Michael Johnston

Michael Johnston is the director of ETFdb.com, where he contributes several articles each week. In 2009, after noticing a lack of free, useful analytical resources for ETF investors, Michael co-founded ETFdb.com and set out to build a site that could be used by investors of all types. Over the next several years, Michael oversaw the development of ETFdb's free ETF tools, including the ETF Screener. 

Michael is one of the most widely-followed authors in the ETF world, and he is regularly quoted in publications such as Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal. His articles are syndicated in a number of online publications, including Fidelity.com, Yahoo! Finance, and Business Insider. Michael is also a contributor to TheStreet's Real Money product. Michael is a regular on the ETF conference circuit, having hosted panels at events such as Inside ETFs and Super Bowl of Indexing.

Michael graduated with a degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame, and has completed the exam portion of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program. Michael lives in Chicago where he's an avid Cubs and Blackhawks fan. 

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Michael Johnston

AdvisorShares Launches Global Echo ETF (GIVE)

by on May 24, 2012

AdvisorShares has made another addition to its lineup of actively-managed ETFs, recently debuting a fund that will focus on the concept of sustainable investing. The new Global Echo ETF (GIVE) will be structured as a core allocation that will seek out sustainable investment-themed opportunities across various asset classes, including fixed income, equities, and alternatives. The GIVE portfolio will include individual securities as well as other ETFs [see also 101 ETF Lessons Every Financial Advisor Should Learn].  [click to continue…]

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UBS Launches 2x Dividend ETNs (DVYL, SDYV)

by on May 24, 2012

UBS continues to develop a suite of exchange-traded notes that appeal to yield-focused investors, recently expanding its lineup with a pair of ETNs that offer monthly leveraged exposure to dividend-paying stocks. Both of the new ETNs will be linked to indexes that currently serve as the basis for extremely popular dividend ETFs; the new UBS notes will amplify both the price swings and yields delivered by those benchmarks. The new ETNs are [see also 101 ETF Lessons Every Financial Advisor Should Learn]:

  • ETRACS Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged Dow Jones Select Dividend Index ETN (DVYL)
  • ETRACS Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged S&P Dividend ETN (SDYL) [click to continue…]

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101 ETF Lessons Every Financial Advisor Should Learn

by on May 23, 2012

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have burst on to the scene in the last few years, raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in assets and prompting a major shift towards indexing strategies in the process. ETFs have empowered financial advisors (FAs), registered investment advisors (RIAs), Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), money managers, and retail investors to take [...]

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ProShares Launches Covered Bond ETF (COBO)

by on May 23, 2012

ProShares, the issuer behind a number of the ETFs offering exposure to alternatives, has notched another first for the ETF industry this week with the debut of a Covered Bond (COBO) product. The new ETF will seek to replicate the BNP Paribas Diversified USD Covered Bond Index, a benchmark that includes dollar-denominated covered bonds that [...]

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22 ETF Experts You Need to Follow on Twitter

by on May 22, 2012

The ETF corner of the Twitterverse represents the crossroads of perhaps two of the hottest trends of the past five years. ETFs have burst onto the investing scene as tools for accomplishing a growing range of objectives, while social media has emerged as a tremendously powerful tool for staying up to date on just about everything. For [...]

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Updated: Which ETFs Will Own Facebook (And When)

by on May 18, 2012

Today is the day: Facebook finally becomes a public company, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FB. The highly anticipated ETF is expected to bring massive trading volumes, and interest should remain elevated for the next several sessions. The IPO also spurs some rebalancings and reconstitutions for ETFs that will include Facebook in [...]

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Using ETFs To Measure Interest Rate Risk

by on May 17, 2012

When managing a fixed income portfolio, there are two primary risk factors that financial advisors consider: credit risk and interest rate risk. The superstar bond fund managers of the world have set themselves apart by a superior ability to identify these risk components–and then select securities that offer superior risk-adjusted returns [see also Better-Than-AGG Total [...]

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How To Find The Best Gold Miner ETF

by on May 16, 2012

In recent years ETFs have become popular tools for pursuing a wide range of investment objectives. As the product lineup has become more granular in nature, investors have turned to exchange-traded products as a way to tap into narrow segments of the global stock market; the current product offerings include a number of funds that [...]

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Hitchhiker’s Guide To The ETF Galaxy

by on May 14, 2012

At times, it seems as if the number of ETFs available to U.S. investors will soon exceed the number of stars in the sky. That might be overstating things a bit, but the pace of expansion in the ETF industry has truly been impressive over the last several years. With multiple products seemingly debuting every [...]

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Van Eck Launches Emerging Markets Junk Bond ETF (HYEM)

by on May 9, 2012

Van Eck rolled out another international high yield product this week, debuting its Market Vectors Emerging Markets High Yield Bond ETF (HYEM). The new fund will seek to replicate the BofA Merrill Lynch High Yield US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate Plus Index, a benchmark that consists of debt from issuers in a number of developing [...]

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ArrowShares Debuts With Global Yield ETF (GYLD)

by on May 8, 2012

ArrowShares has made its first plunge into the ETF industry, announcing the launch of an ETF that targets high yielding securities in a number of different asset classes. The new Dow Jones Global Yield ETF (GYLD) will be linked to an index that includes 150 of the highest yielding securities across three primary asset classes: [...]

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Saving For College, ETF Style: An ETF-Friendly 529 Plan

by on May 7, 2012

The ETF industry has been routinely praised for its innovation over the last several years, which is no doubt a contributing factor to the surge in interest and assets. Generally, reference to such innovation relates to the growth in the product lineup, as issuers of all sizes have launched a number of creative, first-to-market products [...]

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