HQL/HQH: Simple morningstar plot vs. VGHIX (Vanguard Health Care Index Admiral) shows both of those underperforming their sector over the past 10Y, 5Y, 3Y, 1Y, YTD. Had a good run up 2011-mid 2015, then underperformed. This is before taxes - after taxes, those would've underperformed significantly. Versus the total market, the author just looked at past results and found a sector that did well. Good for him. Doesn't say those will outperform in the future. In fact, from the article publish date of 1/11/2017 to today, these funds have underperformed both their index and the overall market on a pretax basis, and would be even worse after taxes.
BTO: Has outperformed its index (VFAIX) over the past 10, 5, 3 years. Underperform for last 1 year. Kind of how active management goes. Of note: article is dated 1/11/2017. From 1/11/2017-today, BTO has underperformed VFAIX, 15% vs 20% growth before taxes. Again, after taxes it'd be worse. Also not impressive.
PHK, PGP: Junk Bonds. You'll get differing opinions on whether or not these add value to a portfolio, even among experts. It's disingenuous to compare them to high-quality bonds in a bull market without acknowledging the downsides. PGP (bonds only) was absolutely slaughtered during the financial crisis, with a loss of 72%, worse than equities. PHK also did worse than equities, but not as bad since it had a mix of equities and bonds (equities pulled the performance up...that's how bad the bonds were). These are not any way, shape, or form a substitute for bond funds in your portfolio.
Of course I'm using total return, not just price return. Easy to do in morningstar even for ETFs if you plot a mutual fund first.
Killed?