- Chicago-based Good Harbor Financial is among the largest ETF portfolio managers and the company in May began to rebalance its $11B U.S. Tactical Core Strategy twice a month instead of once - today marks the first mid-month trade for the portfolio, reports the WSJ.
- Good Harbor's main strategy today, says the Journal, looked to be selling small caps as well as two ETFs tied to the S&P 500 (SPY -0.7%), and volume spiked in the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM -1.6%), the ProShares Ultra Russell 2000 (UWM -3%), the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV -0.7%) and the ProShares Ultra S&P 500 (SSO -1.5%).
- Good Harbors was the largest single holder of three of those funds as of the end of March, and the 2nd largest holder of the fourth.
- As it sold the equity ETFs, Good Harbors appeared to be buying two mid-to-long-dated Treasury bond ETFs, the iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund (IEF +0.3%) and the ProShares Ultra 7-10 Year Treasury ETF (UST +0.7%), with both having volumes many multiples higher than normal.
- Good Harbors was also a seller of small caps and a buyer of Treasurys in early May, says the Journal, which earlier this year reported traders growing accustomed to waiting for the firm's monthly rebalance.
- ETFs: IWM, IJS, TZA, TNA, UWM, VB, IJR, SLY, EES, VBR, RWJ, VBK, URTY, SCHA, TWM, IWO, IWN, IJT, RWM, SRTY, DWAS, SAA, VTWO, JKL, RZV, SLYG, SLYV, VIOO, SDD, SBB, RZG, JKJ, RSCO, VTWG, UKK, VIOG, TILT, FYX, FNDA, VIOV, XSLV, FYT, SKK, JKK, EWRS, TWOK, PXSV, VTWV, SMLV, UVT, SJH, PXSC, IESM, FYC, VLU, PXSG