Low-Carbon ETFs v. Energy ETFs

Jefferson Bustos* and Gulnara Zaynutdinova, John Chambers College of Business and Economics West Virginia University, Morgantown, 26505

Field (Broad Category): Finance (Oral-Human Engagement) 

Student’s Major: Business 

ETFs, otherwise known as exchange-traded funds is a pool of various numbers of securities that are traded just as stocks to the open market. Several types of ETFs are grouped for different reasons. Sometimes they are tied together based on their similar performances, and other times because they are all in the same sector. None the less they are thought out very thoroughly to reach expectations and eventually become a good investment in the market. However, I used them not as an investment tool, but rather as a performance tracking tool. I used ETFs to find out if investors care for environmentally friendly companies and investments, and if it has some benefits in regards to securities performances. For this, I compared the performance of top alternative energy equities, to energy equities. We used historical data and analysis to see which has greater advantages, performance-wise and what makes them more appealing. And while going through this information and analysis, we do so to answer whether the more environmental-friendly investments are worth it, or not. 

Funding: 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course