Berney; RE:" XBD.X YTD "
XBD.X - Broker-Dealer Sector Index ~ +14.5%
AMTD - AmeriTrade +40% *
SCH - Schwab +34%
EGRP - E*TRADE +18% *
MWD - MorganStanley DeanWitter +13%
PWJ - PaineWebber +10%
MER - Merrill Lynch -6%
DLJ - DonaldsonLufkin -8%
AGE - AG Edwards -13%
LEH - Lehman -14%
RJF - Raymond James -16%
BSC - Bear Stearns -19%
HQ - HambrechtQuist -41%
LM - LeggMason -52%
* = not XBD.X sector index components
rough figures (from SI) but good enough to rank them, IMHO.
I've been playing the brokers this year -- in general, I've found that the Brokers are rather like leveraging the NF.X - Financials Sector and overall market; ie., they tend to rise and fall faster. When we were at the market top just before the crash, XBD.X performance was stupendous. During the crash, XBD.X led the way down.
Also, the BigBoyBrokers respond like the big money-center banks, and are subject to foreign market exposure, whereas stocks like SCH - Schwab just like fee income derived from high stock market volume. I like MWD + SCH in this sector; ie., one BigBoy bellwether driven by financials and the other driven by trading volume. Kinda like picking one money-center bank and one regional bank if one were playing in the BKX.X - Banking Sector.
The best risk/reward play looks like the XBD.X sector index itself, (or perhaps a sector fund ?) - lower specific risk - however, I don't know if the decay in time value for an XBD.X call would have negated the ~15% YTD sector index gain. Still, the XBD.X sector under-performed SPY by 30% this year.
-Steve |
