Welcome to Issue 21 of Exchange Traded Fridays for the week ending 10th December 2021. This edition and the next few till year end will just be the newsletter format as we take a break from the podcasts.
In this week's news we saw new ETF data from the ASX for November 2021 showing that ETFs are now at over $130 billion (when we include Chi-X data for October 2021). The full update for that is out next week as we will be on ausbiz later today (Friday 10th December). Additionally, we saw 3 new ETFs announced from BetaShares focusing on thematics of electric vehicles, buy now pay later and e-Sports. Check this out and more in the newsletter below.
What's in this newsletter?
Local ETF Articles
Global ETF Articles
ETF Videos
ETF Podcasts
Tweet of the week
Chart of the week
ETF Education
ETFtracker App Links
ETFtracker Forum
Listen or Watch
Articles - Local
VanEck - Pivoting for the Omicron storm, or storm in a teacup - A look at the anticipated timeline for the Omicron Covid-19 variant and what that means for investors. Quality focus is expected to come out on top if global economic recovery falters. More in the article.
BetaShares - Announcing New ETFs - BetaShares announced 3 new thematic ETFs they are bringing to the ASX including electrical vehicles, digital payments and video gaming (a rival to ESPO from VanEck perhaps). The link takes you to a page which describes what each is about and example of what is in each in terms of holdings (e.g. GAME is below).
BetaShares - Portfolio Builder - BetaShares announced the creation of a new tool to help investors select ETFs for their portfolios. Check it out.
ETF Securities - Weekly Report - w/e 3rd December - Per ETF Securities report - "iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF (IKO) was the week’s overall top performing fund, up 5.5%. ETFS Ultra Short Nasdaq 100 Hedge Fund (SNAS) was also up 5% as most major markets continued their risk off sentiment. "
Articles - Global
AlJazeera - New exchange traded fund taps booming appetite for NTFs - In this article, Defiance ETFs is launching a Defiance Digital Revolution ETF (ticker NFTZ) which will track a blockchain and non-fungible token index. It's listed as one of the first ETFs to tap the market for NFTs with a mangement fee of 0.65% and top holdings in Silvergate Capital Corp, Cloudflare, Bitfarms, Marathon Digital, Coinbase, Hut 8 Mining and more.
Videos
Investing in a Crypto Index Strategy | The Compound & Friends #24 - Per the show notes "On this week's episode of The Compound & Friends, Michael Batnick, Jeremy Schwartz, and Downtown Josh Brown introduce the all-new RWM WisdomTree Crypto Index!". Later in the show they talk about what Jeremy and colleagues have beend discussing with big heads of wealth management at big banks and the topics are mostly on regulation. Josh mentions then that he does not see how this can be a top in the crypto markets when the main players are still only concerned with the potential negatives. 42mins
ausbiz - From BMW to Porsche: how ETFs are harnessing the electric vehicles trend - 8th December 2021 - Kanish Chugh on the show with Nadine and Scutty to talk thematics, specifically, electric vehicles (EVs). With BMW and Volkswagen playing the theme as well as Tesla, apart from single stocks, another way to play the theme is ACDC. 5mins
ausbiz - 2022 will be the year of further Crypto clarification for investors - 7th December 2021 - per the show notes "Another 200,000 Australians have joined the ranks of cryptocurrency investors this year, with more than 800,000 individuals transacting in cryptocurrency, according to the Australian Tax Office. Mitchell Travers from Aus Merchant told ausbiz that these numbers showed that it was no longer just millennials getting involved." 6mins
ausbiz - Financial continue to drive investors on Selfwealth - 7th December 2021 - per the show notes "For the second month in a row, the ASX 200 posted a monthly decline, easing 0.9% across November. But it didn't stop investors from finding plenty of opportunity on Selfwealth." Additionally, Cath Whittake (Selfwealth CEO) mentions that trading was up for the platform and that banks did well (Westpac seeing more buyers) even though technology sectors fell. 8mins
ausbiz - Everything ETF: metaverse investing - 6th December 2021 - per the show notes "VanEck has an easy way for investors get metaverse exposure: buy gaming companies. Its philosophy is also straight forward. “We want to buy the entire ecosystem, “says VanEck’s Jamie Hannah." 5mins
Podcasts
CNBC's ETF Edge - The Fed's Impact & 2022 Outlook - per the show notes "CNBC's Bob Pisani spoke with Gerard O'Reilly, CO-CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Dimensional Fund Advisors and Nate Geraci, President of the ETF Store. They discussed where markets are headed in 2022 with the looming threat of a faster taper and protentional rate hikes coming down the pike. Plus, why more mutual funds are embracing the ETF model now than ever, and whether hot thematic trends like ESG, Crypto and the Metaverse are built to last." 33mins
ETF Prime - Crypto ETFs, 2022 Predictions, & Freedom Weighting - per the show notes "ETF Trend's Lara Crigger discusses the proliferation of crypto-related ETFs, along with Grayscale’s latest argument for a spot bitcoin ETF. Todd Rosenbluth offers his top ETF stories of 2021 and looks ahead to 2022. Perth Tolle spotlights the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM)." 1hour
Tweet of the week
Mike Akins of ETF Action highlighting that 81 ETFs classified as thematic were trading 20% below their 52 week averages - to see more check out the tweet: https://twitter.com/etfAction/status/1467866287489830913
Chart of the Week With the latest update from the ASX coming out on Wednesday, we were able to update our ETFtracker app which now shows that the total market is worth over $132 billion in terms of FUM. Access the app and these new insights from the menu above or go directly here.
Further ETF Education
Canadian ETF Market NEO - Something different this week is this educational resource from Canada, It's a NEO/Franklin Templeton sponsored ETF screener and resource centre and whilst it focuses on Canadian ETFs there are some cross overs with what could be useful if you're learning about ETFs in general. Certainly worth a look.
Access the ETFtracker App
Access to the newest version of the ETFtracker app is here: https://www.etftracker.com.au/the-app
ETFtracker Forum and ETF Investing Australia If you're not already a member of the ETFtracker Forum then please sign up - you can access conversations and share ideas amongst peers for free. Sign up is free: https://www.etftracker.com.au/forum
Over the last few weeks we've also been getting more involved in the Facebook group/forum space and whilst we're often seen commenting on Equity Mates discussion group and others we're also helping to run a newly formed and fast growing one called ETF Investing Australia. Set up a few months ago by Chad Maurer, this group is specifically focused on Australian ETFs so if you're interested in joining a group like this to learn more about ETFs, follow the link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3010730665825769
ETFtracker Podcast and Videos Before we go further, if you'd prefer to consume all this content in more convenient forms of media, we've launched The ETFtracker Show as a podcast and video and Exchange Traded Fridays comes at the end of each week. Additionally, we've launched a series of interviews with various ETF market participants.
You can also access the podcast directly on our website here: https://www.etftracker.com.au/podcasts
ausbiz
If you're interested in financial news you should check out ausbiz (sign up HERE) which has so much FREE financial and business content that comes out every day and has made it easier to follow your favourite topics and market experts. We get to feature on there and you can check out our page (and give us a follow) here: https://www.ausbiz.com.au/expert/mark-monfort?expertID=179
