Category: INO.com Contributors

Bitcoin Helped ARK Win 'Top ETF' in 2017

Posted on by Matt Thalman

ETF.com’s “ETF of The Year” award went to the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) for 2017. The award was given to ARKK for a number of reasons, but the top two were due to its exposure to disruptive technology in 2017 and its strong performance. Both of those key metrics for winning the award were partly due to the fund's exposure to Bitcoin.

ARKK owned Bitcoin through buying shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC). ARKK had anywhere between 6% and 10% of its assets in GBTC during 2017 while the cryptocurrency rose higher during the end of last year. During that time Bitcoin was often ARKK’s top holding. This helped the fund produce an 85% return for investors in 2017. Just for comparison, GBTC was up roughly 1,550% in 2017.

What’s more interesting though is that while GBTC is now down more than 65% year-to-date in 2018, ARKK is up more than 21% this year. The main reason for this reversal is because sometime in January of 2018 ARKK’s management team started selling their position in GBTC. As of today, ARKK still has a small position in GBTC, but it represents just 0.26% of the fund's assets.

ARK, the issuer of the ARKK ETF recently told ETF.com that it was a “complicated decision” to cut its Bitcoin investments, but that it was driven largely by regulatory and tax concerns, more so than the true “merits” of Bitcoin. Continue reading "Bitcoin Helped ARK Win 'Top ETF' in 2017" →

Who's Winning The 'Trade War'?

Posted on by George Yacik

Just how crazy is Donald Trump?

Back at the beginning of March, the president famously tweeted:

“When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!”
- President Donald Trump

You probably don’t remember what the exact reaction to that was, but you can probably guess it involved hoots of derisive laughter. After all, the idea of the president of the United States upsetting the world apple cart by supposedly starting a trade war with China and our biggest trade partners and closest allies was the height of lunacy.

But who’s laughing now? Continue reading "Who's Winning The 'Trade War'?" →

Top ETFs For The First Half Of 2018

Posted on by Matt Thalman

2018 has been a wild year with the bursting of the Bitcoin Bubble, some President Trump induced rallies and declines, trade war fears, North Korean diplomacy and the Facebook data scandal. But most all of, after the stock market rallying for years, its beginning to show signs of sluggishness as the S&P 500 is up a mere 0.84% during the first half of 2018.

But despite the weakness of the overall market, some investors, with the help of a few Exchange Traded Funds have made money during the first half of the year. Let us take a look at the top four, non-leveraged, non-VIX ETF’s during the first half of 2018.

The best performing non-leveraged, non-VIX ETF was the Invesco S&P SmallCap Health Care ETF (PSCH) which rose by 30.62%. Over the last 12 months, PSCH is up more than 45% after climbing an additional 16% during the most recent three months. The fund owns small cap stocks which operate in the healthcare sector and currently more then 75% of the assets are in companies that have a market cap smaller than $2.7 billion. The fund tends to lean towards healthcare equipment companies and healthcare providers more so than drug companies. The averagely weighted market cap is just $2.5 billion. The fund currently has $752 million in assets under management and 74 holdings. The top three holdings are Chemed Corp. (CHE), Haemonetics Corp. (HAE), and Neogen Corp. (NEOG). The funds top ten stocks make up 33% of assets, and it will cost an investor 0.29% to own PSCH on a yearly basis.

An aging population which is living longer than any other generation before it tends to be good for the healthcare industry. While PSCH may not end the year as the top ETF, it is indeed one you could buy now and feel comfortable owning for years to come. Continue reading "Top ETFs For The First Half Of 2018" →

Copper To Retest $1.94 After Breaking Support

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Last September I posted a monthly chart of Copper futures to warn you that the metal has been approaching the area of strong multi-year resistance. In that very same post, I set specific triggers to watch for further price action.

Recently, one of those triggers was broken, and now it’s time to update the chart.

Chart. Copper Futures Monthly: Crucial Support Was Broken

Copper
Chart courtesy of tradingview.com

The global chart structure hasn’t changed, and I posted its full reconstruction adding some new annotations to highlight the most recent price action. Continue reading "Copper To Retest $1.94 After Breaking Support" →

U.S. Crude Production Growth Stalled In April

Posted on by Robert Boslego

The Energy Information Administration reported that April crude oil production averaged 10.467 million barrels per day (mmbd), off 2,000 b/d from March’s all-time record high for the U.S. The small but unexpected decline was due to unplanned maintenance in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), which reduced production there by 98,000 b/d. Otherwise, healthy increases were recorded in North Dakota (61,000 b/d) and Texas + New Mexico (55,000 b/d).

LLLL

The EIA-914 Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) figure was 115,000 b/d lower than the weekly data reported by EIA in the Weekly Petroleum Supply Report (WPSR), averaged over the month, of 10.582 mmbd. EIA’s most recent weekly estimate for the week ending June 22nd was 10.900 mmbd. Continue reading "U.S. Crude Production Growth Stalled In April" →