As far as the majority of the ETF industry is concerned, size is everything. Institutions and financial advisors often have minimum AUM requirements for investing; a pre-screen that many ETFs fail due to their smaller size. Even individual investors are quick to write off a fund with low assets, as they assume its low popularity simply means that the fund is not of a high quality. Instead, most go with the biggest fund in the respective asset class, believing size to be the key factor. To put it rather bluntly, most of the aforementioned people and groups can often be wrong. There are a number of smaller products that present much more compelling investment methodologies than their larger counterparts, they just need a little more attention to get going. [click to continue…]
Stock markets are continuing their bull run as encouraging economic data continues to restore confidence back in the domestic recovery. Upbeat commentary from the Fed coupled with better-than-expected retail sales earlier in the week played a key role in helping to sustain positive momentum on Wall Street. While stocks have been heating up, developments on [...]
On February 1st of this year, Facebook made its long-awaited initial public offering. Investors and the general public have been swirling about an IPO for years, as many have speculated its time frame and when the public would actually be able to get their hands on the stock. The secrecy and rumors were comparable to [...]
The ETF industry has been experiencing exponential growth over the past few years, as we are now able to choose from more than 1,400 products with well over $1 trillion in combined assets. But as with any budding industry, there comes a time when it is necessary to trim the fat so to speak, and [...]
Few stocks receive more attention from the financial presses than Apple (AAPL), the tech giant that has made a remarkable recovery from life support in the early 1990s to become one of the largest companies in the world. The stock has long been an investor favorite based on consumers’ insatiable appetite for almost every new [...]
Though value investing never truly went out of style, it has certainly become an increasingly popular strategy over the past few years. Interest in dividend-paying stocks skyrocketed in 2011 as investors sought both safety and yield. Given the lingering risks to a still-fragile global economic, as well as the likelihood of low rates in many [...]
Everyone is familiar with the SPDR S&P 500 Fund (SPY). SPY is by far the most popular ETF in the world, with nearly $100 billion in assets and an ADV around 150 million. Those numbers ensure that this is not only the largest ETF in the world, but one of the largest funds in the investing space. [...]
ETFs have become so popular in recent years in part because of the tax efficiencies that they offer relative to traditional mutual funds. Due to the nuances of the creation / redemption mechanism, ETFs are generally able to give investors more control over their tax situation–instead of pinning them with capital gains obligations due to [...]
It’s always exciting to see renowned experts from all corners of the financial industry come together in one venue. Inside ETFs, the world’s largest ETF conference, fits the profile of such a noteworthy event. The 5th annual Inside ETFs Conference, hosted by IndexUniverse, took place in Hollywood, Florida just a few weeks ago in late [...]
Equity markets have been quietly drifting higher throughout the week as ongoing Greek debt woes can’t seem to hold back the bulls on Wall Street. Activity on the product development front has been quite robust; VelocityShares added 8 leveraged ETNs to their growing lineup of trading instruments while iShares debuted the cheapest yet small cap India ETF. The industry [...]
With more than 40% of the U.S. market, iShares has long been the leader in the U.S. ETF industry. But in recent years the competition has been gaining ground, thanks in part to more cost efficient products. According to the ETF Industry Association, Vanguard led all ETF issuers with almost $36 billion in cash inflows [...]
