From the category archives:
The wild ride for sugar ETF investors is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. After sugar prices hit 30 year highs in early February, prices in New York have slumped by nearly 40% over the last month. But prices have rebounded sharply in recent trading, reclaiming large chunks of the ground lost during the recent slide. [click to continue…]
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The rise of the ETF industry is often attributed (in large part at least) to a shift in investor preference from pricey active management to low-cost indexing strategies. ETFs burst on to the investment scene by offering fees equivalent to only a fraction of those charged by traditional actively-managed mutual funds, and have continued to attract assets as investors frustrated with the inability of active management to consistently generate alpha seek out more cost-efficient alternatives. [click to continue…]
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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has seen its influence over the global energy market wane in recent years, as a prolonged economic downturn caused demand for oil to plummet, limiting the effectiveness of the group’s once eagerly-anticipated supply decisions. But with a seemingly stable recovery underway and many emerging markets demonstrating an insatiable [...]
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First Trust, the ETF issuer best known for its line of quant-based AlphaDEX funds, introduced two new ETFs last week that tap into an increasingly popular investment strategy. The First Trust ISE Global Platinum Index Fund (PLTM) and First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund (CU) join a number of other ETFs focused on mining [...]
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Perhaps no exchange-traded product listed in the U.S. has seen the level of investor interest or been the subject of as much controversy as the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG). UNG was launched in April 2007, and the fund was moderately successful during its first 18 months, growing to more than $700 million in [...]
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Many commodities have surged in recent weeks–especially base metals such as copper–on hopes of a continued economic recovery and increased demand from both emerging and developed markets. But not all resources have participated in the recent surge; many of the “soft” commodities, including sugar and cocoa, have slumped. After soaring to finish 2009, the iPath [...]
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It’s difficult to put a finger on the exact cause of the recent surge in popularity of commodity investing. More than likely, the boom is attributable to a number of different factors. Correlation between international equity markets (and even between stocks and bonds) has surged in recent years, increasing both the importance and difficulty of [...]
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Yesterday, the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG), one of the largest and most heavily-traded exchange-traded commodity products, hit its all time low, falling nearly 4% on signs of weak demand and expectations for balmy weather across the country. Since its inception in April 2007, UNG has been one of the most popular and controversial [...]
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Historically, precious metals investing for U.S. investors has been limited to gold and, to a lesser extent, silver. But recent innovation in the space has doubled the available resources; earlier this year, London-based ETF Securities launched the ETFS Physical Platinum Trust (PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium Trust (PALL), the first physically-backed ETFs offering exposure to [...]
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Since the most recent global recession began (and the subsequent stimulus measures took effect), many of the relationships between asset classes that have historically guided investment decisions have weakened considerably. The correlation between U.S. equity and bond markets has gone through the roof, an indication of an increasingly liquidity-driven market. Commodities, which have traditionally been [...]
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The surge in popularity of ETFs is often credited with bringing buy-and-hold investors a cost-efficient alternative to traditional actively-managed mutual funds. But ETFs are also responsible for bringing several asset classes previously available only to the largest and most sophisticated individuals and institutions within reach of investors on all levels.
While this “democratization” of investing is [...]
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A recent survey released by InvestmentNews highlighted the ten ETFs financial advisors researched the most, based on data provided by Morningstar. It’s tough to know exactly what to make of the list, but at the very least it gives some interesting insights into the minds of investors. The list included many of the usual suspects: [...]
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