Claymore Goes Plain Vanilla

In the other corner stands a bunch of upstarts that want indices based on fundamental metrics, such as dividends or earnings.

The debate can get quite heated, and both sides have their advantages. ETFs based on fundamental analysis include the PowerShares FTSE RAFI U.S. 1000 Portfolio(PRF Quote) and the Wisdom Tree family of ETFs.

While Claymore's new ETFs initially appear to be bland index funds, a closer inspection shows a lot of extra toppings filling the bowl. Claymore, seeing benefits in both theories, decided to pick and choose what it considers the best attributes and mix them together into a hybrid index.

The starting point for the Claymore/Clear Mid-Cap Growth ETF is that it screens for stocks with a market cap in the range of $2 billion to $10 billion. Then it applies fundamental metrics, such as sales, profit growth, leverage and return on equity, and valuation metrics such as price-to-earnings and price-to-earnings-to-growth.

The 50 stocks with the best ranking based on this methodology make it into the index. The fund, which has an annual expense ratio of 0.69%, is equally weighted and rebalanced on a quarterly basis.

The Claymore/IndexIQ Small-Cap Value ETF seeks to outperform the Russell 2000, the benchmark for the small-cap market. Again, the fund starts with a market-cap foundation, limiting constituents to stocks valued between $400 million and $1.5 billion.

Then it lays on a "rules-based methodology that includes composite scoring of a handful of specially targeted factors, which is scored from highest to lowest," according to the prospectus. The best 100 according to this methodology make it into the fund.

While the methodology is intriguing, the index's lack of transparency should give investors pause. Like the mid-cap fund, the small-cap fund has an expense ratio of 0.69% and is rebalanced annually.