As the ETF universe has expanded dramatically over the last several years, many investors have taken advantage of this asset class to tap into international equity markets. With single-country ETFs dedicated to dozens of developed and emerging markets, accessing the major (and not-so-major) stock markets around the globe has never been easier.
When evaluating international equity ETFs–as with all ETFs–it is important to take a look under the hood and fully understand what the portfolio includes. Below, we highlight a few relatively common characteristics of international stock ETFs that might be somewhat disconcerting to investors [for more ETF insights, sign up for the free ETFdb newsletter]: [click to continue…]
One of the most noteworthy innovations in the ETF industry over the last several years has been the development of funds that deliver targeted exposure to investment “factors”, allowing for easy access to techniques that previously required extensive research and maintenance. From high momentum to low beta, there are now ETFs that slice and dice [...]
One of the many appealing attributes of ETFs is the ability to achieve broad exposure through the purchase of a single ticker, thereby whittling away any company-specific risk that comes with individual stock picking. While the “instant diversification” provided by ETFs and mutual funds can go a long way towards minimizing the impact of a [...]
For most investors, 2011 was a frustrating year; after some strong early gains seemingly pointed to a continuation of the recovery that took root in 2010, the appearance of some major obstacles sent many major indexes back towards negative territory. The impressive late December rally closed the year on a high note, but there is [...]
As some financial advisors are now well aware, the term “ETF” is often used rather liberally to refer to a variety of different exchange-traded products that generally function in the same manner from the perspective of an investor. More accurately, ETFs can be described as a type of exchange-traded product, or ETP, an umbrella that [...]
In the universe of equity ETFs, market capitalization weighting strategies are incredibly dominant. The majority of the hundreds of domestic and international stock ETFs available to U.S. investors are linked to cap-weighted benchmarks, and the lion’s share of assets is in products that utilize this well known methodology. But in recent years, thanks in part [...]
A growing number of financial advisors are using exchange-traded funds to achieve international equity exposure for their clients, embracing funds that offer access to both developed and international market beyond the U.S. This should hardly be surprising; the exchange-traded structure delivers an efficient way to tap into an asset class that should be at the [...]
The last week may have been a brief one for U.S. equity markets, but the Thanksgiving-shortened stretch saw the continuation of disappointing losses that raise the likelihood of a year in the red for 2011 and potentially accelerating declines heading in to the final month of the year. While investors attention stateside focused on retail [...]
This year more than ever before, investors of all sizes are giving thanks for the tremendous expansion in the ETF industry in recent years. ETF assets continue to climb, even in challenging economic environments. And in many cases, the growth of this industry is thanks to an exodus of cash from traditional mutual funds to [...]
ETFs have made great progress in simplifying the investing processing; with more than 1,300 exchange-traded products covering just about every asset class, major world economy, and investment strategy, the potential portfolio combinations are endless. For those advisors looking to build a cost efficient, low maintenance portfolio for their clients, ETFs can be quite handy; constructing [...]
As the ETF universe has expanded rapidly over the past few years, so too has the reach of its exposure. Where there was once only a few hundred products for basic investing, there now stands over 1,400 ETFs with more than one trillion in combined assets. There are now ETFs for not only broad-based investing, [...]
