PowerShares Private Equity ETF As A Tell On PE's Top

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: For several weeks now, investors have been debating whether or not the private equity boom has peaked or still has more room to run. In the process, any number of statistics has been presented to support either the bullish or bearish case.

One which we have not seen much mention of is the performance of the ETF which seeks to invest in publicly traded companies that function similarly to private equity firms - it's called the PowerShares Listed Private Equity Portfolio (PSP).

If this ETF is accurate in its investment objective, then although the boom in private equity may not be over, it is certainly taking a rest. Since peaking on June 4th, the index has declined by 7.6%, while over the same period, the S&P 500 has risen by 0.45%.

click to enlarge