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SPLV

PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio ETF

5/19/2013, 7:58 PM ET

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Tuesday, April 16, 9:25 AM There's not too many surprises in ETF action yesterday, with areas like the bond market (AGG), real estate (IYR), low volatility (SPLV), and pharmaceuticals (IHE) seeing big inflows, and small caps (IWM), energy (XLE), energy exploration (XOP), and materials (XLB) seeing a wave of cash exit. Comment!
Friday, March 22, 2:29 PM Bill Luby takes a look at the low volatility fad, checking the performance of the popular SPLV against the high beta SPHB. Over longer periods - and even in bull markets - low volatility appears to have a high probability of outperforming high beta, particularly when risk-adjusted. The biggest risk is a sharp bull move similar to the last few months in which high beta leaves the defensive stocks in the dust. Comment!
Tuesday, March 19, 3:05 PM The low volatility space continues to be a popular one with PowerShares' SPLV surpassing $4B in AUM in its less than 2 years of existence. The fund holds the 100 stocks in the S&P 500 with the lowest volatility over the previous year, and has outperformed the SPY by more than 600 bps since inception. Competitors include: USMV, IDLV, EEMV, SMLV, LGLV. Comment!
Thursday, February 28, 6:46 PM ALPS debuts an options-focused High Volatility Put Write ETF HVPW today. As low-volatility ETFs gains focus in the ETF space with recent fund launches, HVPW gives investors an opportunity for exposure to puts on high-volatility stocks (whose options, naturally, command a risk premium in prices). HVPW charges 0.95%, higher in contrast to other option funds BWV and PBP, charging 0.75%. 1 Comment
Thursday, February 21, 4:26 PM State Street rolls out 2 low-volatility ETFs: SPDR Russell 1000 Low Volatility (LGLV) and SPDR Russell 2000 Low Volatility (SMLV). SMLV has an expense ratio of 0.25% while LGLV is the cheapest among peers at 0.20%. Competitors SPLV, IDLV, XMLV and XSLV charge 0.25% while EELV charges 0.29%. Demand for low volatility ETFs has picked up due to recent risk-adjusted outperformance vs. standard market cap weighted funds. Comment!
Tuesday, February 19, 3:31 PM The red-hot low volatility investing sector gets two more ETFs with State Street launching Thursday the SPDR Russell 1000 Low Vol. ETF (LGLV) and the SPDR Russell 2000 Low Vol. ETF (SMLV). The original low vol. ETF (SPLV) has outperformed the SPY by about 400 bps since its May 2011 inception. The sector ETFs have taken in $1.5B thus far in 2013, about 1/3 of the total for all 2012. 2 Comments [Financials]
Friday, February 15, 3:41 AM PowerShares expands its Low Volatility ETF suite with 2 new ETFs: S&P MidCap Low Volatility (XMLV) and S&P SmallCap Low Volatility (XSLV). The ETFs come with a 0.25% expense ratios, in line with counterpart IDLV (0.25%) and SPLV (0.25%), and slightly less than EELV (0.29%). Over the recent 1-year period, SPLV returned 16.36%, 68 basis points better than SPY, with an SD of just 8.6% vs. 12.8% for SPY. (pdf) 1 Comment
Tuesday, January 29, 7:50 PM Direxion strategy ETFs VLAT and VSPR, which track the S&P volatility index, marked the first ETF closures of 2013, as they failed to generate investment interest. With more uncertainty on the global economy, volatility ETFs have remained under pressure, making this investment proposition unattractive. The closure comes within one year of their launch. Comment! [U.S. Economy]
Thursday, December 13, 2012, 9:08 AM The envelope please ... The winner of the ETP of the year is Invesco's PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility Portfolio (SPLV). The trend-setting product has generated a good deal of alpha - total return of 18.3% since May 2011 inception vs. S&P of 9.9% - by holding the lowest volatility stocks. It now has more than $3B in AUM. 1 Comment [Quick Ideas]
Thursday, November 29, 2012, 3:53 PM Dubbed the "Fearless Index" by Brendan Conway, the CBOE is set to launch a Low Volatility Index tomorrow. It tracks the S&P 500, but adds in the returns of a covered call strategy - that of selling stock index calls while buying "disaster insurance" options on the VIX. Tricky stuff, but the success of SPLV and USMV makes it clear investors have great interest in the promise of smoother returns, writes Conway. Comment!
Saturday, October 1, 2011, 8:50 AM Safe havens are offering little more than wealth protection (if that), and if you were thinking of dividend stocks, they may have a long way down to go yet. What about getting off the coaster? Over the past two months, S&P's Low Volatility Index lost just 1.1% vs. the overall market's 9.8% decline, and it's holding up over longer periods too (+80% over the past 10 years). New low-volatility ETFs: SPLV, LVOL, LBTA, SLVY, SLBT, BTAL. 11 Comments [U.S. Economy, Quick Ideas]