Tag Archives: pth

ETF News

ETFs & Obamacare: The Broccoli ETF

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“If Congress can force me to buy health insurance, can it also force me to eat broccoli?”…

That question, according to WallachBeth Capital’s Chris Hempstead, is one that he can’t answer, but Hempstead does have a sharp-as-a-scalpel perspective re: the ETFs to put under a microscope as the US Supreme Court is scheduled to perform surgery on President Obama’s healthcare initiative:

IHF: IShares DJ US Healthcare Providers (77% Healthcare Services and 17% Pharma)

Year to date the IHF fund is +11.6% and since Obamacare passed +24% versus SPX of 12.6% and 20% respectively.

PTH: PowerShares Dynamic Healthcare Sector (25% Pharma, 25% Healthcare Products, 24% Healthcare Services and 14% Biotech)

YTD the PTH fund is +12.6% (SPX 12.6%) and since Obamacare +28% (SPX 20%).

FXH: First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX (30% Pharma, 30% Healthcare Services, 24% Healthcare Products and 12% Biotech)

YTD the FXH fund is +13% (SPX 12.6%) and since Obamacare +29% (SPX 20%).

YTD  XLV is +7.9% (SPX 12.6%) and since Obamacare +16% (SPX 20%).  XLV has an expense ratio of .18%.

 

ETF News, People Profiles

Expert ETF Trader: Liquidity Is There; Just Look Beyond the Screens

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Other than the ETF market “go-go names”, one of the more commonly-voiced, and according to many, often-misguided observations regarding most ETFs is  “won’t trade it, there’s no liquidity in that name,”  or “the screens are only showing 1000 shares offered and I have to pay up 50 cents to buy a lousy 25,000 shares?!”

As a consequence, any half-smart portfolio manager often quickly (if not wrongly) concludes that the “lack of liquidity cost” is a deterrent to their positioning what is otherwise a very compelling “basket” of underlying securities.

The editors here don’t buy into the lack of liquidity notion, and after getting our hands on desk notes published today by Chris Hempstead, Head ETF Trader for WallachBeth Capital (one of the more prominent players in the ETF space), we couldn’t resist the opportunity to re-publish.

But wait, there’s more!