Forum Topics ETFs enabled on STRAWMAN!
Bear77
3 years ago

Hi Andrew - While the "GOLD" ETF still does not have any pricing on Strawman.com, "PMGOLD" (Perth Mint Gold ETF) isn't even recognised here as a legitimate ASX ticker code.

Any ideas?  It would appear that at this point, QAU is the ONLY option within Strawman.com to get gold exposure via an ETF, and it's currency hedged.  I you do NOT want currency hedged gold exposure, there are currently zero options (for unhedged gold exposure through an ETF).  Does that sound right?

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Strawman
3 years ago

It's pretty frustrating, sorry Bear77. 

We request the full list of ASX Exchange Traded Products from S&P's API every day, but for some reason a few are not being recognised. The issue is at their end and they tell me they're looking into it.

Hopefully we'll get a resolution soon!

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PabloEskyBruh
3 years ago

I just had the strangest feeling of inversion reading this.  I'm a committed low-cost index fund investor and would have thought I'd be quite happy with this idea.  However, it's like I am seeing this from the perspective of an active fund manger for the first time.

Do you think this could skew the utility of scorecards?  Could a person place a big portion of their funds in a ETF (say VAS) and mirror the ASX 300 benchmark and,  with one or two good picks, give the impression of achieving out-sized alpha? I think this is the "closet indexing " argument.

Also, if ASX 300 is our benchmark, is it fair to allow overseas markets (via NDQ for example) into that race?

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Strawman
3 years ago

Yeah a choice of benchmark can be difficult. For us it's just about seeing what returns people -- individually and as a whole -- can generate by investing directly on the ASX. If people want to try index hugging, or any strategy whatsoever, our view is that the merits (or otherwise) of that approach will be borne out by the returns delivered over time. So we're pretty agnostic in terms of investment strategies (even though I personally have strong views on what works for me). Whatever approach people take, we're happy if it delivers long-term, market beating returns. We think the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX:VAS) gives a pretty good benchmark. But you can always contextualise the returns of others by reviewing their trade history and holdings. And on Strawman, it's more about how you compare to other members (at least in terms of how it impacts the Community Ranking and Leaderboards). At any rate, we'll see how it goes. A lot depends on how popular ETFs are among Strawman users.

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Strawman
3 years ago

Hi all -- just a quick note to say we've enabled ETFs on Strawman.

You can now buy and sell any ASX-listed ETF for your virtual portfolio, as well as post Straws and Valuations for it.

Anything that is listed here: https://www2.asx.com.au/markets/trade-our-cash-market/asx-investment-products-directory/etps is available.

Let us know if you spot anything, and keen to see which ETFs are the ost popular among our members!

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Dominator
3 years ago

Great addition to the platform! Will ETFs be eligible to be added to the Strawman index or will it remain for companies only? Are there any plans to separate out companies from ETFs in terms of information on rankings etc?

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Strawman
3 years ago

Yeah ETFs could be added to the Strawman Index if any of them break the top 15 in terms of the value held across member portfolios. Same rules as for regular stocks. No plans as yet to break them out in an individual ranking, but happy to if enough people like that idea.

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Thanks strawman, thought I would be a guinea pig and add a small amount of the GOLD ETF to my strawman portfolio. Just flagging it in case you want to see a real example go through. Still pending I think at the moment but I notice sometimes the trades can go though later so should be all good I assume.

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Strawman
3 years ago

Ah looks like you picked the one ETF where the price data hasnt come through @steevegreenycom. Apologies for that, i've notified S&P and will get it sorted ASAP

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AlphaAngle
3 years ago

I guess that means we can short on strawman now lol.

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good point from @AlphaAngle for shorting I can see BBOZ & BBUS. Who is brave enough for that? Or how about GEAR ETF, long GEAR and BBUS to spice things up? No from me but good luck for those who play in those ones!

