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: the S&P 500 (SPY), emerging markets (EEM and VWO), aggregate bond markets (AGG and LQD) and diversified commodity funds (DBC) were all represented. Also making the list were two gold ETFs: the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) and iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU). [click to continue…]
As seasoned investors know, any potential investment must be evaluated not on a stand-alone basis but on its contribution to an overall portfolio. In addition to considering the risk and return profile of a particular asset, the relationship between that asset and the other holdings of the investor is of vital importance in the construction of an efficient portfolio. The addition of assets that maintain low or negative correlations with other portfolio components can add valuable diversification benefits. [click to continue…]
ETFs have surged in popularity in recent years in part because of the numerous advantages they offer over traditional actively-managed mutual funds: lower costs, potential tax efficiencies, intraday trading, and enhanced transparency. But ETFs aren’t without potential drawbacks of their own. Although most funds appear relatively simple on the surface, there are some rather complex [...]
Fidelity Investments announced today that it will offer its retail customers commission-free online trades for a suite of 25 iShares ETFs. The funds included in the commission-free platform include ETFs in all nine domestic equity style/size categories, as well as international equity and fixed income options. “Fidelity has partnered with the leading ETF provider in [...]
Grail Advisors, known in the ETF world as the issuer responsible for the first actively-managed ETF that allowed managers total discretion, announced today the launch of two actively-managed fixed income ETFs. The Grail McDonnell Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF (GMMB) and the Grail McDonnell Core Taxable Bond ETF (GMTB) began trading on the NYSE Arca Exchange [...]
The past year was a stellar one for almost all global equity markets, but it was the world’s emerging economies that truly stole the show. As investors regained their appetite for risk, those markets that have historically been deemed to be the most risky surged. But the impressive gains for emerging markets in 2009 weren’t [...]
Following a tremendously successful 2009 that saw more than $40 billion flow into fixed income ETFs, the number of bond ETFs is expected to increase significantly in 2010. In what could be the first of many new product launches, iShares introduced a line of new municipal bond, or “muni,” ETFs on Friday. Unlike existing muni [...]
In two weeks, the curtain will close on 2009, bringing to an end a banner year for the ETF industry that saw hundreds of fund launches and tens of billions of dollars in cash inflows. Ongoing product development and innovation continues to expand investor options, bringing almost every corner of the investable asset universe within [...]
State Street has become the latest ETF issuer to jump in on the corporate bond ETF boom, launching the SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Corporate Bond ETF (SCPB) on Wednesday. SCPB will be linked to the Barclays Capital U.S. 1-3 Year Corporate Bond Index, a benchmark that measures the performance of investment grade corporate debt [...]
The reasons for the incredible rise of the ETF industry are numerous. Intra-day trading, enhanced transparency, and efficient tax features are all features that investors, individual and institutional alike, have embraced in record numbers. But perhaps the main reason why ETFs have attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in assets in recent years is the [...]
The rise of the ETF industry has made commodity investing readily available to millions of investors whose options for exposure to this “fourth asset class” were previously limited. Most of the money in commodity exchange-traded products is in diversified funds offering exposure to more than a dozen natural resources through a single security (see a [...]
The rise of the ETF industry has been impressive, expanding from virtually no listings ten years ago to about 900 today. And there is still plenty of room for growth. As we head towards the end of a wildly successful year for the ETF industry, ETF Database is taking a look forward, making our predictions [...]
