understanding etfs

[happy trading]

if an etf has for example 100 stocks and for arguments sake lets say one percent is invested in each stock. is it trading in total sync with the outcome of all the stocks or do all the millions of shares that trade the etf cause it to not be in sync since it trades like its own stock?

 

[s trader]

I say not in sync. If i bot 100 stocks and sell the etf. The market would find a way to screw me both ways...but that is just my own experience.

 

[DaveV]

Usually, the ETF trades close to the total value of the underlying stocks. If the ETF bid or ask is too far from the underlying stocks, it presents an arbitrage opportunity to buy one and short the other. Note however, that thinly traded ETFs can indeed have bid/asks far from the underlying.

 

[ph1l]

The price for ETFs can be at a discount or premium to their net asset value.
https://www.thestreet.com/etffocus/trade-ideas/etfs-with-the-largest-premiums-discounts-to-nav

ETFs With The Largest Premiums & Discounts To NAV
ETFs typically trade very close to their NAV, but financial market instability has created both bargains and bad deals.

• DAVID DIERKING
• APR 18, 2020

If you're a closed-end fund trader, you're all too familiar with the concept of discounts to NAV. Since CEFs are fixed baskets of securities, they trade like stocks on the exchanges - based on supply and demand. That often means that investors are only willing to pay less than fair value for the portfolio (or a premium if the perceived demand is high). CEFs trade this way because there are only a fixed number of shares available.

ETFs typically don't behave this way. They have a share creation/destruction mechanism in place that keeps share prices very closely to their underlying NAVs. Any discount or premium to NAV is usually very small in nature.

But that hasn't been the case lately for an unusually large number of ETFs. The rapid economic shutdown from the coronavirus, the subsequent liquidity crunch across all areas of the economy and the unprecedented fiscal stimulus package from the Fed have all teamed up to create an unusual degree of instability in the marketplace.

Large swings in demand for certain sectors have caused even ETFs to deviate from their underlying values much in the same way the price of hand sanitizer shot through the roof when coronavirus fears first took hold.

As you might expect, the most significant disconnects come from the areas of the market that currently have the highest risk (e.g. junk bonds) or products in which few shares trade and there is simply a lack of an adequate number of buyers and sellers.

Some of these discounts could be viewed as short-term in nature and a bargain buying opportunity. Since we rarely see this type of behavior in ETFs, it's difficult to say for sure if these are good deals or not but they're worth identifying in the event that they are.

Here are some of the largest current NAV discounts in the ETF space.

Ticker Name Discount
DWCR

Arrow DWA Country Rotation ETF

-11.79

VAMO

Cambria Value & Momentum ETF

-5.38

HYD

VanEck Vectors High Yield Municipal ETF

-5.12

SHYD

VanEck Vectors Short-Term High Yield Municipal ETF

-4.85

HYLD

High Yield ETF

-4.72

HYZD

WisdomTree Interest Rate Hedged High Yield Bond ETF

-4.19

NGE

Global X MSCI Nigeria ETF

-3.26

As you can see, the list is dominated by junk bond ETFs, one of the most polarizing areas of the market. The coronavirus has exposed the financial conditions of not just debt already rated junk, but BBB bonds that are now getting downgraded into junk.

Once the market stabilizes, I'd expect these funds to begin seeing their discounts shrink and trade closer to their NAVs, but who knows where this goes in the short-term.

On the flip side, here are some of the largest premiums.

Ticker Name Premium
FLV

American Century Focused Large-Cap Value ETF

9.45

MIDZ

Direxion Daily Mid Cap Bear 3X ETF

4.83

BDRY

Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF

2.90

USO

United States Oil Fund

2.74

A little bit of everything here. The shipping sector has been highly volatile and incredibly beaten down, so the disconnect isn't surprising. Same story with oil. USL is trading at a similar premium, so it's disconnecting across the board.

 

[2rosy]

around 12 years ago all etfs were inline with its indicative NAV. If an etf was out of line with iNAV liquidity will be an issue so you cannot just buy constituents and sell the etf and do a create end of day. What did work back then was trading tight market ETFs composed of wide market components and leg into a complete basket over time. Or as an institutional ETF MM and milk pension funds or the like

 

[murray t turtle]

Usually, the ETF trades close to the total value of the underlying stocks. If the ETF bid or ask is too far from the underlying stocks, it presents an arbitrage opportunity to buy one and short the other. Note however, that thinly traded ETFs can indeed have bid/asks far from the underlying.

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Good points.
General rule + it applies to ETFs + stocks. Home/business, improvement contractors, can get a better deal because of better volume + most have more specific wisdom.
[2] 444 plus pages[annual report/prosptcus of ETFs like TQQQ, SPXL,SSO, QLD.......; they can do things no one person or stock can, including but not limited to end of day pricing.
[An advantage for me personally + it would not apply to all\ i would not want to keep up or down with 100 stocks or 500. Even if i enjoyed study of 100, 500/505 stocks ]