Exchange traded funds focusing on disruptive technology investments are enduring some tough times this year, but that doesn’t mean this style of investing has seen its best days.
Disruptive growth investing is still in its infancy, indicating that there’s still ample opportunity with funds such as the ALPS Disruptive Technologies ETF (CBOE: DTEC). Among tech ETFs, both old guard and new concepts, DTEC is one of the more unique offerings because it features exposure to 10 disruptive themes — far more than many competing funds in this category.
The depth offered by DTEC could be beneficial to investors in 2022 not only because some disruptive tech themes appear poised to bounce back, but also because the broader tech sector is expected to deliver more upside.
Tech “boasts impressive profitability—the best across all 11 S&P sectors; it’s positioned well if economic growth continues—even at a slower pace; and it has compelling fundamental underpinnings, as inflating input and labor costs are spurring businesses to accelerate investment in productivity-enhancing technologies,” notes David Kastner of Charles Schwab.
Translation: Global economic growth is likely to slow next year, and in that scenario, growth stocks, including DTEC components, could very well outperform cyclical value names.
Another reason to consider DTEC is the fact that there’s no getting around the point that corporations and governments need to spend heavily on new technologies.
“Even amid the offshoring of much technological innovation and production in the past several decades, business investment in information processing, software, and industrial equipment in the United States has increased significantly,” adds Kastner. “The Technology sector continues to play a pivotal role in advances in robotics and automation; the transformation toward big data and cloud computing; the software and artificial intelligence that make it work; and smartphones, tablets, and network interfaces that enable us to use it.”
Among the themes that have long runways of corporate spending ahead are cloud computing, cybersecurity, healthcare innovation, and internet of things (IoT). All of those are among the 10 themes represented in DTEC.
DTEC has another perk. At a time when many cap-weighted growth and tech funds are dominated by a smaller number of stocks, introducing concentration risk to investors in the process, DTEC’s 100 holdings are equally weighted, ensuring that single stock risk is minimal.
Other technology funds to consider include the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEArca: XLK) and the Fidelity MSCI Information Technology Index ETF (FTEC).
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The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.
