He is taking stock with Kathleen Hayes and Pim Fox on Bloomberg Radio. Investing in retail it might not involve investing in companies such as Macy's or Nordstrom. It may involve retail me not Etsy, grub Hub and eBay. Here to tell us more, Christian Magoon. He is the chief executive officer and the founder of Amplify Investments. He joins us from Wheaton, Illinois. Christian, thanks very much for being with me. Great to be back, Pim, thank you for
having me. Tell tell us a little bit about the Amplify I Buy I b U y E t F and how it differs from a more traditional E t F that focuses on retail, such as the x RT
that's the SMP retail E t F. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know we've seen in the headlines that traditional retailers are really feeling the pain, whether we're talking about Macy's or Target to recent examples, UM consumers are changing their preferences and they're going less and less to brick and mortar stores and more and more on to online stores.
And our online retail et F ticker I buy uh focuses on companies retailers that have se or more of their revenue coming from online sales, and this is the area that's growing in retail. Retail is kind of a hated sector, but that's because most people think of these traditional brick and mortar companies. UH. What's actually doing very well or quite well in the retail space and having positive performance are online retailers. And that's really where this
ETS sets itself apart. It's about eight different in terms of its portfolio makeup than a traditional retail if E t F for example. So we really think that the opportunity going forward and even today is in online retail companies and UH, this ETF offers a one stop way of accessing UH companies around the world that have that revenue source. Christian, are you using the term retail in
its broadest sense? Because the largest holding, for example, UH in recent filing is retail me not, followed by Etsy and then grub hub, which is online food ordering site eBay which offers not their own products but products from third party vendors. So is retail now just a completely
different UH description because you've got Netflix in there as well. Yes, So we categorize online retail into the really three areas Traditional retailers UM so companies like a Blue Nile or lands In or an overstock or a Wayfair UH companies that are selling traditional goods and services via online channels and that have sevent or more of their revenue from online sales. So that's the largest percentage of the funds waiting about fift as a end of June. And then
the two other areas are marketplace companies within retail. So when you think of marketplace, you think of grub Hub, ets Ali Baba, Mercado Libre. And then the other last area is h the smallest portion of the portfolio travel companies, so the price lines of the world trip Advisor. It really it's where are people doing their kind of buying
and selling in the retail space. And we've roddened it out, so to speak, to include some of these UM sub sectors within retail UM that are really focused on driving sales and revenue through the online model. The online model just seems to offer better pricing, more selection and convenience, and it seems to be trumping kind of traditional bricket mortar retail both in terms of consumer preference, in terms of its growth, but also in terms of the stock
performance of these uh kind of unique businesses. Well, just to give the return so far in the month, up seven percent, the three month return up a little bit more, up a little bit more than fifteen per cent. When did this start trading? Yes, in April April, the Amplify Online Retail et F ticker i by launched on the NASDAC as an exchange traded fund. It's an index based exchange traded fund, and um, you know it's it's had some significant performance. It's gained a little bit more than
eight percent since it's launched. That compares to, for example, the largest traditional retail et S in the marketplace, the Spider Retail et F ticker x RT, which during that same time period is gained about eighty one basis points, or about one per cent. So there's about a hundred or eight hundred basis points out performance we're seeing from these online retail companies and we really think it's the
hidden gem in this unloved sector of retail. Now, you also in your past, I think it was in two thousand six, you start Claymore e t s correct, which
was then sold to Guggenheim. That's right, So yeah, I started the e t F product line at Claymore, which is now owned by Guggenheim Investments, and launched about six d e t s, many of them first to market that we've talked about over time, and you know, we were We've been involved in the first cybersecurity e t F that launched several years ago, the first solar et FU.
Variety of different kind of first to markets and that's really our our our mission here and amplifies to christ I just gotta I just gotta jump in because you don't have a lot of time. I just want your quick thoughts here. Isn't it also a big challenge for you to get some volume on this e t F. I mean you're trading like a thousand shares it volume on platforms. That's the biggest challenge. Isn't it give you that tense right especially during summer that the volume is
is a tough thing. But we think the performance will start to attract that volume. Uh and Uh, we're really excited about what the fall is gonna lead to because it's great season for retail and we think online retail will have an accelerated fall as well. We've got to leave it there thanks very much. Christian Magoon he is the chief executive and the founder of Amplify Investments. They're based in Wheaton, Illinois. This is Bloomberg.