ETF Investors: How to Capitalize on Suffering Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

“Retail is being profoundly disrupted by shoppers moving online, oversaturated markets and changing consumer behaviors,” Sapir said. “While some retailers that rely on in-store sales may be able to adapt, we believe those will be a minority, and that the long-term trend is against these companies and in favor EMTY’s strategy.”

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Long Online/Short Stores ETF is a type of long-short strategy and the first ETF to track the potential growth of online companies while benefiting from the decline of bricks and mortar retailers. Specifically, CLIX reflects the new ProShares Long Online/Short Stores Index, which combines a 100% long portfolio of on-line and non-traditional retailers with a 50% short position in bricks and mortar retailers.

“With CLIX, investors not only receive the investment potential of online retailers like Amazon and Alibaba but also have the possibility of additional return from short exposure to traditional retailers,” Sapir added. “CLIX’s 50% net exposure to the equity markets may result in less volatility than typical long-only equity strategies.”

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