Exchange-traded funds from issuer Direxion currently dominate the Fintel Fund Sentiment Leaderboard as hedge fund managers and institutions see equities markets in unchartered waters amid banking industry uncertainty and central bank efforts to cool inflation.
Institutional investors are using ETFs as they seek to generate returns without taking on excessive concentration risk. Sector ETFs allow for thematic trades without picking individual stocks.
The current list tells us that institutions have been buying into the recent banking weakness that has seen small/mid-cap banking stocks sell-off significantly in the last week. The funds have also been buying into retail and tech sectors while shorting the semiconductor sector.
This post originally appeared at 24/7 Wall St.