Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you'd like to add some big, technology-heavy stocks to your portfolio, the Direxion Nasdaq-100 Equal Weight Index ETF (NYSEMKT: QQQE ) could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which companies will perform best, you can use this ETF to invest in lots of them simultaneously.
The basics
ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. The Nasdaq-100 ETF's expense ratio -- its annual fee -- is a relatively low 0.35%. The fund is very small, too, so if you're thinking of buying, beware of possibly large spreads between its bid and ask prices. Consider using a limit order if you want to buy in.
This ETF is too new to have a sufficient track record to assess. As with most investments, of course, we can't expect outstanding performances in every quarter or year. Investors with conviction need to wait for their holdings to deliver.
Why Nasdaq-100 and equal-weighting?
Nasdaq-100 stocks offer the benefits of large-cap status, which can provide a bit more stability than small caps, and they're often in rapidly changing and growing industries, as well. Equal weighting is a sensible way to structure an index, as it doesn't let the biggest companies overly influence the index's returns, when the smaller ones, which might be able to grow faster, are left less powerful.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: InterDigital Inc.(IDCC)
Interdigital, Inc. engages in the design and development of digital wireless technology solutions. The company offers technology solutions for use in digital cellular and wireless products and networks, including 2G, 3G, 4G, and IEEE 802-related products and networks. It holds patents related to the fundamental technologies that enable wireless communications. The company licenses its patents to equipment producers that manufacture, use, and sell digital cellular and IEEE 802-related products; and licenses or sells mobile broadband modem solutions, including modem IP, know-how, and reference platforms to mobile device manufacturers, semiconductor companies, and other equipment producers that manufacture, use, and sell digital cellular products. InterDigital?s solutions are incorporated in various products comprising mobile devices, such as cellular phones, tablets, notebook computers, and wireless personal digital assistants; wireless infrastructure equipment, such as base stations; and components, dongles, and modules for wireless devices. The company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By SmallCap Investor]
The wireless technology company said it's exploring its options, including a possible sale, following last month's successful auction of Nortel Networks intellectual property which brought in $4.5 billion. IDCC owns about 1,300 patents related to mobile phone technology.
- [By Kevin M. O'Brien]
InterDigital Inc. (IDCC) will be sold for the highest amount ever paid for Intellectual Property (IP) patents. Whether it is a consortium or single company that buys InterDigital, the price should exceed what was paid for the Nortel (NRTLQ.PK) patents in mid-2011.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: KongZhong Corporation(KONG)
KongZhong Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireless interactive entertainment, media, and community services to mobile phone users in the People's Republic of China. It also involves in the development, distribution, and marketing of consumer wireless value-added services, including wireless application protocol, multimedia messaging services, short messaging services, interactive voice response services, and color ring back tones. In addition, it offers interactive entertainment services, such as mobile games, pictures, karaoke, electronic books, mobile phone personalization features, entertainment news, chat, and message boards; and through Kong.net offer news, community services, games, and other interactive media and entertainment services; and sells advertising space in the form of text-link, banner, and button advertisements. Further, the company develops and publishes mobile games, including downloadable mobile games and online mobile games cons isting of action, role-playing, and leisure games. As of December 31, 2009, it had a library of approximately 300 internally developed mobile games. Additionally, it develops online games; and provides consulting and technology services, as well as media and net book services. The company was formerly known as Communication Over The Air Inc. and changed its name to KongZhong Corporation in March 2004. KongZhong Corporation was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Wyatt Research Staff]
As a Chinese ADR, KONG is the leading provider of 2.5G wireless interactive entertainment, media and community services in terms of revenue to customers of company China Mobile. Institutions snatched up shares at an alarming rate with an increase of 26.7% in institutional ownership over the past three months.
A consensus of analysts expect earnings to increase by 16.9% in 2011 and 19.6% in 2012. Company earnings are estimated to increase by 62.1% this year.
- [By Louis Navellier]
Thanks largely to the country’s tremendous economic growth, there’s a new middle class in China. They have more leisure time than ever before, and that means big opportunity for entertainment provider KongZhong Corporation (KONG).
The company provides wireless interactive entertainment, media and community services to mobile phone users, but it also offers interactive entertainment services, including mobile games, pictures, logos, karaoke, electronic books and mobile phone personalization features such as ring tones. The Chinese love their cell phones, and KongZhong provides much of the content that goes on those phones.
Investors certainly haven’t been hesitant to dial up shares of KONG, as the stock is up over 218% in the last 12 months.
