XLRE tracks a market cap-weighted index of REITs and real estate stocks, excluding mortgage REITs, from the S&P 500. XLRE represents the new real estate sector concentrated portfolio of mostly large-caps . XLF provided roughly $3B in AUM in the form of REITs to XLRE in return for its shares, which were then distributed to XLF shareholders, thus providing a massive boost to XLRE’s AUM.
Sector ETFs
This ETF gives investors an opportunity to achieve exposure to uranium, an important mineral that currently is inaccessible via futures. For investors looking to bet on increased demand for a raw material used widely in power production, URA is a nice option. URA often trades as a leveraged play on the underlying natural resources, meaning that this fund can experience significant volatility but can be a powerful tool for profiting from a surge in commodity prices.
SMH tracks the overall performance of the 25 largest, U.S. listed companies that produce semiconductors, a crucial component of modern computing. Semiconductor chips act as the brains to numerous devices that we rely on today, including smartphones, calculators, computers, and much more. As technology continues to improve and expand, these chips will invariably be in demand to help power new devices. The fund focuses on U.S. stocks entirely, offering investors concentrated exposure to America’s semiconductor industry. Investors should note that this fund is equally split between giant, large, and mid cap size companies,
XLF contains diversified financial services; insurance; commercial banks; capital markets; real estate investment trusts; thrift & mortgage finance; consumer finance; and real estate management & development. XLF contains the who’s-who of the financial players in the domestic economy, including JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and others. This makes it an ideal play on the U.S. financials world, which has not always been stable.
This ETF is focused on the U.S. homebuilding industry, and as such offers exposure to a corner of the domestic economy that tends to be cyclical in nature. In addition to pure play homebuilders, this fund includes companies related generally to the homebuilding industry, such as Pier One. For investors seeking exposure to the homebuilding industry–or the closest thing to it available in an ETF wrapper–we think XHB is the best option out there. This fund is more cost efficient than other options such as PKB or ITB, and the equal weighting methodology ensures exposure is spread evenly across component companies.
IWM ETF is one of several offering exposure to the Russell 2000 Index, a widely followed measure of small cap U.S. stocks. Given this investment objective, IWM may be useful in a number of different ways; more active investors may use this fund as a way to establish short-term exposure to a risky asset class when risk tolerance is expected to climb, while IWM can also be appealing as a way of accessing an asset class that should be included in any long-term, buy-and-hold portfolio.
IBB biotech sub-sector of the health care industry, serving up access to a group IBB is primarily focused on U.S. stocks, though a smattering of international firms adds some degree of international diversification. This biotech ETF casts a considerably wider net that the other ETF options for exposure to the space, investing in more than 100 stocks. That feature can be particularly important in the biotech space, where company-specific developments can send a single stock soaring. IBB is somewhat top-heavy, but generally
GDX offers investors exposure to some of the largest gold mining companies in the world, thereby delivering what can be thought of as “indirect” exposure to gold prices. Because the profitability of gold miners depends on the prevailing market price for the goods that they sell, these stocks will generally exhibit a strong correlations to movements in spot gold prices. When gold prices go up, gold miners make more money (and vice versa). It should be noted, however, that this relationship is not perfect; in certain environments, gold miner stocks and physical gold prices can move in opposite directions, and correlation between the two can be less than perfect.
EEM is one of the most popular ETFs in the world, and is one of the oldest products on the market offering exposure to stock markets of emerging economies. Given this objective, EEM can be used in a number of different ways; this ETF can be equally useful as a short-term trade to increase exposure to risky assets or as a core holding in a long-term, buy-and-hold portfolio. EEM
XLK includes market segments like IT services, wireless telecommunication services, and semiconductors to name just a few. The fund invests in the who’s-who of the U.S. tech sector, with major holdings in companies like Apple and IBM. The fund splits its assets mainly between the technology and communication services sectors, while allocating mainly to giant and large cap firms. One of the major strengths of this ETF is the fact that it does not single out a particular sector; rather it invests in companies from all across the technology sector.