Recent equity market turbulence brings our attention to an actively managed “Bear” or “Short” fund, AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF (NYSEArca: HDGE), which has an expense ratio of 1.85%.
The fund surged nearly 1% last Friday although YTD the fund has still lost 24.90%. Having debuted in early 2011 the ETF has lost 25.97% since inception, but to put it in perspective, the broad market S&P 500 Index has risen 9.50% during this same time frame.
We have profiled HDGE before as an actively managed ETF where the portfolio managers attempt to identify securities that they believe have “low earnings quality or aggressive accounting” and/or events such as earnings driven ones that may put negative pressure on share prices over time.
All holdings in the fund are “short” positions, and current top holdings appear as the following: CMG (-6.10%), GT (-5.56%), CLF (-5.43%), FOSL (- 4.83%), and VALE (-4.23%).