December 2020: Week 5
Edition #026 - Data recap of last week's big moves inside the Tech ETF landscape. See what to keep an eye on for the week ahead.
Weekly Changes (Overall):
Despite the general strength of December, out of 101 Tech ETFs analyzed, the average Tech ETFs had just managed to barely have a positive week with a gain of 0.58% through another short week.
Similar to last week which rose 0.68%.
This just outpaced the S&P 500 which had also had a small gain of 0.46%.
Bitcoin…I had to say it
Meanwhile, the talk of the holidays seemed to be Bitcoin which gained 19% while the market has been open, and 41% total since the market has closed, breaking through to massive all time highs of $33,324 USD
Right now, just two ETFs hold Bitcoin through the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (which itself has $20b AUM). In mid-December it was reported that $GBTC held 70% of all Bitcoin available through the US market.
Not surprisingly, $ARKW which is the #1 ranked Tech ETF of 2020 has a 3.72% position of $GBTC
However, if you are interested in a more blockchain themed ETF, $BLOK might be worth looking into.
Weekly Top 5
This weeks top 5 ETFs were again considerably larger on average than the last weeks of fund sizes with just an average of $899m in AUM compared to an average of $68m AUM last week.
The top 4 were all general-tech foreign focused with a skew towards China.
While 5th place $ESPO is a thematic gaming ETF heavy on foreign holdings.
To kick off the new year, I’ll be paying particular attention to these 5 ETFs…unfortunately not for a great reason, the continued reported disappearance of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s (founder of Alibaba $BABA).
“Speculation has swirled around Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s whereabouts after reports surfaced that the high-profile businessman has not made a public appearance in more than two months.
Ma’s business empire, Ant Group, has been under scrutiny by Beijing ever since Ma delivered a controversial speech in Shanghai on 24 October that criticised China’s regulation system for stifling innovation and likened global banking rules to an “old people’s club”.
“Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age,” Ma said in the speech.
“We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system.”
Little over a week later, Ant’s IPO (valued at a record-setting US $37 billion or AU $48 billion), which had already received the green light from China’s securities watchdog, was suspended, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange saying Ant had reported “significant issues such as the changes in financial technology regulatory environment”. according to YahooFinance.
2020 Top 15
Impressively but not necessarily surprisingly, this year we saw 7 Tech ETFs break through the 100% Annual Return mark
On October 12th, just two had broken through this milestone.
Out of around 2000 ETFs in total, in:
2017: 8 ETFs >= 100% returns
2018: 0
2019: 9 crossed this barrier
Into 2021, I’ll continue to closely monitor the ARK etfs. Now that most have been around for 5 years this is the start of the second chapter of the funds.
Typically the lifespan of the BEST performing funds is around 5 years, continued performance beyond 5 years is exceptional.
Here’s to 2021 and thanks for following this first part of the journey,
Best,
Stuart