By Micah Wakefield, Swan Global Investments
Recently, Swan held its second annual CIO Summit where over 80 participants converged in Chicago to discuss challenges facing investors. It was an opportunity for seasoned financial professionals to connect and share ideas.
Under the roof of the Kimpton Gray Hotel, institutional consultants, wealth managers, endowment and foundation trustees, liquidity providers, ERISA experts, and academics came together to discuss the following topics:
- Challenges facing capital markets
- ETF trends, risks, and liquidity
- Option strategies and solutions
- Endowment, Foundation, and Pension challenges
- Ways to offload beta
- Defined Contribution/401(k) solutions
- The Defined Risk Strategy and ways to implement it in a portfolio
One of the sessions focused on the growing usage of ETFs, the trends and innovations taking place in the industry, and the risks and issues involved with ETFs. Without a doubt, the exchange traded fund market has grown enormously, mostly as assets have moved from active to passive management. Experts from three major ETF firms, Keegan Toci from BlackRock, Dave LaValle from State Street Global Advisors, and Eric Pollackov from Invesco PowerShares, shared their insight and expertise as to what changes and improvements have been made over the last few years to accommodate this growth and ensure orderly pricing, trading, and liquidity.
Almost everyone is using ETFs now in some shape or form. They’re used by hedge funds, institutions, pension plans, mutual funds, endowments, individuals, prop traders, you name it. And there has been a lot of innovation in the space over the last decade as well.
These experts highlighted some of the key innovations they think have had an impact on the marketplace the last few years, such as smart beta ETFs, sector or theme-specific ETFs, fixed income ETFs, and more. But these innovations and the massive move of assets into ETFs raises an important question: what is the impact on the market? We believe it is important to also consider the risks when utilizing ETFs. Not all ETFs or ETF strategists are created equal. Some specific risks and factors must be considered by any investor in order to make an informed decision.
At Swan, understanding risk in its many forms is a priority to us. The discussion on risks associated with ETFs and how some of them can be mitigated or addressed included such risks as composition risk, methodology risk, counterparty risk, closure risk, tax risk, and crowded trade risk.
Dave LaValle, US Head of SPDR ETF Capital Markets from State Street Global Advisors addressed some of these risks:
“While we find the growth of ETF utilization to be extremely exciting, we encourage investors to engage in the appropriate level of due diligence, on their own, and with their advisors, to ensure they are meeting their investment goals. At State Street Global Advisors and within the SPDR ETF franchise, we work tirelessly to ensure that investors are educated on the merits of ETFs as an investment vehicle. We are leading the industry conversation, bringing all members of the ETF Ecosystem together, asking the appropriate questions, and more importantly, recommending effective solutions, to ensure market participants and investors can trade these products with the highest degree of confidence.”
The primary risk that concerns many ETF investors involves illiquidity and potential mispricing during times of crisis. Other concerns have been raised about the increase of ETF volume as a percentage of U.S. exchange volume. In 2016, ETFs ranged from 25-30% of notional trading and 20% of share volume in the U.S. However, the data doesn’t show any tremendous change:
ETF volume and trading does remain a key factor to consider and watch over time, but as of now they continue to remain great vehicles for accessing equity exposure and implementing passive and active strategies. As for the trading risk and closure risk discussed during the panel, it was pointed out that 60% of the total value traded in 2016 was concentrated in 20 ETFs and 28% of volume was in SPY. In other words, most of these risks reside more in the smaller, less traded and less popular ETFs. The largest ETFs continue to attract most of the volume and attention and have shown excellent liquidity.
It is important to note that many other types of investments besides ETFs also face some of the same illiquidity risks in times of crisis. But there are actions that can be taken to address some of these risks, as well as strategies that go further to address systematic market risk as well, such as the Swan Defined Risk Strategy. At Swan, we seek to mitigate systematic risk by always being hedged, along with always having equity exposure through high volume, passive ETFs. To learn more about our investment process and how we incorporate ETFs into our strategies, visit http://swanglobalinvestments.com/defined-risk-strategy.
Micah Wakefield is Director of Research and Product Development at Swan Global Investments, a participant in the ETF Strategist Channel.