$GME - The GameStop frenzy reaches ETFs

Fuelled by speculation from retail investors on social media, the GameStop saga continues.

After its incredible performance in January, the mania around the video game retailer reached fever pitch on the 10th February, as the stock surged more than 40% in the first hours of trading to beat its previous record high reached on 27th January.

Aside from investing in the stock directly, let’s see how ETF investors can jump in on the GameStop action.

Which ETFs Own $GME?

As of the beginning of February 2021, they were 74 ETFs holding shares of $GME.

The majority of them belong to the U.S. Small Caps segment like  the iShares Russell 2000 ETF - IWM US and the SPDR® Portfolio S&P 600 Small Cap ETF – SPSM US.

We also find some U.S. All-Cap stocks funds (also called broad stock markets funds), such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF - VTI US or the Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF - SCHB US with $213bn and $19bn asset under management respectively.

Most of these products are widely diversified, holding hundreds if not thousands of securities. Indeed GameStop’s current mean weight in their portfolio is less than 1.4%, and thus although GME spectacular rise was captured in their performance, investors might look elsewhere to catch some of the momentum in GameStop.

Which ETFs Have Highest Allocations to $GME?

The ETFMG Video Game Tech ETF - GAMR US is the ETF with the largest allocation to GME: 23.76% as of the 10th of March. The ETF is up almost 24% year-to-date.

Likewise, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF - XRT US which is up 40% year-to-date holds 15.14% of its assets in GameStop as of the 10th March is another alternative. Finally, the Direxion Daily Retail Bull 3x Shares ETF - 0I9M  US with tracks the same index as the SPDR Retail but with a leverage of 3 is also an option to get exposure to the stock for investors who fancy leveraging up an already volatile sector. The fund is up almost 120% year-to-date.