The goal to invest in the best robotic technology companies is a very difficult goal to accomplish. Many companies in this arena fail to rise to the occasion and finding a winner is akin to finding a needle in a haystack at times.
Investors in Mako Surgical (MAKO.DL) can speak to this first hand, as they watched shares sell off by 56% since 2011 only to rebound after Stryker put a bid in for the company.
The Robo-Stox Global Robotics & Automation ETF (ROBO 0.34%) attempts to solve for the risk associated with investing in robotics by giving investors a way to invest in 77 different companies directly or indirectly tied to the industry. Before this ETF, retail investors were limited to companies like iRobot (IRBT -0.33%), a consumer robotics play, ABB (ABBN.Y 0.20%), an industrial robotics play, and Aerovironment, a defense robotics play to name a few.
The new index allows the retail investor, who was previously restricted to domestic or foreign U.S.-listed companies, to invest in companies listed only on foreign exchanges. These include robotic powerhouses like Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric, and Kuka.
This advantage in itself could be a worthy reason to take a second look at this ETF as a position in an investor's portfolio. Investors can also use this index's holdings as a starting point for research into the sector if they wanted to select companies individually. In the video below, Motley Fool analyst Blake Bos gives his take on the new ETF, including his view on the expense ratio and a few of the fund's holdings.
