ETF that models billionaires’ investments to launch in spring

IBillionaire Inc., a company that models investments of the world’s wealthiest people, plans to offer an exchange traded fund this spring that will allow the public to “invest like a billionaire,” its top executive said Tuesday.

After receiving about $1 million of start-up funding, IBillionaire has hired an ETF sponsor that will soon allow investors to follow the investing trends of tycoons such as Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Daniel Loeb and David Einhorn, said Raul Moreno, the company’s chief executive.

In November the company launched an index that uses regulatory filings to track the stocks that billionaires own. The next step will be allowing the public to make investments that model the index.

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“In essence, the index works as though one gathered a group of these billionaires in a room and asked them to come to a consensus as to which S&P 500 stocks are their best bets,” Moreno said.

An ETF is a portfolio of securities that trades on the stock exchanges and can be bought and sold much more easily than a mutual fund.

The IBillionaire index would have gained 42% last year, compared with 29% for the S&P 500 index, Moreno said. The index is up 3.6% since Nov. 1, compared with 2% for the S&P 500.

As of Nov. 15, the index was heavily weighted in 10 companies: Apple Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., American International Group, Yahoo Inc., Coca Cola Co., General Motors Co., American Express Co., Priceline.com Inc., 21st Century Fox and IBM Corp.

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