The first half of 2011 is officially in the books, and many investors find their portfolios in approximately the same place as they were to start the year (though a furious rally in the final week of the quarter gave a nice boost at an opportune moment). Most major equity indexes are up slightly on the year, while fixed income benchmarks have similarly hovered around breakeven. Beyond these broad generalizations, there are some significant performance discrepancies among exchange-traded products that may seem to offer up similar risk/return profiles.
The following tables highlight the top performers from every ETFdb Category during the first six months of the year, shedding some light on the asset classes that have struggled and thrived so far in 2011–and reinforcing that the seemingly minor distinctions between ETPs can lead to big differences in performance [for monthly updates on the best performers, sign up for the free ETFdb newsletter]: [click to continue…]
ProShares, a leading issuer of leveraged ETFs, launched one of the last new ETFs of 2010 when it debuted the RAFI Long/Short (RALS) in December. Now the company has launched the first new ETFs of 2011, rolling out two volatility products on Tuesday. The ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures (VIXY) and VIX Mid-Term Futures (VIXM) are [...]
ProShares, the Maryland-based ETF issuer known as a pioneer of leveraged exchange-traded products, announced today the latest addition to its product line. Like many of the new products hitting the market in recent weeks, the ProShares RAFI Long/Short (RALS) will be the first of its kind. RALS will seek to replicate the RAFI U.S. Equity [...]
Rob Arnott’s footprint on the ETF industry just might be getting a little bit bigger. ProShares, the Maryland-based leveraged and inverse ETF giant, recently filed details with the SEC on an ETF that would seek to track the performance of the RAFI US Equity Long/Short Index. That benchmark is based on a methodology devised by [...]
As ETFs have growth from a closet industry to a primary element of the investing landscape, the number of products available to U.S. investors has surged, rising to more than 1,000 over the last two years. Many of the new products to hit the market in recent years have been twists on the most popular [...]
When ETFs began to make their way into the investing mainstream, almost all products were “plain vanilla” funds linked to well known stock benchmarks, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500. But as the popularity of ETFs has surged, so too has the number of product offerings, with approximately 30 issuers now [...]
Many investors point to the rise of the ETF industry as a clear shift in preferences away from relatively expensive active management in favor of low-cost indexing. It’s been said that the alpha hunters have evolved into beta grazers. But the benefits of the ETF structure aren’t reserved solely for passive cap-weighted products, and the [...]
At the core of many investor portfolios is an allocation to large cap, U.S.-listed equities. With market capitalizations usually exceeding $10 billion, large cap stocks generally have long operating histories, stable operations, and large amounts of cash on hand, making them less risky investments than small and mid cap firms. Moreover, although domestic large caps [...]
IndexIQ, the New York-based developer of alternative indexes and exchange-traded funds, has taken the first step towards launching a 130/30 ETF, filing a 40-APP application with the SEC earlier this week. IndexIQ currently maintains the IQ 130/30 Index, a rules-based benchmark that employs fundamental factors to select U.S. stocks with a long exposure of 130% [...]
The S&P 500 is one of the most widely-followed benchmarks in the world, a bellweather of the American economy that is included in the Index of Leading Indicators. Composed of 500 of the largest stocks listed in the U.S. (as well as a handful of non-U.S. companies), the S&P 500 has a weighted average market [...]
Just as there are various “celebrity stock tickers” that every investor recognizes instantly (GOOG, MSFT, F, JNJ), there are some ETFs that everyone knows. Generally, these ETFs, such as SPY, GLD, and QQQQ, reflect the most widely-known investment strategies and asset classes. And while the 25 largest funds that account for more than half of [...]