A once-obscure airline ETF has seen assets surge nearly 3,000% in 3 months, boosted by millennial day traders
- The US Global Jets exchange-traded fund, ticker JETS, notched its 64th day of inflows Tuesday, bringing total assets to more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg data.
- That's a surge of nearly 3,000% in just three months — in early March, the fund had only $33 million.
- The boost has been led largely by millennial day traders looking to cash in on assets hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
- Read more on Business Insider.
Day traders have piled into an obscure airline exchange-traded fund, boosting its total assets in the last three months as the coronavirus pandemic slammed markets.
The US Global Jets ETF, ticker JETS, notched its 64th day of inflows Tuesday, bringing total assets to more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg data. That's a surge of nearly 3,000% in just three months — in early March, the fund held only $33 million.
The boost has been led largely by millennial day traders looking to cheaply buy assets hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The ETF's popularity on retail investing platforms has exploded — the number of Robinhood users holding JETS surged to 30,000 this week from 500 in early March, Bloomberg reported, citing data from Robintrack.
JETS's popularity comes even as seasoned investors exit airline positions. In early May, Warren Buffett announced that Berkshire Hathaway exited its position in airlines, saying that the industry may not recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Since, JETS has had nearly $300 million in inflows, according to Bloomberg.
Even despite the ETF's recent success, JETS is down roughly 43% year-to-date, after suffering in the coronavirus-induced market meltdown earlier in the year. The fund's top holdings consist of the four major US airlines, and it will soon begin investing in Canadian carriers as well.
