The VanEck Social Sentiment ETF, launched with the support of Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday and could drive notable movements in various technology and industrial stocks over the coming weeks, according to Jim Cramer.
The Buzz ETF, as it is often referred to, is based on 75 shares, each with a minimum market cap of $ 5 billion, which were chosen by an algorithm based on their positive sentiment on social media. It will begin trading on the NYSE under the symbol BUZZ and is managed by VanEck Associates Corp.
The 75 shares will be rebalanced each month, with added replacements and low-yield shares, based on what its founders call the highest degree of “positive investor sentiment,” obtained from the study of some 15 million publications in various social networks.
TheStreet founder Jim Cramer said Thursday that the ETF and its stock selection technique are “fascinating” and will likely move many of the 75 names they contain if traders accept Portnoy’s call to invest in them.
“Social media and mobile technology have fundamentally changed the way we relate to stocks,” the ETF website said. “There are a lot of talks online every day. The changing sentiment and our collective opinions clearly affect its value.”
The ETF itself was down 1.11% to $ 24.13 early in trading on Thursday, compared with a 0.17% drop in the Nasdaq Composite Index.
Twitter (TWTR) – Get the report Shares, the ETF’s largest allotment with 3.52%, were down 1.5% at $ 69.70 each, but have risen more than 77% in the past six months.
The second largest group of online sports betting DraftKings (DKNG) – Get the report, was down 1.3% to $ 64.90, a move that reduces its six-month gain by about 80%.
Ford Motor Co. (F) – Get the report, the third-largest allocation, rose 0.2% more to $ 12.20 each, up 77.5% over the past six months.
Other EFT funds include Facebook (FB) – Get the report (with 3% of total holdings), Amazon (AMZN) – Get the report (2.94%), Apple (AAPL) – Get the report (2.9%) and Tesla (TSLA) – Get the report (2.75%).