This week has undoubtedly been more tame than last in terms of overall volatility and sheer trading activity in terms of volumes whether in the underlying equities themselves if not in derivatives such as ETF and Index options.
One such exception is FB stock however, as the equity continues to impressively rally to new highs this week (traded as high as $67.58 earlier this morning) and strength in related “Social Media” names including GOOG (new high this morning, trading above $1200 per share) and YELP for example.
FB options continue to trade actively as well, with continued interest in upside calls for the most part (for example the March 67.50 calls have been in play lately). SOCL (Global X Social Media, Expense Ratio 0.65%) remains on our immediate term radar as it has been, especially since its largest weighting is to FB, which, thanks to a rising market capitalization on this impressive stock performance run, has risen to a 2.96% weighting in the Nasdaq 100 and corresponding tracking ETF, QQQ (PowerShares QQQ Trust, Expense Ratio 0.20%), which translates to the eighth largest weighting in the index (while GOOG is the number two weighting with a >8% weighting).
This latest run in FB’s stock has come post earnings, which makes it all the more impressive, with the company not expected to release their next quarterly earnings until 4/30/14.
Other ETFs that have hefty weightings to FB that should be watched closely here include FPX (First Trust IPOX-100 Index Fund, Expense Ratio 0.60%) and IPO (Renaissance IPO ETF, Expense Ratio 0.60%), with both of these funds designed to invest in newly or relatively new public companies.