I rate KONG an A, making it a strong buy.
5 Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Sify Technologies Limited(SIFY)
Sify Technologies Limited provides enterprise and consumer Internet services primarily in India. The company offers various corporate network/data services comprising e-commerce and network connectivity solutions, such as end-to-end services network, application, and security services; voice origination and termination services; co-location and managed hosting services; and system integration services for data centre build, hardware distribution, security solutions, and turnkey projects. It also provides application services, including SLEMS and Microsoft Exchange messaging platforms; I-test for online assessment and LiveWire, which enable management of training processes across the organization; document management system for the management of documents electronically; and Forum, a forward supply chain solution. In addition, the company operates e-Ports that offer browsing, chat, email, gaming, utility bill payment, travel ticketing, hotel booking, mobile recharge, Intern et telephony, and online share trading services; and portals, which provide news, views, reviews, interactions, and services in the areas of movies, sports, finance, food, videos, astrology, online games, shopping, and travel, as well as offers content offerings and broadband services. Further, it provides infrastructure management services, such as network management, datacenter and helpdesk outsourcing, desktop and storage outsourcing, IT security outsourcing, LAN and WAN outsourcing, database and telecom outsourcing, and application monitoring and management services to automotive, chemical, media, and financial enterprises; and virtualization design, integration, and deployment services for servers, storage, networks, and end user clients. Sify has approximately 1,278 e-Ports in 200 towns and cities; and serves 1,06,000 broadband subscribers through 1500 cable TV Operators. The company, formerly known as Sify Limited, was founded in 1995 and is based in Chennai, India. Advisors' Opinion:
- [By Wyatt Research Staff]
Shares of SIFY skyrocketed last week after the company announced a new partnership with Saudi telecom. SIFY will provide ICT services to the Middle East's largest telecom carrier.
Shares of the Indian-based internet and network services have doubled over the past four months.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Voyager Oil & Gas Inc.(VOG)
Voyager Oil & Gas, Inc. engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas in the United States. It primarily focuses on oil shale resource prospects in Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming. As of May 17, 2011, the company controlled approximately 141,500 net acres in the five primary prospect areas comprising 28,000 net acres targeting the Bakken/Three Forks in North Dakota and Montana; 14,200 net acres targeting the Niobrara formation in Colorado and Wyoming; 800 net acres targeting a Red River prospect in Montana; 33,500 net acres in a joint venture targeting the Heath Shale formation in Musselshell, Petroleum, Garfield, and Fergus counties of Montana; and 65,000 net acres in a joint venture in the Tiger Ridge gas field in Blaine, Hill, and Chouteau counties of Montana. It supplies energy and fuel for industrial, commercial, and individual consumers. The company is based in Billings, Montana.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By SmallCap Investor]
Shares of this explorer, which has operations in the Western U.S., crossed back above $3 and have risen 40 percent in the past month, amid increasing investor interest in companies drilling in the Bakken region.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: bebe stores inc.(BEBE)
bebe stores, inc. engages in the design, development, and production of women?s apparel and accessories. Its products include a range of separates, tops, dresses, active wear, and accessories in career, evening, casual, and active lifestyle categories. The company markets its products under the bebe, BEBE SPORT, bbsp, and 2b bebe brand names targeting 21 to 34-year-old woman. As of July 2, 2011, it operated 252 retail stores, and an online store at bebe.com in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Japan, and Canada, as well as 60 international licensee operated stores in south east Asia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Brisbane, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Wyatt Research]
The women's apparel retailer reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales and same-store sales both rose 7 percent. The stock is up 30 percent year-to-date.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: OCZ Technology Group Inc(OCZ)
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes computer components for computing devices and systems worldwide. It primarily offers solid state drives, flash memory storage, memory modules, thermal management solutions, AC/DC switching power supply units, and computer gaming solutions. The company?s products are used in industrial equipment and computer systems; computer and computer gaming solutions; mission critical servers and high end workstations; personal computer (PC) upgrades to extend the useable life of existing PCs; high performance computing and scientific computing; video and music editing; home theatre PCs and digital home convergence products; and digital photography and digital image manipulation computers. OCZ Technology Group, Inc. offers its products to retailers, on-line retailers, original equipment manufacturers, systems integrators, and distributors. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in San Jose, Califo rnia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Wyatt Research]
The maker of solid state drives for computers reported revenue more than doubled and posted adjusted net income of 1 cent per share. It predicted a full-year revenue rise of at least 65 percent. The share price has jumped 210 percent in the past year.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: China Metro-Rural Holdings Limited(CNR)
China Metro-Rural Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the development and operation of agricultural logistics and trade centers in northeast China. It also involves in purchasing, processing, assembling, merchandising, and distributing pearls and jewelry products. The company markets its pearls and jewelry products to wholesale distributors and mass merchandisers in Europe, the United States, Hong Kong, and other parts of Asia. In addition, it develops, sells, and leases residential and commercial properties in Hong Kong and the People?s Republic of China. The company is based in Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Wyatt Research Staff]
The stock moved significantly higher in mid-January and traded in a fairly tight range ever since. However, that could change soon. China's agricultural exports to Japan will grow if radiation continues to seep into the food chain.
