ETF Investing Archives - Page 33 of 42

A Very Interesting New ETF, The 'Short Squeeze' ETF

Posted on April 29, 2017April 28, 2017 by Matt Thalman

On March 21st shares of The Active Alts Contrarian ETF (NASDAQ:SQZZ) began trading. SQZZ is the first ETF of its kind and opens the door for investors looking at investments from a slightly different angle. SQZZ is in a nutshell a 'short squeeze' Exchange Traded Fund.

First I will explain how shorting a stock works and what a 'short squeeze' is and then I will discuss SQZZ and why I like it.

What Does It Mean To 'Short' A Stock and What's A 'Short Squeeze'

If you don’t 'short' stocks very often, the concept of a 'short squeeze' and how this ETF will make money may be a little confusing. But I will start at the beginning and try to explain it all.

First, when a stock is sold 'short' that means the investors believes the price of the stock will move lower, not higher. If you buy stocks believing the share price will be higher in the future, what most people typically do, that is called going long on a stock. Hence, the phrase, 'going short' a stock when you think the share price is going to decline. Continue reading "A Very Interesting New ETF, The 'Short Squeeze' ETF" →

The Only Way I Would Play The IPO Market

Posted on April 8, 2017April 7, 2017 by Matt Thalman

With the recently highly hyped Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) initial public offering, I was once again reminded why I don’t attempt to buy into IPO's.

While big name company's first offer their stock to the general public, its call an initial public offering, or an IPO. While there are a number of issue's with buying stocks the first day they start trading, the biggest one is the hype!

The hype surrounding a big name IPO, such as Snap, Facebook, or Twitter to name a few, is that the demand for shares outweighs the supply on the first day of trading. Millions of people want shares and most fear if they don’t get them early, they will miss a big move higher. This hype and fear frenzy often causes shares to skyrocket in the first minutes to hours of trading. Snap for example rose 45% on day one.

But, after the hype fades, so will the stock price. The demand declines to the point that those looking to sell have to be willing to part ways with their precious shares for much less than they sold for on day one. Snap fell 27% on its second day of trading. Continue reading "The Only Way I Would Play The IPO Market" →

Will You Buy A Marijuana ETF?

Posted on April 5, 2017April 4, 2017 by Matt Thalman

The Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (HMMJ) will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today, April 5th 2017. This will be the first ETF that will have exposure to companies listed in North America that operate in the medical marijuana bioengineering and production fields.

Many investors have been interested in the industry for a number of years, but haven't had the opportunity to invest in it through a diversified manner. This ETF solves that big hurdle.

While it is unknown how many stocks the fund will hold, or who exactly will be in it, investors can be assured this ETF boasts some very serious growth predictions. Sales in the marijuana industry grew by 30% in 2016 and according to Arcview Market Research; the industry will triple in the next four years. Continue reading "Will You Buy A Marijuana ETF?" →

Now May Be the Time to Buy Retail ETFs

Posted on March 15, 2017March 24, 2021 by Matt Thalman

A Wells Fargo analyst recently said retail has bottomed and now may be time to start buying into the sector. With a weak holiday shopping season, followed by poor retail numbers in January and February retail stocks have hit hard times.

Compound that with the need for clarity on a possible border tax and other political issues hanging in the background, uncertainty in the industry is high. But while high uncertainty leads to lower stock prices, it also brings opportunity for smart investors.

Currently we are seeing specialty retailers outperforming the big box retailers like Macy's, Kohl's, Sear's, and JCPenny's. The downsizing of the big box retailers is also a good thing for the smaller players since it gives shoppers fewer options to choose from. But as a whole, this downsizing is hurting the group's overall performance as share prices of the big names companies have been beaten up. Continue reading "Now May Be the Time to Buy Retail ETFs" →

Bitcoin ETF Rejected

Posted on March 11, 2017March 10, 2017 by Matt Thalman

Late Friday afternoon the Securities and Exchange Commission released their ruling on the proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, what would have been the first Bitcoin ETF. Bitcoin's had traded as high as $1,300 per coin on Friday prior to the announcement from the SEC, but following the ruling, the price had fallen more than 20% at one point, leveling off down 10%.

What Happened?

The Security and Exchange Commission released their ruling denying the proposed Bitcoin ETF and within the ruling, the SEC's reasoning for denying the application follows below.

"As discussed further below, the Commission is disapproving this proposed rule change because it does not find the proposal to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest. The Commission believes that, in order to meet this standard, an exchange that lists and trades shares of commodity-trust exchange-traded products (“ETPs”) must, in addition to other applicable requirements, satisfy two requirements that are dispositive in this matter. First, the exchange must have surveillance-sharing agreements with significant markets for trading the underlying commodity or derivatives on that commodity. And second, those markets must be regulated."

In plain English the SEC is saying the Bitcoin ETF was rejected because the underlying commodity, in this case Bitcoin, needs to be regulated, which that’s the whole purpose of Bitcoin, it's not regulated. Bitcoin was designed to be unregulated, with no ties to banking institutions or governments. With relationships with either of those entities, the currency therefore is an unregulated form of investment. The reason this matters is because at the end of the day, the SEC is required to do its best at protecting the general investing public from fraudulent and easily manipulated investments. And because Bitcoin is unregulated in some terms, the SEC can't allow the ETF. Continue reading "Bitcoin ETF Rejected" →

Tag: ETF Investing