Since various sectors may offer varying risk profiles during different business cycles, advisors can also equally weight sector ETFs to minimize losses in a bear market, according to Randy Swan, President and Portfolio Manager for Swan Global Investments.
“Equal weighting can be a simple and effective contrarian strategy,” Rowley said.
Specifically, an equal-weight S&P 500 sector strategy would underweight technology, financials, health care and consumer discretionary while overweighting industrials, consumer staples, energy, materials and utilities.
Moreover, Mazza noted that advisors can take a tactical view with industries or sub-sectors to complement parent sectors. For instance, Mazza mentioned top industry ideas that State Street Global Advisors like right now, including the SPDR S&P Health Care Services ETF (NYSEArca: XHS), SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (NYSEArca: KRE), SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (NYSEArca: XTN) and SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSEArca: XBI), as these sectors show relatively low sensitivity to a strong U.S. dollar, rising interest rates environment and crude oil prices.
Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about sector ETFs can listen to the webcast here on demand.
For more information on market sectors, visit our sector ETFs category.