After some recent volatility in the space it makes sense for us to revisit the Alternative Energy Equity space, which tends to ebb and flow in assets under management in the ETFs in the space based largely on price action and sentiment.
The biggest ETF in the space, TAN (Guggenheim Solar, Expense Ratio 0.65%) has been around since 2008 and has about $420 million in assets under management, adding nearly $100 million of that just this year.
After trading as high as $51.07 on an intraday basis back in early March, TAN now has a high $39 handle, so there has certainly been some bloodletting in Solar stocks and the Alternative Energy space in general.
Two stocks, FSLR and SUNE make up more than 17% of TAN’s underlying basket, followed by about a 6.6% weighting in GTAT, all U.S. listed stocks, and ther are a number of ordinary share positions that trade overseas in the underlying TAN index as well, with >62% of the overall portfolio exposure leaning toward international names.
KWT (Market Vectors Solar Energy, Expense Ratio 0.65%) is a smaller Solar Energy specific fund to watch, as it has about $24 million in AUM. While not one hundred percent correlated as one might expect, broadly
Alternative Energy ETFs tend to trade together so other notables when looking at the space include the $189 million PBW (PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio, Expense Ratio 0.60%) and the $126 million QCLN (First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge U.S. Liquid Series Index, Expense Ratio 0.60%) which recently saw a huge spike in trading volume in May amid a nice bounce back in the underlying stocks. YTD this fund has pulled in >$20 million in new assets.
Eight other funds populate the Alternative Energy equity space, none of them terribly large however in terms of assets under management, with FAN (First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy, Expense Ratio 0.60%) and GEX (Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy, Expense Ratio 0.62%) being other names to look at with about $119 and $106 million in AUM respectively.
First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund
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