If there were a "SAUL" ETF ...

… it probably wouldn’t look like these.

Three ETFs now claim to aim at disruptive technologies. One described below debuted on 12/29/17, the last day of the year. Before you laugh at the idea of a disruptive ETF, here are their 12-month performance metrics.:

DTEC (new)
AKRW 58.6%
XT 31.69%

Ticker Issuer Name .
DTEC ALPS Disruptive Technologies ETF
The Fund seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of global companies that enter traditional markets with new digital forms of production and distribution, and are likely to disrupt an existing market or value network.
The fund’s index targets 10 thematic areas in the disruptive technologies space including healthcare innovation; internet of things; clean energy and smart grid; cloud computing; data and analytics; fintech; robotics and artificial intelligence; cybersecurity; 3D printing; and mobile payments.
http://www.alpsfunds.com/holdings/DTEC

ARKW ARK ARK Web x.0
Companies within ARKW are focused on and expected to benefit from shifting the bases of technology infrastructure to the cloud, enabling mobile, new and local services, such as companies that rely on or benefit from the increased use of shared technology, infrastructure and services, internet-based products and services, new payment https://ark-funds.com/arkwcompanies may develop, produce or enable:
• Cloud Computing & Cyber Security (23%)
• Big Data & Machine Learning (20%)
• E-Commerce (19%)
• Digital Media (9%)
• Blockchain & P2P (8%)
• Internet of Things (7%)
• Mobile (7%)
• Social Platforms (7%)
https://ark-funds.com/arkw

XT iShares BlackRock Exponential Technologies ETF
The iShares Exponential Technologies ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of developed and emerging market companies that create or use exponential technologies.
https://www.ishares.com/us/products/272532/XT?cid=ppc:ishare…

Some things I noticed:
• Very little overlap with stocks discussed here.
• Appear to be mostly large-cap stocks.
• Largest position in 2 ETFs were approximately 1.5%.
• So how did the best performer outperform? First of all, it had larger positions so a home run actually counted for something. Secondly, it’s #1 holding (7.54%) is … drum roll, please … Bitcoin Investment Trust.

I guess there aren’t any shortcuts. Okay, feel free. Laugh away.

Dan

8 Likes

Dan, Zacks has a 10 best stocks for the year and just posted their 10 best for 2018. I looked back the 10 Best they listed that they had had for 2017, and averaged the results they posted, and they averaged to 19.4% in 2017. Picking your own is better if you have the time and energy.

Saul

12 Likes

I dug around for a comparable ETF several months ago and the best one I could find was XITK - I perused all of its holdings and 15-20% of the holding are stocks I have seen held or discussed here. Problem I see with the ETF is that it seems to always hold a roughly fixed % of each positions (all positions hover around 1% of ETF total). This means they must ALWAYS be buying more of the laggards and selling the high fliers to keep them balanced. This can be a useful strategy in some cases (i.e. Citron short, etc.), but in others can add up to poor returns as you keep selling your best performers and replacing them with poor businesses.

If they would let positions run… their positions in SHOP, ANET, etc. would be larger and would give me more interest in the fund.

Erik

1 Like

When the people here describe their portfolios, it’s somewhat like looking at an ETF. If anyone is interested, we could build a group ETF. The problem would be deciding about rebalancing and weighting. Maybe we could just make a list, with equal weightings for each position, and let it run through the year. Or a quarter.

My suggestion is to have three weights - overweight, normal, and light. And look at it every quarter or month to see if we want to change anything. Or even “fork” it to make multiple portfolios. But that seems to be getting a little out of hand.

It would be weird if a group thing got returns similar to Saul’s. The main idea would be to give us a new idea or two for our own portfolios.

We could also look at the Fool’s own mutual fund portfolios.

It would be weird if a group thing got returns similar to Saul’s. The main idea would be to give us a new idea or two for our own portfolios.

We could also look at the Fool’s own mutual fund portfolios.

That idea sounds a bit similar to the Motley Fool 100 “index”.
https://www.fool100.com/

When I first came across the Fool 100 a few weeks ago and saw that it is weighted by Market Cap, I had a thought about how to vary the weighting to maybe try to juice returns and give it more concentration. One way might be to exclude some of the largest market cap companies to avoid “the law of large numbers”.

Having been visiting this board for a number of months now, the concepts of concentration and selective position weighting seem to be quite key factors in beating (or smashing) an average index that by definition includes lots of 25th best and worse ideas rather than concentrating in some top 10 or 15-ish ideas.

3 Likes

I have done pretty well holding ARKW over the past 6 to 9 months. Some of the main hokdings were favored here (AMZN SPLNK NVDA) and the 6% portfolio allocation to bitcoin didnt hurt either. I am pretty sure someone from this board had suggested it … So thanks for that

1 Like