Tag: ETF Investing

3 Interesting ETFs To Take Closer Look At

Posted on by Matt Thalman

New ETFs are continually being brought to market as new niche ideas of capitalizing on an industry are being developed daily. But, not only are new ETFs the only ones that are worth looking at, older, more established ETFs which you may have forgotten about are also good to follow up on and even add to your watchlist. With that in mind, from time to time, I like to point out new and old ETFs that I come across which interest me and may intrigue others.

Today, let us look at one new ETF, one old ETF, and one ETF that is not yet trading but will soon be available for purchase.

The new Exchange Traded Fund is the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS). I know what you are thinking, just another marijuana ETF. Well, yes and no. This is a marijuana ETF; however, unlike all the other marijuana ETFs available before this one, all U.S. ETFs is the first. The others had, in large part, Canadian cannabis companies. This ETF only holds U.S. based firms. This ETF debuted on September 1st, 2020. It has an expense ratio of 0.74%, which is not cheap, but also not terribly outrageous. It currently has just $11 million in assets, but that should grow with time. We have no performance history on the ETF since it is so new, but the marijuana industry has struggled over the last few years. With that being said, this is a new ETF, so it comes with a clean slate, but we shouldn't expect it to boom in the short term unless we have major progress in the industry, as in more states passing marijuana as a legal substance. With that said, now would be a good time to get involved with this type of investment, as we are expected to have more states legalizing the drug in the next few years. Continue reading "3 Interesting ETFs To Take Closer Look At" →

Housing Is A Booming Industry During The Pandemic

Posted on by Matt Thalman

When the pandemic hit home and the Federal and State governments ‘shut down’ the country and U.S. economy in March, some industries were predictably going to perform well. The ‘stay at home’ stocks and technology companies or the online and big-box retailers that had web presence where obvious smart plays during a time when social distancing and avoidance of large public places was going to be for the foreseeable future. However, due to government policies, primarily low-interest rates, the housing industry has also become a powerful economy sector.

In August, existing-home sales were up 10.5% year-over-year at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6 million units. In August, new home sales hit 1 million units, which represents a 43.2% increase compared to August of 2019. If current sales rates continue as they have been, unsold inventory is just three months of supply, which ties December of 2019 for the lowest level we have seen in the last 20 years.

In hindsight, it makes perfect sense, but during the stock market crash in March and the fact that for the most part, the vast majority of American’s were stuck at home, it was hard to predict that the housing industry would boom in the middle of a pandemic. However, that is exactly what has happened, and as I mentioned, looking back now, it is obvious why housing would boom at a time like this. People are stuck at home and realize how much they don’t like their home, or they were living in densely populated cities and want to move to the suburbs and have more space.

With the unknown of how much longer Covid-19 and the pandemic will disrupt life as we knew it, there are a few housing-related Exchange Traded Funds that you may want to consider owning as a way to catch a piece of the housing boom, without investing directly into real-estate yourself. Continue reading "Housing Is A Booming Industry During The Pandemic" →

This Is Why You Are Losing To The S&P 500 - Part 2

Posted on by Matt Thalman

In Part One, I discussed how heavily weighted the S&P 500's top stocks are and how, in reality, the bottom 200 stocks in the index don't even matter. Now I would like to talk about potentially better options than buying an S&P 500 index Exchange Traded Fund or mutual fund but still being diversified in a large number of stocks, with a wide range of diversity and having a good chance of beating the S&P 500's returns.

The biggest issue with the S&P 500 is that the top stocks carry all the weighting. The bottom stocks don't mean much. Instead of buying the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), why not purchase something that doesn't hold as many positions and have all the assets focused on just the top companies. This way, when the bigger companies that mean more anyways move, you have more money in them. And since the larger companies are typically less volatile, your portfolio shouldn't have to worry about as many companies going bankrupt or falling apart as someone who owns the S&P 500 would have to be concerned with.

The first ETF I would like to discuss is the Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF (XLG). The XLG is an ETF that tracks a market-cap-weighted index of the 50 largest US companies. In essence, it holds just the top 50 of the 500 companies that make up the S&P 500. The fund has a weighted average market cap of $668 billion and a yield of 1.34%. XLG also has an expense ratio of 0.2% and $1.65 billion in assets under management. XLG is up 19.19% year-to-date and more than 35% over the past 12 months. On an annualized basis, the fund is up more than 16% over the last 10 years, a figure that easily beats the market average of a little under 10%. Lastly, the funds top ten holdings represent more than 51% of the fund with Apple (AAPL) taking the top spot at 12.69% of the assets. Continue reading "This Is Why You Are Losing To The S&P 500 - Part 2" →

This Is Why You Are Losing To The S&P 500

Posted on by Matt Thalman

You recently looked at your very diversified portfolio and compared it to the return of the S&P 500 (SPY), and to your shock, you are underperforming the market. You start to wonder how that can be. You own quality companies and have held their own in 2020 if not even produced a nice return. You also own an excellent mixture of industries, whether it's through individual stock holdings or Exchange Traded Funds.

You are well diversified and have produced a good return over the years and stayed within the S&P 500. But now, all of a sudden, the market is bouncing your performance. Well, shockingly, this may not be because your portfolio isn't good. You haven't been diligent enough following along with your holding's performance and business strategies in the future.

It very well likely has nothing to do with something you may have or have not done. It is likely, the way the S&P 500 is structured and how your portfolio isn't structured.

The S&P 500 is structured by market capitalization. That means the largest companies from a market capitalization standpoint, in the S&P 500 carry more weight in the portfolio than companies that are smaller in terms of market capitalization.

For example, Apple (AAPL) is the largest company in the S&P 500, with a market capitalization of $2.13 trillion and has a 7.06% weighting in the S&P 500. The smallest company in the S&P 500 is Coty Inc. (COTY), which has a market capitalization of $2.83 billion and a weighting of 0.003679% in the S&P 500 index. Continue reading "This Is Why You Are Losing To The S&P 500" →

Own Tesla Without All Of The Risk

Posted on by Matt Thalman

If you are like most investors, you have been watching the historic, mind-blowing run Tesla has had in 2020. Or maybe you didn't realize that Tesla Inc. (TSLA) is up more than 429% since the start of 2020. Yes, you read that correctly, Tesla is up more than 400% during a time when most companies are struggling due to the pandemic and business shutdowns the country dealt with back in the spring.

But, after seeing that sort of performance, you must be asking yourself one of two questions. First, can this continue? And is it worth the risk of buying Tesla, at let's say an all-time high, and having the stock roll-over on me days or weeks after dumping money into it?

Well, yes, Tesla can theoretically continue to run higher. I am not saying that it will or that it will not. What I am saying is, is that yes, it could continue running higher. But to the point of whether it is worth the risk, well, the same can be said. Tesla could roll over tomorrow and lose 50% in a matter of days or weeks.

So, the real question is, "how can I buy Tesla without taking on so much risk"? Continue reading "Own Tesla Without All Of The Risk" →