VettaFi’s director of ETF research, Todd Rosenbluth, joined TD Ameritrade’s The Watchlist and host Nicole Petallides to share news from VettaFi as well as discuss a big anniversary for the Invesco S&P 500® Equal Weight ETF (RSP).
VettaFi recently acquired the indexes over at ROBO Global, though not the ETFs themselves, Rosenbluth explained, amid growing interest in thematic investing and the burgeoning popularity of AI investing available in AI strategies like the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ), and ROBO’s ROBO Global Healthcare Technology and Innovation ETF (HTEC).
“Thematic index investing has been increasingly popular this year, we’re seeing really strong sentiment improved towards more than technology and growth-oriented themes,” Rosenbluth said. “We’re seeing advisors use thematic ETFs as a modest slice roughly 5% of the overall portfolio and they’re staying loyal to the strategies but often swinging based on sentiment.”
AI has gained traction in part thanks to ChatGPT’s emergence, with media attention into not only machine learning chatbots like ChatGPT but also the use of AI in automation driving investor interest in ETFs like BOTZ, HTEC, and the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ).
That wasn’t the only big news to discuss Thursday, however, as Rosenbluth also pointed out the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Invesco S&P 500® Equal Weight ETF (RSP) coming up. RSP charges a 20 basis point fee to equally weight the S&P 500 to provide better diversification and get more from some of the smaller cap firms in the index.
See more: “Overcome S&P 500 Concentration Risk with RSP”
“This was the first of those more smart beta-oriented strategies, and it’s outperformed the broader S&P 500, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) over the last three years,” Rosenbluth said. “Most things are roughly 20 basis points overall. And that gives you the benefits of diversification that you tend to think of with an ETF but with the stocks spread across the full portfolio instead of a market cap weighted approach.”
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