Problem with illiquid ETF

Hello, sorry to post it here but don’t want to make a new thread for that.
Bought this HSBC S&P 500 UCITS ETF (HSPX) last friday but it seems stuck since then (on Degiro and here on Investing.com)
Did I just bought some crap or is there any reason behind this?

Best to all,

Markets were closed in the US on Monday (public holidays)

Ok for yesterday but they are open today…

Looks like there were no trades: https://www.six-group.com/en/products-services/the-swiss-stock-exchange/market-data/etf/etf-explorer/etf-detail.html?valorId=IE00B5KQNG97USD4#/

Doesn’t sound like a great ETF to hold, looks like LSE is seeing a bit more volume: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/HSPD/hsbc/company-page but still not much…

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Just as a return on experience: I’ve mailed the person of contact for the fund and he told me that if the price of the share didn’t move since friday it was because no trades were made (witch is logic and what confirmed what you were telling).
The order book was mooving so I placed a sell order at which seemed to be the market price and it sold instantly… seemed like it was the only trad since days and it made the price of the share move to my selling price… funny to make a share price move with just my trade
ETF Detail (six-group.com)
Mooving to an ETF with more volume…

It’s still weird, I thought they pay people to be market makers, but maybe they don’t bother. In any case I would be personally uneasy to trade with such a wide spread, definitely don’t do a market order.

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This is normal. Someone bought at your asking price, so you (and the buyer) moved the price of this relatively seldom traded ETF after days of no trade. Sometimes such ETFs jump 5% simply because there hasn’t been a trade for weeks. If it’s more liquid, you move the price after a few minutes or seconds, but essentially the same.

Before you buy another ETF, I recommend you go to Swissquote and search for the ETF in the market u want to buy at. Click on the price graphs and 2 graphs will open, price & volume.

In the attachment you can see it for last week for HSPX.
There’s your two trades of 55 shares (right?) on 15th and 20th.

Like @nabalzbhf also already mentioned, If this is what the trading volumes look like, I avoid the ETF, or at least the ETF at this market.

Who bought your 55 shares, maybe it was the market maker, maybe not, but probably it was a bit below the market value, so a market maker algo decided it was worth it, based on the futures for today’s opening.

And it’s usually better to trade ETF’s of US shares when the US market is open, it’ll reduce the spread.

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Thanks for this very detailed answer! Helps me a lot to understand what did go on. Yes the 55 shares was my trade.
Best regards

why? I don’t get those messages. You are not the only one doing that. Believe me. It’s not a good idea.

No to make a new thread or to excuse myself?

To make a new thread of course.
It’s not that no one will ever see your new threads.
There are people that won’t open this thread becasue the title don’t interest them. A new thread with a proper title will help them. Also it will make searches easier.

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Ok I see what you mean… the idea was not to “pollute” the forum with a new thread only for a personal question/issue but as long as it’s not a bad thing, it seems in fact more logical to create a new thread.
Thanks!

What you call pollution is in fact the opposite.
:slight_smile:

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Why have you chosen this ETF?

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I have a different opinion. Using old threads is actually the best thing you can do. Discussions about a certain topic are concentrated in one place.

I always search for existing threads before opening up a new one.

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Was looking for a distributive ETF of the S&P500 with low TER (0.09 in this case) available on Degiro… As there are so many ETF available, filtered only the ETF trading on the SIX exchange.
Only investing since one year and my portfolio is far from optimal I assume, but wanted to start somewhere. Open for suggestions :smiley:
Is low volume actually a real issue when buying ETFs other than having the price evolving in big steps?

Yes: often an indicator that there’s low AUM, which makes it more likely the fund will close.

Low volume shouldn’t matter, but only if there’s a market maker. You could check that by checking the spread during the day, if there’s a tight bid/ask spread it means you’re probably going to pay the right price (otherwise someone else would take advantage of it until there’s an equilibrium).

Otherwise you might either pay a totally wrong price if you don’t pay attention, or lose a few percent on every transaction (which might not be a big deal for long term investment, but why pay 1% extra if you can avoid it…)

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