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I think there still must be no price coming through for the GOLD ETF. Looking at trading the last 2 days I had a pending trade that should have normally gone through so just flagging it in case it has slipped off you radar. I shall leave the trade in that pending stage.

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Strawman
3 years ago

We'll backdate that for you @Steevegreenycom S&P are aware and are fixing it. Apologies for the delay.

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Hi strawman just a quick update on that GOLD ETF I tried to buy in my portfolio, I don't think the price data end up getting fixed. I left it in pending stage untouched but now it looks like the pending trade has disappeared. You are welcome to backdate it in to my portfolio if you like. Just let me know how you want to handle it, the cash balance is there if you want to include it think it was just around a $4k buy. Have any other users bought any different ETFs to their portfolios yet?

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Strawman
3 years ago

S&P are yet to get back to us, but I'll follow up first thing Monday. Apologies for the delay.

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Bear77
3 years ago

Hi stevegreenycom, I have two pending trades for 2 gold ETFs, being QAU and GOLD - both lodged on Friday, but neither went through - mostly because one of my sell trades didn't go through (NXL) because despite diving almost 30% during the day, Nuix went quite a bit lower during the closing auction, finishing down -32.44% for the day - NXL is a recent IPO, & had a disappointing result and a poor outlook, so I'm out.  That's the second time in the past week I've missed out on dumping a dog because I didn't set the sell price low enough.  On Thursday I put in a sell order for all my SSM (Service Stream) shares here on Strawman at $1.36, when they were trading in the $1.40s, having dropped from $1.70 on Wednesday (bad report, worse outlook).  They closed at $1.34 on Thursday, going down heaps more in the closing auction, and I had to sell them on Friday for $1.15 (my sell price limit was $1.10 on Friday).  Compare that to what I sold my RL portfolio SSM shares for on Thursday - which was $1.49.  BIG difference.  $1.49 vs. $1.15 here.  SSM opened at $1.53 on Thursday and just kept dropping all day, and all day Friday as well.  Commsec shows them as having hit a high of $1.605 on Thursday but that is false because I had an opening auction bid in at $1.59 and did not go through - I later had to drop that to $1.49 to get it through, and they kept falling from there as well.  The ASX shows $1.53 as being their day high, and that is correct.  Taking closing prices here instead of intraday prices has hurt me quite a bit here lately.  So has being overweight gold stocks.  The combination of both has seen me underperform the index by quite a margin over the past couple of weeks.

The gold stocks is all me - I can't blame anyone else for that.  It is all about positioning.  It worked in March and April 2020 when I loaded up on smashed down miners, mining services companies and energy plays, and then watched most of them double or better during the remainder of the year, and that's what I'm hoping to do with gold producers who have been seriously oversold at this point.  But I don't have all of my eggs in that basket.  More than most people, but not all.  The end-of-day-pricing however is out of my control, but them's the rules, and we all have to abide by them.  

But back to QAU and GOLD.  It looks like QAU will go through when I have sufficient funds to cover the trade (when NXL sells) but GOLD is showing as a "pending trade" that can not be changed or cancelled, suggesting that the system is still waiting on data at this point, so I think I'm going to have the same issue as you with the GOLD ETF.

P.S.  Also - not sure if this is relevant but I do note that "GOLD" is not only the code for the physical gold ETF - it is also the code for Barrick Gold on the NYSE (one of the two largest gold companies in the world, the other being Newmont) - so I wonder whether that's causing some confusion with the data download...?

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Yes @Bear77 I assume orders will work with QAU once your cash position is sufficient. When I looked at half a dozen or so other ETFs in the strawman system by opening up a trade ticket I can see the last traded price so others shouldn't be put off placing orders in a whole heap of the other ETFs. GOLD is just different at the moment as a "last price" is not displayed.

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Bear77
3 years ago

Yep, 88 QAU (currency hedged Gold ETF) have now been added to my Strawman.com scorecard however the GOLD ETF trade did not go through.  Any feedback from S&P yet Strawman?

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