Investors Find an Easy Way to Trade Nasdaq 100’s ‘Special Rebalance’

Wall Street is finding ways to trade the “special rebalance” of the Nasdaq 100 as the overconcentration of megacap firms breach an upper limit in the tech-heavy gauge. They’re investing in QQQE.

(Bloomberg) — Wall Street is finding ways to trade the “special rebalance” of the Nasdaq 100 as the overconcentration of megacap firms breach an upper limit in the tech-heavy gauge. They’re investing in QQQE.

The Direxion NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares saw investors drive $216.3 million into the fund in the latest session for which data is available, the biggest one-day increase since its inception in 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The influx pushed QQQE’s assets higher by 27% to double to $1.01 billion, the highest level ever.

“With big tech stocks up so much this year, QQQE saw big inflows possibly on a leg down in some of those names and also with the Nasdaq composite rebalancing,” Mohit Bajaj, director of ETFs at WallachBeth Capital, said. 

The inflows come after Nasdaq Inc. on Friday announced a “special rebalance” —  the first ever of its kind — to redistribute the weight of the index’s members on July 24. The index provider in a statement said the adjustment will “address overconcentration in the index by redistributing the weights.” 

“It makes sense just given the massive run-up that we’ve had in some of these stocks. You don’t want them to become the entire market,” Nadia Lovell, senior equity strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management, said. “I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if you see another rebalancing. I think this is going to be a continuous process.”

A handful of megacap tech shares have powered much of the stock market’s gain this year fueled by the frenzy surrounding artificial intelligence. Gains in the S&P 500 this year, in fact, have been more concentrated among its largest stocks than in any six-month period since the turn of the millennium, Bloomberg Intelligence analysis shows. 

Following are the fund’s biggest holdings as of July 11:

Note: The settlement process for some funds means data arrives with a one-day lag.

–With assistance from Peyton Forte and Sam Potter.

(Updates story throughout with context and quotes)

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