New Kids on the Block: ETF Style

19 thg 11, 2023

I recently released 2 libraries and an indicator that revolved around ETFs, their composition and their performance. Creating these libraries required me to do quite a bit of research on which ETFs are currently dominating the US market and which may be more obscure. It also lead me to discover that quite a few new ETFs with pretty powerful holdings have hit the market as recently as last month (BCLR for example).

So I thought I would take the time to go over some of the new kids on the block, the ETFs that is, and also shed some light on potentially some ETFs that you may not have heard of but may be of interest to you. After 2022, I shifted my self-managed portfolios into mostly ETFs so this topic is something that is particularly interesting for me, hope it is for you too!

So let us go over the new release ETFs and whether they are a Buy, Sell or Maybe:

Blackrock Large Cap Core ETF (AKA BLCR)



Hitting the market in October of this year and being managed by a big-name investment firm (BlackRock), this ETF is something you may want to seriously consider. With its biggest holding in MSFT, it does well in diversification. If you look at the chart above, you will see the breakdown by sector.

It is a very well-rounded ETF, though 27% of its sector holdings are tech, there is admirable diversity, especially through financial services, consumer cyclical, communication services, and Energy.

As it is new, we can’t see its performance over the past 252 trading days (1 trading year), but we can see that since it hit the market it has seen over 7% growth, likely due to its heavy investment into pretty relevant stocks.

This is on my 💰BUY💰 list, as I see this as being a hybrid of SPY and QQQ but at a better entry cost.

First Trust S-Network Streaming & Gaming ETF (AKA BNGE)



This one hit exchanges in January of 2022 and is based on streaming and gaming services. Its biggest holding is in NFLX and NTES (an internet technology company based on various online services including streaming), we can see by its holdings there is quite a hefty holding in some pretty big streaming and gaming companies, including Nintendo (NTDOY), Sony (SONY), Disney (DIS) and EA (EA).

Its past trading year history boasts a net gain of 36.54%. This is on my 🤷maybe🤷 list, as I am not big into the gaming sector and don't follow it too closely fundamentally.


Direxion Moonshot Innovators ETF (AKA AMEX:MOON)



This one came to exchanges in November of 2020 and, contrary to its name, has yet to seemingly reach the moon. This is an ETF I have mixed feelings about, as its largest holding is in Nikola Corporation. If you don’t remember, the Nikola Corporation, the corporation that was producing those electric trucks, got involved in a scandal when it turned out the prototypes that they displayed had no real engine and their stock dropped dramatically after that came to light:



This issue was only resolved in 2022 after extensive court proceedings. This resulted in the indictment of the founder Trevor Milton but not the company itself. That said, they have made progress and actually do have operational trucks that have been shipped and delivered, as of researching this they have sent out a total of 44. However, unfortunately, these trucks have, quite literally, been blowing up in flames. So yeah… not great. And probably not a great stock to lead your ETF with, but to each their own.

That said, the other holdings are quite admirable and not generally held on other ETFs. For example, they have a large holding on Robinhood (HOOD), Coinbase (COIN), and Snapchat (SNAP). And yes, these companies also have their own problems and scandals to go along with them.

Because of the aforementioned, it's not generally an ETF that would interest me as it is predominately very speculative companies, but you can decide for yourself if it's holding interest you and your tastes of investments. It may not be a bad one to have a small holding in, in case NIKOLA or COIN ever get their stuff together. For me, this would be on my ❌SELL ❌ list.

U.S. Global Jets ETF (AKA JETS)



If you are a huge aviation fan, this may be an ETF for you! While its pay year of trading has not been great, largely because the aviation industry is still feeling the shockwave effect of a post-COVID world, it does hold some very solid airline stocks such as American Airlines (AAL), Delta (DAL) and Air Canada (AC). It's in a spot where it has me considering a potential position myself, but I will let you be the judge of it! Overall, this would be on my 💰BUY💰 list.

U.S. Global Sea to Sky Cargo ETF (AKA SEA)



Hitting the markets in January of 2022, SEA has not been a great performer thus far. I am not all that familiar with the Cargo or marine sector as this has never been a sector I have personally traded and thus, I have no exposure to reviewing earnings, performance, and fundamentals of various shipping companies, but a brief look at some of its holdings show that these are pretty well-established shipping companies. Take this anecdote with a grain of salt, however, as I have not fully reviewed earnings releases or their SEC filings as I have with companies like BA, NKLA, etc.

It is definitely worth checking out, for the sole reason that marine cargo and transportation will remain the gold standard for large material shipping for many years to come. But definitely do your due diligence before investing! This is on my 🤷 maybe 🤷 list.

Xtrackers Semiconductor Select Equity ETF (AKA CHPS)

Coming to markets very recently, July of this year to be exact, this is another ETF that deals with the semiconductor and chip sector. Before, your options were SOXX and that was pretty much it, so this is a breath of fresh air for the chips industry.

As it hasn’t been on the market for very long, I can’t really speak to its performance, but if we look at its biggest holdings, it's quite a decent list. Its biggest holding is in Intel (INTC), with Nvidia (NVDA) and Qualcomm (QCOM) coming in 3 and 4 respectively. SMH and MU are also in the top 10 holdings. If we draw a comparison to SOXX’s holdings, here we are:



There is a bit of diversity between the top 10 holdings, so if you are big into the chip sector, this is definitely a must-add, in my opinion. It is on my 💰BUY💰 list.

Procure Space ETF (AKA UFO)



A very interesting ETF that bases itself with stocks that deal with space. I would absolutely love this ETF if it didn’t do the same thing as the MOON ETF, leading its holding with a company that should have gone bankrupt ages ago (aka Sirius XM). If you overlook that fact, the rest of the companies on this list are great and ones that I actually know a bit more intimately. GRMN is a top one for me, as well as GSAT and IRDM. These are companies I really like. While GSAT is kind of a non-mover, they are undergoing some major restructuring and redesigning of their infrastructure which investors are gaining increasingly more excited about. Same for IRDM.

The rest of the holdings are well-established companies, such as Viasat (VSAT) and Dish (NASDAQ:DISH). Despite the Sirus XM thing, this is on my 💰BUY💰 list.

U.S. Consumer Focused ETF by iShares (AKA IEDI)



Hitting the markets in March of 2018, this is an ETF with its predominant holdings in consumer cyclicals. Its largest holdings comprise large retail names, such as Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT), Costco (COST), and Target (TGT), as well as many others!

Its performance over the past trading year (252 days) has been approximately 6%. It's definitely an ETF I would keep my eyes on. It is on my 💰buy💰 list for the future as well. I just want to see how this giant monthly bear flag plays out 😉.

First Trust Transportation ETF (AKA FTXR)



Last but not least, we have FTXR. It’s a bit older, having hit the markets in 2016, but still new enough to include in this list. With its largest holdings being Divided between UNP, GM, UPS, F, and TSLA, it has a pretty solid holding in the transportation sector. Some notable mentions are a 4.33% holding in PCAR and a 4.21% holding in FDX.
This is on my maybe list. I do like the holdings in Ford, UPS, FDX, and PCAR. It's definitely worth an addition to your watchlist, in my opinion!

Concluding Remarks
And that concludes the list of newly released ETFs that you may not have heard about! Hope you enjoyed reading. If you are interested in checking out the indicator, which allows you to:

👉 See the breakdown of ETF by top 10 holdings and by sector,
👉 Search for which ETFs hold your favorite tickers in their top 10,
👉 Search for ETFs by Sector and
👉 Search for ETFs by Interest

You can click here to check it out!

Thanks for reading and, as always, safe trades!