Defiance ETFs has filed for a new ETF that shorts the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK). Given BLOK’s track record of success since its inception in 2018, up over 100% on a cumulative basis, the idea of shorting it seems odd.
Years ago, when we started talking about Digital Assets and Blockchain, one of the early criticisms among sceptics was the lack of “real-life”, practical use-cases. Well, one is playing out in “real time” with regard to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, leading some to describe it as the “first crypto war”.
Retail was already under a massive transformation prior to the pandemic, with shoppers shunning brick-and-mortar stores in favor of online retail’s 24/7 shopping convenience, greater product selection, competitive pricing, and rapid delivery options. But the pandemic has permanently changed retail shopping habits forever.
The modern world is full of acronyms, but one acronym relevant to the Blockchain is MEV or miner extractable value. MEV is the measure of profit a blockchain miner can make through their ability to include, exclude or reorder transactions.
While there are other Blockchain ETFs, BLOK is the original, launching back in January 17, 2018, with more than $1 billion in assets under management. With all the fuss about Bitcoin ETFs, some issuers and investors may have overlooked the investment opportunity in Blockchain itself.
Ecommerce and the disruption of retail is a theme that is not going away, and some of the fastest growing companies and markets are located outside the U.S. ETFs are a nice vehicle to give U.S. investors access to many of these foreign ecommerce companies, not easily accessible on an individual share basis.
The speakers at the event were Gabriella Herculano, CEO and founder of iClima Earth, Stephen Derkash, head of global products and ESG at EQM Indexes, Sam Dickens, portfolio manager at IG Group and Nicholas Mersch, portfolio manager at Purpose Investments
Thanks to a confluence of factors, Value stocks have significantly outpaced their Growth peers year-to-date, with the Russell 1000 Value up 16.3% versus 11.2% for the year. But the performance gap between Value and Growth has been closing since its 10.3% spread at the end of the first quarter of 2021.
One of the criticisms of the first Blockchain ETFs when they launched back in January of 2018 was that there were too few "pure-play" names to hold. Indeed, at the time, regulators would not even let these products use blockchain in the name, as they could not easily meet revenue test standards.
The Amplify Pure Junior Gold Miners ETF (JGLD) holds a portfolio of companies engaged in junior and exploratory mining. Using the Investopedia definition, junior gold mining stocks are exploration companies in search of new gold deposits. Most of these companies are in the development and exploration phase. And like in other industries, market cap is often another criteria used to define junior mining companies.
