A Glimpse at an Ivy League ETF Portfolio

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It’s far from any sort of secret that Harvard’s endowment likes exchange traded funds (ETFs). Recent filings show just how much, in fact.

Harvard’s endowment disclosed in SEC filings that it favored emerging markets ETFs, raising its positions in them in the second quarter while paring its holdings of others. According to the ETF Professor on Benzinga, Harvard’s endowment holds $1.2 billion in ETFs. [Emerging Markets Are a Growing Power.]

At the end of the second quarter, the fund’s largest U.S.-listed position was in iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSEArca: EEM).

Harvard also increased its holdings of:

• iShares MSCI Chile Capped Investable Fund (NYSEArca: ECH)
• WisdomTree India Earnings ETF (NYSEArca: EPI)
• Market Vectors Indonesia ETF (NYSEArca: IDX)

Exposure was reduced in iShares MSCI Brazil (NYSEArca: EWZ), iShares MSCI South Korea (NYSEArca: EWY), iShares MSCI Mexico (NYSEArca: EWW) and iShares MSCI South Africa (NYSEArca: EZA).

Harvard is the world’s largest and most closely-watched endowment, but it’s far from the only one to utilize ETFs as part of its strategy. Stanford, MIT, Yale and the University of Notre Dame are among the universities that use ETFs.

Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.