China exported $593 million worth of agricultural goods to Japan last year.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: OmniVision Technologies Inc.(OVTI)
OmniVision Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, and markets semiconductor image-sensor devices. The company offers CameraChip image sensors, which are single-chip solutions that integrate various functions, such as image capture, image processing, color processing, signal conversion, and output of a processed image or video stream for use in various consumer and commercial mass-market applications; and CameraCube imaging devices that are image sensors with integrated wafer-level optics. It also provides companion chips used to connect its image sensors to various interfaces, including the universal serial bus and other industry standard interfaces; and companion digital signal processors that perform compression in standardized still photo and digital video formats. In addition, the company designs and develops software drivers for Linux, Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows, as well as for embedded operating systems, such as Blackberry OS, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows CE, Windows Embedded, and Windows Mobile. Its products are used in mobile phones, notebooks, Webcams, digital still and video cameras, commercial and security and surveillance, and automotive and medical applications, as well as in entertainment devices. The company sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers and value added resellers, as well as indirectly through distributors worldwide. OmniVision Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is based in Santa Clara, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Karim]
They make the 5-megapixel sensors in the camera of every iPhone. Along with this they carry a strong balance sheet and upbeat earnings expectations boding well for future growth.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Panera Bread Company(PNRA)
Panera Bread Company, together with its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and franchises retail bakery-cafes in the United States and Canada. Its bakery-cafes offer fresh baked goods, sandwiches, soups, salads, custom roasted coffees, and other complementary products, as well as provide catering services. The company also manufactures and supplies dough and other products to company-owned and franchise-operated bakery-cafes. As of March 29, 2011, it owned and franchised 1,467 bakery-cafes under the Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co., and Paradise Bakery & Cafe names. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Fabian]
Most of you have probably eaten at one of these franchise bakery-cafes. If not I highly recommend it, as for the company itself they are exceptional. Profit soared 50% in the first quarter, operating margins rose several percentage points, and Panera is sitting on $300+ million of cash. Right now it’s at a 30% discount to its peer averages and the stock is very cheap when valued against future earnings. Strong buy expect it to rise to $105.
Top 10 Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: EZchip Semiconductor Limited(EZCH)
EZchip, a fabless semiconductor company, engages in the development and marketing of Ethernet network processors for networking equipment. Its products include network processor chips, evaluation boards and network-processor based systems, and development software toolkits. The company offers network processors for use in forming the silicon core of networking equipment, such as switches and routers; and for voice, video and data integration in various applications. Its network processors are single-chip solutions, which enable its customers to design multi-port line cards, such as processing and classification engines, traffic managers, media access controllers, as well as a range of specialized hardware blocks that accelerate various functions. The company offers Evaluation systems which enable customers to test NPU-based systems; and toolkits that assist customers in creating, verifying, and implementing solutions based on its network processors. It provides a library f eaturing data plane code for a range of applications, which include Metro Ethernet protocols, Multi-Protocol Label Switching, IPv4 and IPv6 routing, Access Control Lists, GPON/EPON OLT functionality, Network Address Translation, and Server Load Balancing. The company sells its products directly, and through contract manufacturers and distributors to network equipment vendors. It markets its products in Israel, China, Hong Kong, the Far East, Canada, the United States, and Europe. The company was formerly known as LanOptics Ltd. and changed its name to EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. in July 2008. EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. was founded in 1989 and is based in Yokneam, Israel.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Paul]
Known for designing high-speed networking equipment chips. They had a solid first quarter as revenue gained 38% and now they are sitting on $75 million of cash with no expenses or debt. I believe this is a strong technology bet and I place a target of $30.
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