Читать книгу The Institutional ETF Toolbox - Balchunas Eric - Страница 20

As an ETF analyst, I’m always asked, “Where did the flows come from?” or “Who did that big trade?” My answer is always the same: “I don’t know.”

No one knows. Even the issuers don’t know. There’s an anonymity and privacy to ETF investing. Anonymity – and freedom – are advantages that I never really noticed until I spent some time chatting with institutions. These advantages were brought up time and time again in discussions with institutions themselves and the ETF issuers.

While ETFs are bought and sold all the time, it is unknown who is doing the buying and selling. This is a beneficial feature to larger institutions – especially ones doing active management – because it keeps their moves on the down low. Even massive block trades that send billions into an ETF in one shot are anonymous.

“With an ETF, no one knows exactly what you are doing and you can hide behind the ETF without having to show your hand.”

Ben Fulton, Elkhorn Capital Group

Figure 1.4 shows a list of the largest trades in the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity ETF (HEDJ) during a three-month stretch. You can see that five of the trades are over one million shares, yet it is unknown who did them. We know the when, the where, and even the how (exchange order versus creation). But we don’t know the who, and we also don’t know the why. And that’s just how institutional investors like it.

Figure 1.4 The Largest Trades for HEDJ from March 19, 2015, to June 19, 2015

Source: Bloomberg