Surging Bulk Shipping ETF Struggles to Get New Cash

By Sam Potter (Bloomberg) —

An expensive ETF riding both the commodity boom and the supply-chain chaos is shedding millions in assets, a sign of investor fatigue after inflation-linked trades broke records earlier this year.

Even as it rallies more than 9% this month — outperforming a 1% loss in the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index — the Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping exchange-traded fund (ticker BDRY) hasn’t seen new cash since early July.

Total assets have in fact dropped to around $92 million from the $121 million peak in May, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Red Hot Dry Bulk Shipping ETF Marks Performance Milestone

The product’s fading appeal comes even as global economic activity picks up while the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc with supply chains, with one of the world’s busiest ports partially shutting down this week.

In theory, the fund tracking the price of shipping raw materials in bulk should be booming. But like many commodities, the ETF’s surge earlier in the year means it’s sitting on huge gains and is up 267% in 2021. Investors may be reluctant to bet on further returns, especially in a fund that carries a 1.85% fee.

© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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