Piling into stocks that are heavily shorted hasn’t been a winning strategy for active ETFs, selon nouvelle recherche de Bloomberg Intelligence. L’analyse a classé les ETF actifs en fonction de la part de leurs titres américains investis dans des noms très vendus, et les a reclassés toutes les deux semaines. Sur près de cinq ans, 1 $ investi dans le groupe le plus exposé n’a augmenté que jusqu’à 1,06 $, contre 1,65 $ pour les fonds avec la moins grande exposition aux actions à vendre à découvert. Le problème n’était pas que les fonds à forte exposition ne pouvaient pas rebondir—le groupe a grimpé de 110 % depuis ses creux de 2022, et a parfois même battu ses pairs qui évitaient les ventes à découvert encombrées. Le problème était la baisse : ces fonds ont subi des pertes plus importantes en 2022, les laissant avec une remontée beaucoup plus longue. Individual managers were mostly responsible for buying shares of shorted companies. The four stocks with the most buying relative to their short positions—Ubiquiti, Alamar, Stagwell and Maplebear (which does business as Instacart)—were each bought almost entirely by a single fund family. A stock getting love from just one fund family is less likely to turn into a broad-based squeeze.
A separate trend involves so-called “dividend nomads”—people funding a life of travel through investment income and a low cost of living abroad. They gravitate toward ETFs that use options and derivatives to generate regular cash payouts. Assets in derivative-income funds have quadrupled over the past three years to more than $270 billion as online influencers promote them as a shortcut to financial freedom. But many charge fees of 1% or more annually, and those eye-catching yields don’t necessarily translate into equally impressive total returns.
Take Jae Hyouk Jang, 43, who traveled through Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, living off about $130,000 in savings and high-octane investment strategies. Then there’s Dave and Mor Vanderhoef, who live in Portugal with more than $500,000 saved. They rely on about $70,000 invested in ETFs like the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI), generating roughly $700 a month—covering as much as half of their monthly expenses. While the dividend-nomad life may be possible, it isn’t without risks.
FAQ Q: Why haven’t active ETFs benefited from buying heavily shorted stocks?
FAQ A: Over nearly five years, $1 invested in the most shorted-stock-exposed group of active ETFs grew to just $1.06, compared to $1.65 for funds with the least exposure. While these funds did rally—surging 110% from their 2022 lows—bigger drawdowns in 2022 left them with a longer recovery period.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Résumé par HeadlinesBriefing