Recently we noted a pickup in trading volume in two specialized S&P 500 exchange traded fund products that were launched by Invesco PowerShares in late spring.
PowerShares S&P 500 High Beta Portfolio (NYSEArca: SPHB) is an ETF based on a subset of the S&P 500, owning 100 equities from the index that have the highest “beta” over a trailing 12 month period. [Beta is a measure of a stock’s sensitivity to overall market moves. Stocks with a high beta are more volatile than the market.]
Similarly, PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio (NYSEArca: SPLV) was launched at the same time, and is based on a subset of the S&P 500 Index, but instead owns 100 equities that have displayed the lowest realized volatility over a trailing 12 month period.
In recent sessions, both funds have traded a multiple of their typical average daily trading volumes.
Institutional investors may be beginning to embrace these funds as potential ways to hone in on specific S&P exposure outside of owning the entire market cap weighted index itself.
PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio
Chart source: StockCharts.com.
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