One clear emerging power trend is financial technology, or fintech. Indeed, many young people today have never stepped foot inside a bank, observes Carl Delfeld, editor of Cabot Global Stocks Explorer.
Thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones, the internet and fintech, people have a whole new set of options for how to manage their finances and grow their portfolios.
Global X FinTech ETF (FINX) is the oldest and most established on the list with more than $400 million in assets and more than three years of track record on public markets.
The tactics of this fund involve putting money behind companies “helping to transform established industries like insurance, investing, fundraising, and third-party lending,” according to Global X.
The ARK family of ETFs may not be as well known as some of the others in the market, but these unique offerings are focused on disruptive areas of technology and growth, from biotech stocks to self-driving vehicles.
ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) is the fintech offering, launched in early 2019 and offering exposure to firms in mobile payments as well as digital wallets and blockchain technology.
This includes Square (SQ) as well as a smattering of digital retail plays, including South American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre (MELI).
A smaller and more recent entrant, Tortoise Digital Payments Infrastructure Fund (TPAY) is also a twist on digital payments but one that focuses on the infrastructure required for 21st-century transactions.
This ETF’s top holding is Fiserv (FISV), which offers risk management and compliance services as well as technology services to banks. Another holding is DocuSign (DOCU), which provides security and verification services.
Rather than build up an installed user base with a payment app or demand billions in linked accounts, these companies count the banks themselves as clients.
If the name of Innovation Shares NextGen Protocol ETF (KOIN) has you wondering what it has to do with fintech, the ticker offers a clue. This fund focuses on blockchain technology that powers crypto currencies including bitcoin, ether and others.
Though crypto currencies can be volatile, the technology behind them has captured the imagination of many investors. Blockchain is a way to track and digitize assets of any form in a secure and decentralized way.
The largest of NextGen’s holdings are tangential plays like chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA). NextGen is in position to give investors an easy way to play the growth in crypto currencies – without the volatility of owning actual bitcoin.
