Actually, I'd like to hear from AdrianC again. He alluded to Avantis, which has an expense ratio of .15...performs similar screens without all the work. Can you elaborate a bit more on this AdrianC if you're up on this board? Probably more disciplined that I might be, and avoids the temptation to dump apparent losers prematurely without adhering to the random nature of the sort, which Jim rightly pointed out.

That was my comment on the other board re Magic Formula:

magicformulainvesting.com: Magic Formula Investing

'I believe it [Magic Formula] is not well regarded in the mechanical investing community - they could not duplicate Greenblatt's published results.

Still, the theory is sound - buy a slate of stocks with quality (high ROA) and value (Low PE) characteristics. It ought to give reasonable results, if you can stick with the inevitable tracking error versus the index.

Too much work for me. Avantis will do it for me for 15 bps.'

That was a reference to this:

Avantis U.S. Large Cap Value ETF
avantisinvestors.com - Avantis US large cap value ETF

Avantis: Invests in a broad set of U.S. large-cap companies and is designed to increase expected returns by focusing on firms trading at what we believe are low valuations with higher profitability ratios.

Note, it is not a classic low price to book large cap value fund. They got their secret sauce...maybe.
Interestingly, Berkshire does not appear, whereas in the Vanguard large cap value index, more of a low price to book fund, Berkshire is the top holding.

Perhaps more comparable to Magic Formula would be this (0.25bps):

Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF
avantisinvestors.com - Avantis US small cap value ETF

These are probably too Boglehead/Ben Felix to gain much interest here.