MarketMuse update courtesy of Todd Shriber of ETF Trends, profiles the increase in cyber security ETFs as the threats of being hacked become more and more relevant.
The PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (NYSEArca: HACK) continues to cement its status as a legitimate event-driven exchange traded fund.
HACK is higher by 0.7% Tuesday on volume that is already more than quadruple the daily average after Russia’s Kaspersky Lab, a major cyber security firm, said a group of hackers have stolen as much as $1 billion from over 100 banks in 30 countries since late 2013.
Various media outlets are reporting those hackers are more interested in financial gain than pilfering personal information from the banks’ customers. That point is unlikely to assuage the banks or their customers, but it is enough to have HACK trading at record highs for the second consecutive session.
HACK’s Tuesday momentum is carrying over from last Friday when the ETF soared to a record high on volume of nearly 1.4 million shares as President Obama hosted the first-ever cyber security summit, which featured luminaries from throughout the tech industry, including Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook.
Importantly, most of the action in HACK last Friday was of the bullish variety. So intense was buying activity in the ETF that the fund is now home to $231 million in assets under management, confirming HACK’s place on the list of most successful ETFs to debut in 2014. Impressively, HACK’s ascent to $231 million in AUM means the ETF has more than doubled in size over the past six weeks after topping $100 million in assets in early January. The ETF debuted in November.
News of the $1 billion bank hack, while positive for HACK in the near-term, also serves as reminder of the long-term opportunity with the ETF because the financial services industry is expected to be one of the largest spenders on cyber security enhancements in the coming years.
In October 2014, J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said the banking giant will likely double its cyber security spending to $500 million within the next five years.
HACK benchmarks to the ISE Cyber Security Index, “which tracks the performance of companies actively engaged in providing services for cyber security and for which cyber security business activities are a key driver of their business model. These cyber security services are designed to protect computer hardware, software, networks and data from unauthorized access, vulnerabilities, attacks and other security breaches,” according to PureFunds.