With a growing number of individuals and firms continuing to work from home as a result of coronavirus pandemic quarantine and restrictions, a number of companies have actually benefitted from the transition, noting an increase in performance. Businesses with a concentration on cybersecurity, communications, and project management have all seen a spike in growth. This awkward but productive transformation presents an opportunity for investors who are looking to invest in the companies that have benefitted, without opting to buy them separately. For those investors, an ETF like the Direxion Work From Home ETF (WFH) could be the ticket.

“We’re witnessing the greatest acceleration in the shift to remote work than we’ve ever seen before,” said David Mazza, Managing Director at Direxion. “WFH meets the demand of investors looking to gain diversified exposure to firms providing the technologies helping to improve data security, facilitate on-demand access, enable virtual collaboration, and empower digital connectivity.”

WFH is a unique fund that offers exposure to companies across four technology pillars, allowing investors to gain exposure to those companies that stand to benefit from an increasingly flexible work environment. The four pillars include Cloud Technologies, Cybersecurity, Online Project and Document Management, and Remote Communications. Companies are selected for inclusion in the index by ARTIS, a proprietary natural language processing algorithm, which uses keywords to evaluate large volumes of publicly available information, such as annual reports, business descriptions, and financial news.

“Firms big and small are going from just a few people working remotely to everyone,” said Inkoo Kang, Direxion Product V.P.

The fund takes advantage of the concept that the coronavirus could be transformational, altering the way businesses function in both the short and long term.

“This revolution is causing businesses large and small to reinvent the workplace. With the onset of COVID-19 we have seen that revolution just accelerate dramatically,” said President of Direxion, Robert Nestor.

With companies like Apple and Twitter making work at home more commonplace, creating permanent options for employees who would like to maintain that way of working, the Work At Home Direxion ETF could stand to benefit from the changes.

“CFOs have said 54% of companies are going to make remote work a permanent option. I actually feel like I’m more productive working from home than I actually was in the office,” said David Mazza, Managing director, head of product.

Mazza explained that the WFH selects stocks using artificial intelligence to achieve a balanced mixture of different and developing technologies that are likely to benefit significantly from the transition to stay-at-home employment during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
“Our Work at Home’s benchmark Index comprises four established and emerging technologies— 10 stocks in each category. With employees in disparate locations, the ability and requirement to be able to access data anywhere is only going to increase going forward,” said Mazza.
“The fund’s benchmark Index selects securities using a type of artificial intelligence called natural language processing to identify the best stocks that are going to be representative of the themes powering Work From Home,” explained Mazza.
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