The VanEck Vectors
® Real Asset Allocation ETF (“RAAX”) returned +2.29% versus -2.15% for the Bloomberg Commodity Index. March was another strong month for RAAX. The largest contributors to performance, from largest to smallest, were income assets with a return of +5.66%, financial assets with a return of +2.72% and resource assets, with a return of +0.48%.
President Joe Biden recently announced an ambitious $2.3 trillion spending plan to upgrade the nation’s bridges, roads, schools and more. This level of investment is going to require a lot of natural resources to complete. This combined with the unprecedented monetary support from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and the other aggressive fiscal support programs, is creating strong inflationary pressures. In our view, this leads to a very nice outlook for real assets and, more specifically, RAAX.
The VanEck Vectors
® Real Asset Allocation ETF (“RAAX”) returned +4.61% versus +6.47% for the Bloomberg Commodity Index. In general, most real assets continue to benefit from the expectation of higher inflation, while oil prices were lifted higher due to supply constraints that resulted from the deadly storm in Texas. On the other hand, income producing real assets were negatively impacted by the rapid surge in interest rates. Gold prices remain under pressure due to optimism about future growth and the subsequent rise in interest rates. And lastly, Bitcoin, which RAAX added exposure to for the first time last month, surged from $32,601 to an intra-month and all-time high of $57,355.
The VanEck Vectors
® Real Asset Allocation ETF (“RAAX”) returned 7.21+% versus +2.63% for the Bloomberg Commodity Index. January started off strongly, RAAX was up 5.39% mid-way through the month, but it gave back much of this performance to finish the month with a total return of 1.24% as fears of dangerous COVID-19 mutations weighed upon the market.[1]
RAAX invests in three types of real assets: financial assets, income assets and resource assets. RAAX evolved and diversified its financial assets in February by gaining exposure to the price of bitcoin. This was accomplished with an initial investment of 2% into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. We believe that digital assets may offer RAAX many of the same benefits as gold. Most notably, protection against inflation and currency debasement in addition to overall portfolio diversification.
3 Tactical ETFs That Could Be Flashing Buy Signals December 31, 2020
Whether it’s for a short-term ETF play for quick gain or to shore up portfolios with long-term buy-and-hold positions, investors want to know they’re getting in on the right price. While it’s nearly impossible to time the market, here are three potential ETFs that could be flashing buy signals.
First up is the
® Real Asset Allocation ETF (RAAX), which is an actively managed fund. In pursuing long-term total return, the Fund seeks to maximize real returns while seeking to reduce downside risk during sustained market declines by allocating primarily to exchange-traded products that provide exposure to real assets, which include commodities, real estate, natural resources, and infrastructure.