I wonder when and how will Zoya implement the ETF shariah compliance screener in the future. Other than SPUS, HLAL, SPRE, SPSK, ISDU and ISDW, are there any other shariah compliant one?
I really want to invest in ETFs like VOO, VTI, and VT but still waiting for some guidance through the ETF screener (if the feature is released).
Salam @Joe1
The ETF’s you listed are the major Shariah-compliant ETF’s, but I can assure you we at Zoya have ETF screening on our roadmap and we will incorporate all suggestions to make it a robust and user-friendly experience for you all.
In the meantime, please feel free to give us any feedback on what you would like to see, it would only help us out!
Salam Saad and all,
The SPUS and HLAL ETFs have very low volume: not an issue to buy, but if selling will prove challenging, specialty in dire times + expense ration compared to the XLs is really high.
Saad: we have interacted multiple times about the need to have a screener for ETFs in Zoya. Will that be implemented sometimes (very) soon?
Thanks.
+1 watching this thread for responses
This sounds like the combination of two things: an ETF parser and a stock screener (Zoya). ETF parsers exist (e.g. etf.com) and I believe they have an API
We’re actively working on this and hope to launch a small universe of ETFs in beta later this summer. The challenging part is when it comes to actively managed ETFs that may change their holdings/allocations on a daily basis. From a purely technical standpoint, we can update the shariah compliance data daily based on the latest changes but from a user’s perspective, it may not make much sense to hold an ETF if it frequently fluctuates in and out of compliance.
I agree with you, Saad. The goal is not to be in and out of ETFs on a daily basis, since this defeats the purpose of holding ETFs as they are less volatile than stocks. However, when looking at the ETFs basket, there are many categories and the ones I am personally interested in are the sectors ETFs ( aka the XLs), the index ETFs: SPY+IWM, and the Qs ( QQQ and to some extent QQQJ).
XLF is straight non-compliant, XLK and XLC is a question mark to me personally: do I - as a Muslim- want to hold shares of Facebook and the like?? XLI is to me a mathematical issue: how much of the XLI revenue is made out of Defense-related companies (LMCO and the like)? Is it low enough that I can purify the income over a long period of time? The XLE is straight if you look past the debt/valuation ratio when you are buying in times of distress.
Same question actually for the Qs, IWM and the SPY: does it make sense to “buy, hold and purify”? That is the million dollar question you are well positioned to answer at Zoya.
I would humbly recommend to start with the major ETFs and get a starting point determination on them, as they do not swing between stocks too frequently, and 50% of their holdings are in 10 to 15 stocks anyways, which will ensure a compliance stability over multiple quarters, and all boils down to a Pareto law at the end. There is going to be some learning, tweaking and course-correction, but that is very fine.
Give me a buzz if you need a beta-tester or someone to bounce ideas with. I am sure there are other fellows in the community who can also be interested.
version 1.0 The user could simply upload a text file containing the symbols in the portfolio. It could be an ETF/Fund or his/her own portfolio. Zoya could check compliance by symbol
version 2. Add the % in the portfolio along with each symbol.
Ofcourse, if the app can have some of the popular sector and index ETFs pre-built, that would be a good start. I don’t know if there will be a lot of ETFs that would be compliant. And what is compliant for ETFs? 95% of the portfolio holdings are compliant? or 95% of the weighted revenue across the holdings is compliant? That has to be thought through as well.
Hopefully the idea is to AVOID selling ETFs when things are dire… but maybe thats a topic for a different thread on buying / selling discipline…