August 15, 2008 at 6:00 am by Tom Lydon
It’s been pretty quiet on the initial public offering (IPO) front, which leads one to wonder what it could mean for the exchange traded fund (ETF) that contains them.
The First Trust IPOX 100 Index (FPX) tracks an index of the 100 top IPOs in the United States, measuring their performance by market cap. The fund rebalances quarterly. IPOs are added in on their seventh day of trading, to capitalize on a long-term “buy and hold” perspective. On their 1,000th day, they’re shuffled out and new stocks are added.
But what happens when there’s nothing new?
Josef Schuster, the index’s creator, tells us that the index was actually designed to take weakness in IPO activity into account. He says the index should benefit once the markets return to normal, because growth companies stand to benefit.
Several index additions have taken place this year in the mega-cap realm, including both IPOs and spin-offs: including Visa, Philip-Morris Lorrilard, Dr Pepper Schweppes and more.
To get weekly updates on the index, visit the IPOX site.
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