Investing & Unintended Consequences
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
ETFs used to be like surgical instruments. StateStreet’s SPY tracks the stocks of the S&P 500, iShares’ AGG the universe of US investment-grade bonds, and so on. Investors knew exactly what they were getting to create simple and precise portfolios.
However, as the ETF universe exploded with products for every imaginable niche, the risk exposures have become less clear. For example, the ARKK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which represents a concentrated portfolio of growth stocks, has a beta of 1.7 to equities, 0.6 to bonds, and -0.5 to the US Dollar index. Stated differently, the ETF provides leveraged exposure to the US stock market, positive exposure to US bonds, and is short the USD. It is doubtful that investors are aware of getting such a hodgepodge of asset class exposures when allocating to this growth-oriented product.
In this research article, we will explore some of the unintended risk exposure of equity ETFs.
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