Audio length: 00:15:56

In this episode of ETF Spotlight, I talked with Steven Schoenfeld, founder and CIO at BlueStar Indexes. Steven is an expert in Israeli stock market. We discussed Israel’s booming tech sector and the BlueStar Israel Technology ETF (ITEQ - Free Report) that focuses on Israeli tech companies.

Israel has more than 90 companies listed on the Nasdaq. Big tech giants have many R&D centers located in the country. In particular, Israeli companies are leaders in cybersecurity and autonomous vehicles technologies.

Steven explained how such a small country with a population of about 9 million, became a high-tech hub. 

Given Israel’s location, geopolitical risks remain high. We discussed how Israeli companies continue to thrive despite challenges.

We then talked about the index, which includes tech companies listed in Israel as well as globally.Steven described how companies are selected and weighted in the index.

The ETF holds some well-known companies like Check Point (CHKP - Free Report) , Amdocs (DOX - Free Report) , Nice (NICE - Free Report) , and CyberArk (CYBR - Free Report) . These companies are very global in their operations and there are some that are focused on the domestic market.

Many US investors have a lot of exposure to US tech and the sector has delivered excellent performance over the past few years. But now there are concerns about increased regulatory oversight and stretched valuations.

Steven explained why investors should take a look at this ETF given very low representation of Israeli tech stocks in broader tech indexes.

We also talked about BlueStar’s indexes in Israel that are increasingly being used by domestic investors, and why that is relevant for ITEQ.