When the Federal Reserve announced recently that it plans to keep key interest rates at nearly zero until 2014, it hardly came as a surprise. With the economic recovery still in a very fragile state and inflationary pressures remaining tame, record low interest rates are expected to hang around for quite a while. While stock markets largely cheered the latest announcement, you could almost hear the exasperation of those who rely on generating meaningful current returns from their portfolios. The extension of the low rate environment means extending the challenges for yield hungry investors, such as those who rely on their portfolio to generate cash flows to cover living expenses [see also Six Juicy High Yield Bond ETFs For 2012].
Against this backdrop, more and more advisors have engaged actively in searching out securities that offer meaningful current returns for their clients. Not surprisingly, that objective generally leads to the assumption of greater risk, whether though lower creditworthiness or longer durations. There are, of course, investors at the opposite end of the spectrum, whose primary objectives focus not on maximizing current yield but on minimizing risk and simply maintaining the value of their investment. And for those looking to do a bit more than stuffing their cash under the mattress, there are some interesting ETF options out there [for more ETF ideas, sign up for the free ETFdb newsletter]: [click to continue…]
As the lineup of exchange-traded products has expanded dramatically in recent years, financial advisors have found themselves with more tools at their disposal than ever before. The extreme granularity of many of the equity products out there allows for cheap, low maintenance targeting of specific corners of the investable universe, while the development of some [...]
AdvisorShares added to its rapidly-growing lineup of active ETFs today with the debut of the Accuvest Global Opportunities ETF (ACCU), which utilizes country-specific ETFs with the goal of generating excess returns relative to benchmarks such as the MSCI All Country World Index. Accuvest, the portfolio manager of the new ETF, utilizes a proprietary country ranking [...]
With ETF product development off to a robust start in 2012, issuers are continuing to fill the pipeline with new ideas. Industry veteran PowerShares filed with the SEC to bring to market tw0 active ETFs while First Trust has laid the groundwork to beef up its AlphaDEX lineup. Relative newcomer FlexShares made plans for a [...]
AdvisorShares, one of the largest issuers of actively-managed ETFs, has forged a partnership to bring an active sector rotation ETF to market. The new Rockledge SectorSAM ETF (SSAM), which began trading Thursday, will seek to generate stable and consistent returns in all market conditions, developing a dollar neutral portfolio comprised of sector ETFs. The new ETF [...]
ETFs initially became popular with advisors and individual investors as tools for harnessing beta, allowing low cost ownership of broad equity markets through a vehicle that provided transparency, intraday liquidity, and potential tax efficiency to boot. The “first generation” of exchange-traded products were exclusively plain vanilla funds that targeted well known stock and bond benchmarks, [...]
Light trading volumes and sparse activity on the product development front are to be expected in the final week of what has shaped out to be one of the most volatile years in financial history. Industry giant iShares has laid down the groundwork for three actively-managed equity ETFs targeting popular broad market sectors [see Active [...]
Innovation has been a dominant theme in the ETF industry and this year, 2011, has shaped out to be perhaps the most exciting one yet. Growth is the other key ingredient for success and the exchange-traded universe has seen an abundance of new product launches; veteran issuers and newcomers alike have expanded their product lineups [...]
With 2011 nearly in the books, the ETF industry has set yet another record for product development and innovation. More than 300 exchange-traded products debuted this year, beginning in early January with the launch of the first VIX ETFs from ProShares and continuing through late December when RBS added another Trendpilot ETN to its lineup. [...]
This past year was the most active ever for the exchange traded industry in terms of product development; the launch of more than 300 new products shattered the record set in 2010. And innovation continues to run high in the industry; the creativity of issuers is still impressive, as many of the ETFs that have [...]
As a handful of brave souls find out every four years, running for President of the United States generally involves opening up your personal life to intense examination by opponents, the media, and general public. Generally, the scrutiny focuses on personal histories–arrests, affairs, and lawsuits make for juicy reading. But being a public servant can [...]