The beta value is calculated by comparing price movements of the security and the price movement of the representative index over the past 2 years of weekly data.

FORBES: Optional Opportunity

Portfolio return is a combination of beta, size and value.

FORBES: Any Monkey Can Beat the Market

Lately, we have been thinking about combining relative strength (buying the one asset out of a basket of assets that has the strongest performance over time) with value, momentum, low beta and small stocks investing.

FORBES: How to Beat the Market: The New Momentum Strategy

Of these two strategies, I find the least expensive and most flexible solution is to create a style tilt using two separate funds, one that provides cheap beta exposure and a second that provides concentrated exposure to value stocks.

FORBES: Investing in Style with Index Funds

ETF, for example, is weighted toward large-cap value stocks, according to Morningstar, but its low-beta characteristics helped boost performance during recent downswings.

WSJ: Supercharging Your Investment Portfolio