44 “Drone Stocks” in the Drone Economy Strategy ETF

The consumer drones that you see whizzing around the skies these days are essentially flying robots that do stuff like video things, deliver things, or even race other drones. Robotics investors have taken notice of this and are now looking for ways to get exposure to commercial and consumer drones by investing in drone stocks.

In the past, drones tended to conjure up images of military strike newscasts in third world countries, places far away where war is taking place while we try and struggle through all our first world problems. Nowadays, mention of drones is likely to remind us of our recent picnic in the park, with that nerdy looking guy in the background brandishing a remote and providing that whirring background noise with his new toy. This basically sums up the two important sub-sectors where drones are present: military and consumer/commercial. These are two entirely different segments. One gives you exposure to defense stocks, and the other to new drone technologies.

Military drones have been around for a long time. With developments starting in World War 1, they were used in the Vietnam War and have been used widely ever since then. There is nothing disruptive about this area, and we don’t want exposure to defense stocks at the moment. It’s the consumer/commercial sub-sector where we expect the real growth to come from and which we want to have some investment exposure in. With that said, let’s take a look at a drone ETF that currently stands alone in this space, the Pure Funds Drone Economy Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:IFLY).

UPDATE 06/24/2018 : A one-page PureFunds splash page says that their ETFs have been terminated an