This is not a thread about passive vs active investing Sol. There are plenty of other threads you can share your thoughts. Thanks.
As far as the Ivy Portfolio, the ACTUAL portfolio as shown in the book and the white papers has performed as expected. It is the fund that stunk. Part of the reason was the high fees, and Cambria has recently decided to stop being the adviser to the fund. If you were doing the strategy on your own, you sidestepped the financial crisis and it's still ahead of what the market has done with less than half the volatility. Also a 75% less drawdown. So anyone knocking the Ivy strategy just doesn't have a clue.
As far as the GVAL etf, I think any low cost, intelligently mechanical global value strategy would perform roughly the same. You can use P/E, CAPE, Dividends, B/M or any other common value indicator. The key is to be in the cheapest countries for a low cost, and I think GVAL accomplishes that. The best time to buy into a strategy you like (and that includes index funds) is when they are in a drawdown, and GVAL is definitely in one.