MFOHome About Commentary Discussions Funds The Best Resources Support Us!

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Categories

In this Discussion

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

ETF that appears (based on recent experience) to move inversely with market

ibartman
edited March 2012 in Fund Discussions
http://tinyurl.com/BTAL-IWB

See link (from google finance) above.

It's a chart of IWB (iShares Russell 1000) ETF against QuantShares' BTAL.

See: http://www.quant-shares.com/etf-list/anti-beta-etf-btal/ or
See: http://etfdb.com/etf/BTAL/

Huh! Who knew?.... (puzzled)

BTAL: (From Quantshares website)

"The index rebalances monthly by identifying the lowest beta stocks as long positions and highest beta stocks as short positions, of approximately equal dollar amounts, within each sector.

The Exchange Traded Fund provides investors with the means of seeking the spread return between low and high beta stocks. Low beta stocks are those stocks that are less volatile than the market index, and high beta stocks are those stocks that are more volatile than the market index.

Anti-beta investing entails investing in securities that have below-average betas and shorting securities that have above-average betas. The performance of the Fund will depend on the differences in the rates of return of these long positions and short positions."

Index Factsheet
http://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/downloads/fact_info/Dow_Jones_US_Thematic_Market_Neutral_Anti-Beta_Index_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Comments

  • catch22catch22
    Interesting discovery. Not much of a market neutral holding, eh? More of an inverse.
    The chart link here is the same as your Google chart, but looks a bit more dramatic from the layout. I placed BTAL against several other measures, too; besides IWB, with similar results. But, one could make money with this if the broad equity trend is moving negative. Not such about a delay in reaction to moves though.
    The basis/method for the etf is interesting. Always folks out there trying to find other paths, eh?

    http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/perf.html?SPY,BTAL

    Take care,
    Catch
  • catch22catch22
    Hi ibartman,

    Been watching BTAL. Check the spread today. It this eft trying to tell a forward story. I have not had a chance to check any equity inverse funds today.

    Bid/Ask/Spread
    17.04/ 22.10/
    25.86%
  • ibartman
    edited March 2012
    (Best to follow the indicative-value for thinly traded ETFs, which on Yahoo finance would be ^btal-iv, and is available for 1 to 5 days.)
Sign In or Register to comment.