Tech ETFs Sag Amid Complacency
At the risk of sounding like a Johnny
One Note, the tech-focused exchange-traded funds fell further with — once again
— no sign of a sentiment shift among the perma-bulls.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange
put-call ratio, one my of favorite psychological
indicators, ended Wednesday at a complacent 0.81.
The Dow Jones Internet iShares
(
IYV |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
forfeited 6.3%, the day’s sharpest loss among the exchange-traded funds. The Internet
Infrastructure HOLDR
(
IIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 5.9%, the Software HOLDR
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 5.8%, the B2B Internet HOLDR
(
BHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.1%, the Semiconductor HOLDR
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 5.0%, the Nasdaq 100 Tracking Stock
(
QQQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.0%.
The upside was confined for the most
part to sub-percentage point moves. One exception was the Dow Jones Healthcare
iShares
(
IYH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which added 1.1%.
The top field of all charts in this
commentary uses a logarithmic price scale and displays a 50-day price average in
red. In the second field, a
blue relative strength line represents the displayed security’s price
performance relative to the S&P 500. The third field displays vertical daily
volume bars in black with a 50-day moving average in blue for volume.
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funds combine traits
of stocks and mutual funds. Like mutual funds, an ETF represents diversified
ownership in a number of different stocks, greatly reducing company-specific
risk. Like stocks, ETFs trade on exchanges, nearly all of them in fact trade on
the American Stock Exchange at present. They quote throughout the day, enabling
traders to take advantage of intraday price moves.
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You also will find lessons on trading
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particular, check out my three-part series on trading ETFs, starting with
Average Crossovers. I also recommend newcomers read my tutorial,
HOLDRs: Unique Opportunity And Risk.