The article points out that the Acquirers Small and Deep Value ETF (DEEP) has returned 19.57% year-to-date as of June 30, outperforming the S&P 500 Index ETF (VOO)'s 10.16% gain over the same period. The Alpha Architect U.S. Quantitative Value ETF (QVAL) also recorded a 20.72% gain year-to-date as of July 31. Both ETFs employ a contrarian investment strategy, focusing on small-cap or deeply undervalued companies overlooked by Wall Street, with low overlap with S&P 500 constituents. DEEP primarily constructs its portfolio using the "acquirer's multiple" valuation metric (enterprise value/EBITDA), while QVAL screens using EBIT/total enterprise value (TEV).