Does anyone have any suggestions for defence ETF’s?
@lee
Morning 
,
I like JustETF for looking up ETF’s - and they show only these 4 ETF’s, all accumulating, when looking for “defen”
(https://www.justetf.com/uk/search.html?search=ETFS&query=defen)
3 of these ETF’s are available in IE - the Global X ETF is not available yet - I have just asked for it to be added.
Request can be found here: ETF Request - Global X Defence Tech UCITS ETF USD Accumulating
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Thanks Pinch - good suggestions. I had seen a couple of these on just etf. They are heavily US focused and i just wonder if it’s europe spending the money if they’ll try and use euro companies over the us and if there was anything more skewed to europe 
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@lee
Well… weapons development, whether they be fighter jets or body armour or digital “stuff” or anything else, needs certain conditions to be possible… favourable taxes, R&D, laboratories etc.
And while there has been, in general, widely publicised coverage in the media overall on cooperation in Europe when it comes to civilian (Airbus) and scientific endeavours (Renishaw in Gloucestershire and the Institute for Space at the University of Leicester to name but 2 contributors) - the news about military developments are scarce and one has to look into annual reports in order to see current and future money allocations.
Although the news from the US regarding demands on NATO to increase defence spending may have come as a surprise to the general public I would think that this had already been thought of as a possibility after the election.
And I’d wager that therefore plans have already been in place to allocate / redirect money accordingly - however public opinion about it still needs to be manipulated / swayed / influenced in most countries.
I would suggest subscribing to the newsletters of JustETF and ETFStream so as to be informed when new ETF’s launch / are being thought of.
For a broad sweep of topics I also subscribe to David Stevenson’s newsletter / substack.
This is the latest mention of Defence ETF’s I can find in his writings - 10/10/2024
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Morning
Oh, yes, you can definitely do this - but then it wouldn’t be an ETF 
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Best platform in this case might be Trading212.
Have you tried lightyear? I have heard a few good things.
And if we are not counting ETF’s i guess we could look at funds too - although i’ve no no research on funds yet.
The flip of this is if i’m making it too complicated - and i should just drop more into a Europe Etf and buy the whole market and trust that will cover it!
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@lee,
Morning ,
Well… I think if you want it to be relatively hands-off - maybe stick to the 3 ETF’s on this platform and trust that any changes to each index they track will filter through to the ETF.
At least equally important are the following questions, imho:
- which index is being tracked by this ETF?
- How many ETF’s track this index?
- How often is the index being updated? What is the methodology of this index?
- how many companies are part of this index?
- What is the overlap of companies between these indices / ETF’s?
Wisdomtree have just launched a European defence ETF, not on IE yet. I have put in a request for it here: ETF request - WisdomTree Europe Defence Ucits ETF (WDEF)
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FYI : You’ll need it to be the WDEP variant as InvestEngine only trades GBX/GBP whereas WDEF is traded in Euros.
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Also… search volume via stocklist.ai for WDEP has gone wild since it listed only a few days ago. So there is clearly big demand for WDEP. Looks like Trading212, IBKR, Interactive Investor and AJBell have added them quickly to platform for trading.
It always amazes me how other platforms can add funds very quickly yet InvestEngine always seems to drag their heels. When funds are requested, either the request gets ignored or you get a vague teflon type reply stating the request will be passed on to the team for consideration.
…and maybe weeks if not months down the line the fund gets added. Admittedly sometimes a fund might get added soon, but the point is they’re never first.
Ironic that IE advertises itself as THE platform for ETF’s yet are always last past the goalpost.
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@lee
Morning 
,
As we were talking about money allocation for defence and how this might be reflected in shifting country / holdings allocations in ETF’s…
Also…
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Hi @UncleBob sorry you’re not happy. Just wanted to jump in and say, it may appear we’re ignoring the requests, but we’re honestly not. The replies probably feel a bit impersonal because there’s not a lot else to say.
We really do have a big spreadsheet, and all these requests (from across our different channels and direct messages to the customer service team) are entered into it.
Each ETF goes through a thorough due diligence process, where our investment team looks at factors like performance data, liquidity, and other important metrics. They then prioritise which ETFs to add.
This is a mix of ETFs that are large enough, so we feel it’s time to add them, client requests and ones with significant changes in AUM due to consolidations.
A key factor is maintaining a high standard of quality control for all the funds available on our platform.
As I’ve posted previously - we’re getting more and more requests for ETFs from customers, so additions are now monthly, with the next round happening at the end of March.
We now offer over 770 ETFs with more expected to be added at the end of the month.
Hope this helps - as I’ve said before, there’s a limit to how much we can share on a public forum, but we try and be as transparent as possible.
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