To call the last few weeks volatile would be an understatement. Markets have some of their most violent trading days in recent memory, as the beginning of August brought multiple days with swings higher than 5% in major equities indices. Amid a botched debt negotiation and a downgrade of U.S. debts by Standard and Poor’s, investors have been on something of a roller coaster ride as of late. While many hoped that September would bring markets into the black, they were unfortunately let down. Just two days into the month, a dismal report came in with zero jobs added for the entire month of August, a level that was far less than consensus estimates [see also Three ETFs Down Over 30% In 2011]. [click to continue…]
Since PowerShares debuted its first active ETFs in the spring of 2008, this corner of the exchange-traded product market has grown tremendously. Though many active ETFs have been somewhat slow to accumulate assets, the increase in the size of the lineup highlights the trend towards vehicles that combine active management with the exchange-traded structure. There [...]
AdvisorShares, the Bethesda, Maryland-based firm behind many of the most successful active ETFs on the market, announced this week a partnership with TrimTabs Asset Management to develop an actively-managed ETF. TrimTabs is an independent institutional research firm built around the premise that stock prices are a function of liquidity rather than value. The company was [...]
When categorizing various investment vehicles, most investors tend to think of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as polar opposites. Mutual funds are associated with active management, with a team of analysts and managers seeking to generate alpha by identifying undervalued securities from a relevant universe of stocks and bonds. ETFs, on the other hand, [...]
AdvisorShares, the Bethesda, Maryland-based firm that burst on to the ETF scene last year with a fund linked to the investing theories furthered by Harry Dent, continues to expand its presence in the active ETF space. The latest ETF from the firm is the WCM/BNY Mellon Focused Growth ADR ETF (AADR), a fund that seeks [...]
The past few months have seen a number of interesting developments in the active ETF space. A number of major players in the mutual fund game have laid the groundwork for a foray into the ETF world, a development that could lead to a flood of interest (and cash) in active funds. Grail announced last [...]
Bethesda, Maryland-based AdvisorShares announced today the launch of the Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (GRV), the second ETF product from the company. The new ETF will be actively-managed; instead of seeking to replicate the performance of a particular benchmark, GRV will attempt to generate consistent positive returns in excess of the average annual return [...]
Once investors have narrowed down the universe of 900+ exchange-traded products to those that could potentially match the risk/return profile they’re seeking, the real work begins (see Five Free Tools For Finding The Right ETF). When comparing ETFs to find the best fit for a portfolio, one of the metrics most frequently analyzed is the [...]
To say opinions on the future of active ETFs are mixed would be a major understatement. Nearly two years after PowerShares launched its first line of active ETFs and a year after the much-publicized launch of the Grail American Beacon Large Cap Value ETF (GVT), active ETFs remain stuck in first gear. Investors have expressed [...]
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 [...]
Legg Mason appears ready to make its long anticipated move into the active ETF space. The Baltimore-based asset management firm filed for approval with the SEC that would allow it to introduce actively-managed ETFs to U.S. markets. Filing for exemptive relief is one of the first steps on the road to launching ETFs, and requires [...]
