This ETF offers targeted exposure to the biotech industry, a corner of the health care sector that is capable of delivering big returns but also exhibiting significant volatility. Given that risk/return profile, accessing biotech through the exchange-traded wrapper has some obvious appeal; it allows investors to spread out exposure, thereby increasing the opportunity of holding a stock that hits it big. Given that targeted objective, this ETF is probably most useful for those seeking tactical exposure to this corner of the market; the underlying holdings are generally found in broad-based equity ETFs, so there should be little appeal to buy-and-holders.
BBH used to be structured as a HOLRDS offered by Merrill Lynch, and converted to a true ETF in 2011. It should be noted, however, that this fund still maintains some of the concentration that was characteristic of HOLDS; a few stocks receive significant allocations in the portfolio, and the top ten holdings combine to make up the majority of assets.
There are some other biotech ETFs out there that may be interesting opportunities, including IBB, XBI, FBT, and PBE. Those looking for a deep, balanced portfolio will probably prefer to avoid this Market Vectors ETF and utilize a fund such as IBB or XBI instead.
