Big Data Shoots for Big Future Returns

The world’s first big data and analytics exchanged-traded fund is the PureFunds ISE Big Data ETF (BIGD).

“Big data” is a recent concept that refers to extremely large data sets that may be analyzed by computers to reveal important patterns and trends. The concept is widely applied in fields associated with human behavior and interactions.
Some experts estimate that by 2019, big data will drive $48.6 billion in annual spending worldwide. That dollar total would be 44 times the 2009 figure.

Big data is an area of analytics that has potential to play a much more significant role down the road. To put things in perspective, according to a 2013 report by SINTEF, a large independent research organization in Norway, 90% of all the data in the world has been generated over the last two years. Furthermore, IBM estimates that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data now are created each day.

With just $4.02 million in total assets under management, BIGD has been a fairly quiet and small ETF compared to many other technology funds currently on the market. In fact, you may have heard of its sister fund, HACK, which is a bigger ETF focused on companies in the cyber security field.

BIGD was launched in July 2015 with the aim of tracking equities that provide software and services related to big data. The fund’s market value has increased by 7.31% since inception, and year to date it has generated a return of 15.74% to beat the S&P 500’s 9.16%. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.75%.

Currently, BIGD only has 35 holdings in its portfolio and is roughly evenly divided so that each holding composes around 3% of the overall weight. The fund generally steers clear of investing in giant tech firms like Apple and Microsoft and instead concentrates on smaller data-centric firms.

The fund’s top five holdings, as of June 21, 2017, are Alliance Data Systems Corp., 3.20%; Hexagon AB, 3.19%; Hortonworks Inc., 3.18%; Medidata Solutions Inc., 3.18%; Thomson Reuters Corp. 3.15%. If you believe in the future of heavy analytics using extremely large sets of data, I encourage you to look to PureFunds ISE Big Data ETF (BIGD) to add to your portfolio.

As always, I am happy to answer any of your questions about ETFs, so do not hesitate to send me an email. You just may see your question answered in a future ETF Talk.

Jim Woods

Jim Woods is a 20-plus-year veteran of the markets with varied experience as a broker, hedge fund trader, financial writer, author and newsletter editor. Jim is the editor of Intelligence Report, Investing Edge, the Bullseye Stock Trader, and The Deep Woods (formerly the Weekly ETF Report). His books include co-authoring, “Billion Dollar Green: Profit from the Eco Revolution,” and “The Wealth Shield: How to Invest and Protect Your Money from Another Stock Market Crash, Financial Crisis or Global Economic Collapse.” He’s also ghostwritten many books and articles, as well as edited content for some of the investment industry’s biggest luminaries. His articles have appeared on many leading financial websites, including StockInvestor.com, InvestorPlace.com, Main Street Investor, MarketWatch, Street Authority, Human Events and many others. Jim formerly worked with Investor’s Business Daily founder William J. O’Neil, helping to author training courses in the CANSLIM stock-picking methodology. The independent firm TipRanks rates Jim the No. 3 financial blogger in the world (out of more than 6,000). TipRanks calculates that, since 2012, he's made 361 successful recommendations out of 499 total, earning a success rate of 72% and a +15.3% average return per recommendation. He is known in professional and personal circles as “The Renaissance Man,” because his expertise includes such varied fields as composing and performing music; Western horsemanship, combat marksmanship, martial arts, auto racing and bodybuilding. Jim holds a BA in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a former U.S. Army paratrooper. A self-described “radical for capitalism,” he celebrates the virtue of making money from his Southern California horse ranch.