I missed the good old days when John "Jack" Bogle descended from his throne at Vanguard to gift us, humble retail investors, with the Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund (VFINX). Back in those days, low-cost investment for tracking the most well-known index was considered revolutionary and highly disruptive to the traditional fund management industry.
Fast forward to today, where we have Thematic ETFs covering every market niche (my favourite is the very appropriately named COW, otherwise known as the iShares Global Agriculture Index ETF), and "maverick" fund managers like Cathie Wood sinking her ARK ETFs (no pun intended) as high-valuation tech growth stocks melted down amid rising interest rates.
Earlier this year, our writers bought you the BECKY ETF, a hypothetical fund tracking the stocks of 10 companies loved by upper-middle-class American white girls (which unsurprisingly outperformed the market when backtested). Yesterday, I learned that a fund manager out there offered an inverse ARK ETF posting a 69% YTD return. Today, I bring you something that potentially tops both: the inverse Cramer ETF.
Inversing Cramer
Here's a crash course for those unfamiliar with who Jim Cramer is. He's a former hedge fund manager turned television personality, known for his over-the-top antics and segments as CNBC's Mad Money host. He is also the co-founder of TheStreet.com, where he contributes articles and plays a role in their quant ratings.
He's also a very prolific stock picker, as seen by these tweets that have aged oh so well. Naturally, a movement began online (on Reddit and Twitter – looking at you r/WallStreetBets) about the prospect of "inversing Cramer" – i.e. doing the opposite of what he recommends. If Cramer says to sell a particular stock, you buy. If he says to buy, you sell. Pretty simple right?
Read the full article here and screen Thematic ETFs here.
