What You Should Know:
- ProShares sponsors the fund.
- HDG has a 0.95% expense ratio.
- Regional stock allocations include: U.K. 30.0%, Europe 40.4%, Africa/Middle East 2.0%, Japan 19.7% and Australasia 8.0%.
- The fund is down 0.2% over the past month, up 1.7% over the last three months and up 1.3% year-to-date.
- The ETF is 0.6% above its 200-day exponential moving average.
- The strategy stands on substantial research showing that many hedge funds actually provide a lot of exposure to common risk factors (“beta”), like U.S. large-cap stocks or currencies, rather than pure skill (“alpha”), according to Morningstar analyst Samuel Lee.
- HDG acts like a low volatile investment portfolio.
- “Don’t expect this fund to hit home runs (or lose as much as the market),” Lee added. “The model has in the past kept most of its exposure in cash to copy the HFRI index’s low volatility, and it will likely continue to do so.”
- There are also other hedge-fund replication ETFs available, including IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker (NYSEArca: QAI), IQ Hedge Macro Tracker ETF (NYSEArca: MCRO) and Credit Suisse Long/Short Liquid Index (NYSEArca: CSLS), among others.
The Latest News:
- ProShares’ Head of Investment Strategy, Joanne Hill, recently told ETF Trends that alternative investments, like HDG, make sense for investors who are sensitive to risk-adjusted returns or those who want absolute return strategies without a benchmark.
- According to Deutsche Bank research, 57% of total assets under management in hedge funds comes from institutional investors, reports Anna Fedorova for Investment Europe.
- “There is tremendous interest in replication because of cost reduction and as a way to separate hedge fund alpha from hedge fund beta,” Daniel Celeghin, partner, Casey, Quirk & Associates LLC, Darien, Conn., said in a Pensions & Investments article.
ProShares Hedge Replication ETF
For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.