Financial Analysts Journal 12 March 2019 Volume 75 Issue 2
The Revenge of the Stock Pickers
Overview
When an exchange-traded fund (ETF) trades heavily around a theme, correlations among its constituents increase significantly. Even some securities that have little or negative exposure to the theme itself begin to trade in lockstep with other ETF constituents. In other words, because ETF investors are agnostic to security-level information, they often “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” As the prices of individual stocks get dragged up or down with ETFs, these mispricings can become significant, and the profits realized by taking advantage of them may present an opportunity for stock pickers.
About the Author(s)
Hailey Lynch is a quantitative analyst in the global multi-asset division at T. Rowe Price, Baltimore.
Sébastien Page, CFA, is head of Global Multi-Asset and member of the Management Committee at T. Rowe Price, Baltimore.
Robert A. Panariello, CFA, is a portfolio manager and a quantitative analyst in the Multi-Asset Division at T. Rowe Price, Baltimore.
James A. Tzitzouris, Jr., is director of research in the global multi-asset division at T. Rowe Price, Baltimore.
David Giroux, CFA, is CIO and portfolio manager in the US equity division at T. Rowe Price, Baltimore.