Invest like a billionaire: New index tracks stocks the wealthy own

A new stock index was launched Wednesday to help investors keep track of the investing strategies of some of the smartest minds on Wall Street.

The iBillionaire index lists 30 large-cap stocks owned by billionaire investors, including Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Daniel Loeb, David Trepper and David Einhorn.

Launched on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol, BILLION, the index will allow investors to model their portfolios after the stocks that these billionaires own, based on Securities and Exchange filings.

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In February, iBillionaire expects to launch an exchange traded fund that will allow common investors to easily put their money where the big boys do, said the index’s cofounder, Raul Moreno.

“The iBillionaire index gives investors an alternative to the S&P 500 that, according to our calculations, gives double the returns with the same level of risk,” Moreno said in an email.

Moreno would not say which investment bank iBillionaire is working with to launch the new fund, saying only: “We are in talks with all major banks and ETF sponsors.”

The numbers are fairly impressive. The index reports a year-to-date return of 32%, beating the S&P 500 index’s 24% return. Over the last eight years the index is up 12%, compared with the S&P’s 5%.

Public disclosures of significant stock purchases often lag weeks or months, but iBillionaire said it calculated its returns based on the dates billionaire disclosed their investments, not the date they made them.

The index’s top five holdings are Wells Fargo, Apple, Yahoo, Coca Cola and IBM. It also includes Internet and technology companies Qualcomm, Priceline and Amazon.

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