import, tax_reporting, alerts, news, options_analysis

*Verified: pricing 2026-10-07; capabilities 2026-10-07; coverage 2026-10-07.*

## What it is

ETF Research Center is the public site of AltaVista Research, a firm founded in 2004 that sells
ETF research to issuers, broker-dealers and advisers, and puts the same data in front of
individuals here. Its angle is the holdings: rather than ranking funds on past returns and
fees, it rolls each constituent's sales, earnings, estimates and valuation up to the fund, so an
ETF can be read the way a stock would be.

The tools that make it useful to someone who already knows which funds they are looking at are
the ones that open a fund up. **Fund Overlap** takes any two equity ETFs and prints overlap by
weight, the count of shared holdings, the share of each fund found in the other, the sector
drift between them and the largest over- and underweights. **Stock Locator** runs the other way:
enter a ticker and get every ETF holding it with weight and share count — Apple was in 729 funds
on 7 October 2026, the top of the list being sector funds with nearly a fifth of their assets in
it. **TCO Comparison** sets two funds side by side on expense ratio, average bid/ask spread and
round-trip commission over a holding period you choose, which is the cost comparison most
screeners never make. Each fund page also lists its ten closest comparables by overlap, so SPY's
page leads with IVV, SPYM and VOO at about 98–99%.

Around those sit an ETF finder, an Equity Power Screener on fundamentals and valuation, a
watchlist, and a Portfolio Builder that shows sector, country and valuation exposure of an
all-ETF allocation against a benchmark. That last one is an allocation analyser rather than a
tracker — there are weights, not transactions.

## Pricing

Three levels on the subscriptions page. **Basic** is free with registration and unlocks the full
result lists of the overlap and stock-locator tools, a watchlist and custom chart ranges.
**Individual** is $29 a month and adds the fundamentals and valuation data the site is built
on, complete holdings lists for select funds, enhanced screening and two saved portfolios.
**Professional** is $99 a month for PDF tear sheets on every covered fund, 40 portfolios and
PDF portfolio reports that take a client's name and the adviser's firm details.

Both paid plans start with a one-month free trial. No annual price is published. The terms state
that subscription fees are non-refundable on termination.

## Data & coverage

The finder and screener cover three universes: US-listed ETFs, Canadian-listed ETFs and UCITS
funds, the last including London listings. The US equity category alone held 1,392 funds on
SPY's ratings tab. Performance on fund pages was standardised as of 30 September 2026, and
valuation was "based on closing prices" — this is end-of-day research, not a quote screen.

Complete holdings — searchable and exportable — are promised only for select funds, which the
subscriptions page says include most equity ETFs from iShares, State Street, Vanguard, Schwab,
First Trust, Invesco, Global X, ARK, Dimensional and VanEck. The overlap tool itself is limited
to equity ETFs. Bid/ask spreads are averaged from NBBO observations over up to three months,
with tick data credited to Nasdaq.

## Integrations

None to speak of. There is no API on offer to individuals; AltaVista's about page directs data
licensing enquiries to email instead. What leaves the site is PDF — tear sheets and portfolio
reports on Professional — plus the holdings export for covered funds, whose file format the
subscriptions page does not name.

## Limitations

- **A rating sits on every fund page.** The ALTAR Score is AltaVista's forecast of long-term
  annual return, and for equity funds it is turned into one of five labels — Speculative,
  Overweight, Neutral, Underweight, Avoid — by quintile within the category. Fund pages also
  print a sell-side consensus price target. Both are model output, not facts about the fund.
- **Overlap is pairwise and equity-only.** Overlap across more than two funds goes through the
  Portfolio Builder, and bond ETFs are out of scope for the tool.
- **No flows.** Nothing here tracks creations, redemptions or money in and out of a fund.
- **Complete holdings are not universal**, even on a paid plan — they are listed for select
  issuers.
- **End-of-day only**, and no API.
- **No refunds** once billing starts, per the terms; the month's trial is the whole of your
  recourse.

## Alternatives

[justETF](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/justetf) is the better screener for a European buyer choosing among UCITS funds
by domicile, distribution policy and savings-plan availability, but it does not compute overlap.
For backtesting an allocation of the funds you settle on, [Portfolio Visualizer](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/portfolio-visualizer)
and [Testfolio](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/testfolio) go further than the Portfolio Builder here. The general
research platforms [Koyfin](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/koyfin) and [Stock Rover](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/stock-rover) carry ETF pages
beside stocks without the holdings-level valuation.

## FAQ

### How does the ETF Research Center overlap tool measure overlap?

By weight, holding by holding. For each stock both funds own it takes the smaller of the two weights and sums them, and it also prints the count of shared names and what share of each fund's holdings appear in the other. On 7 October 2026 SPY against QQQ came out at 54% overlap by weight across 85 shared holdings, with 84% of QQQ's holdings also in SPY but only 17% of SPY's in QQQ.

### Is ETF Research Center free?

Partly. Fund pages, the overlap tool, the stock locator and the total-cost comparison open without an account, but anonymous visitors see only the top five rows of overlap and locator results. A free Basic login shows the full lists. Fundamentals, valuation history and complete holdings start at the 29-dollar Individual plan, and PDF reports at the 99-dollar Professional plan.

### Does ETF Research Center cover UCITS ETFs?

Yes, alongside US and Canadian listings. The finder filters by US, UCITS and Canada domicile, the equity screener has a UCITS universe with a European category, and the stock locator returns London-listed UCITS funds such as iShares sector ETFs next to US ones.

### What is the ALTAR Score on ETF Research Center?

AltaVista's own forecast of a fund's long-term annual return, computed from the underlying holdings — average return on equity divided by forward price-to-book for equity funds, adjusted yield to maturity less a default factor for bond funds, minus the expense ratio in both cases. Equity funds are then bucketed by category quintile into five labels from Speculative to Avoid. It is a valuation model's output printed on every fund page, not a measurement.

## Also worth comparing

- [ETF Action](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/etf-action.md) — Daily US ETF flows, issuer league tables and look-through analytics, aimed at advisers.
- [ETF Insider](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/etf-insider.md) — Look-through overlap, concentration and correlation for a portfolio of US funds.
- [ETFreplay](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/etfreplay.md) — Ranks US ETFs by relative strength and backtests rotation and moving-average rules.
- [justETF](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/justetf.md) — A screener and portfolio planner for European UCITS ETFs — no US listings, no API.
- [Trackinsight](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trackinsight.md) — A free global ETF screener — 15,875 funds across listing venues, with daily flows.
- [ETF.com](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/etf-com.md) — A free US ETF screener, flows tool and fund pages on FactSet data, with an AI assistant.

## Head to head

- [ETF Research Center vs ETF Insider: two funds, or the whole portfolio](https://stockmarketstack.com/compare/etf-research-center-vs-etf-insider.md) — Both answer how much your funds overlap, for free. One compares two ETFs at a time; the other rolls up a portfolio, mutual funds too, on quarter-old holdings.

## Named as a replacement for

- [Morningstar Portfolio Manager and X-Ray](https://stockmarketstack.com/alternatives/morningstar-portfolio-manager.md)