Being A “Nerd” With A Cause
It's no secret that gaming is one of the biggest trends within the technology sector. And the global gaming craze is expected to grow 9% annually through 2022. The problem is finding a way to get concentrated exposure to the trend.
The Roundhill BITKRAFT Esports & Digital Entertainment ETF (NERD) divides its sector exposure into media, hardware, games and broad-based companies with direct relevance to eSports and digital entertainment. And it invests across all market cap sizes.
Emerging industry groups like eSports can be problematic because the universe of companies to choose from is tiny and usually geographically concentrated in just one or two continents. As such, NERD deliberately takes a global approach and the fund’s largest country exposures are to China (21.3%), United States (19.2%) and Japan (10.2%).
NERD was introduced in June and has $10.7 million in assets. The fund charges annual expenses of 0.25%.
Growth And Value: United At Last
The next most interesting new ETFs are a pair of funds: the Direxion Russell 1000 Growth Over Value ETF (RWGV) and Direxion Russell 1000 Value Over Growth ETF (RWVG).
The interplay of growth and value is like the yin and yang of the investing world, and depending on the market's mood they’ve both had their moments in the sun. For ETF investors, being bullish on one style while simultaneously underweighting the other hasn’t been easy.
For example, let's suppose you prefer value over growth. Instead of owning two different ETF positions with a long exposure to value stocks and a short exposure to growth stocks, the RWVG fund offers you one ETF solution for this same trade.
Specifically, RWVG's underlying portfolio has a 150% long exposure to the Russell 1000 Value Index and a 50% short exposure to the Russell 1000 Growth Index. The RWGV fund takes the opposite approach with a 150% long exposure to the Russell 1000 Growth Index and a 50% short exposure to the Russell 1000 Value Index.
Both ETFs launched in January and carry expense ratios of 0.46%.
Summary
The “most interesting ETFs in the world” aren’t necessarily the biggest or most familiar names. But they might turn out to be ones that offer a much needed missing piece to your clients’ portfolios.
Ron DeLegge is founder and chief portfolio strategist at ETFguide, and is the author of “Habits Of The Investing Greats.”