ETFs
Untested ETFs Presented to Investors as a Hedge Against Global Chaos
War in the Middle East and Europe, tensions between the United States and China, climate change, threats linked to new technologies: geopolitical risk is everywhere. A coterie of fund managers offer a class of ETFs that claim to offer a hedge against all this uncertainty.
These funds, which range in size from $8 million to $800 million in assets, weed out companies that executives believe threaten national security or are vulnerable to state takeover or U.S. sanctions. They include the Xtrackers US National Critical Technologies ETF (CRTC), which has tracked the S&P 500, returning 12.53% year to date. There’s also the National Security Emerging Markets Index ETF (NSI) and the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM), both of which track emerging markets and have outperformed the BlackRock Emerging Markets ex-China fund at various points this year.