With the finish line in sight, it’s fairly safe to say that 2011 will be remembered by most investors as a wild, back-and-forth year that brought plenty of both hope and despair. A hot start raised optimism of a continued recovery after a generally impressive 2011, but the summer months were anything but relaxing; major indexes suffered some of the worst losses since the recent recession.
In examining the year-to-date performances for the 1,000+ ETPs that have been around since the beginning of the year, there are a number of interesting figures that jump out, including both pleasant surprises and bitter disappointments–and some that are just plain confusing [the complete, sortable, document is available in ETF Edge--sign up for a free 7-day trial to get full access]. [click to continue…]
ProShares, the largest issuer of geared ETFs that has made a push into the alternatives space, adding two more products to its lineup late last week. The new Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas (BOIL) and UltraShort DJ-UBS Natural Gas (KOLD) are both linked to the Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Subindex, a benchmark that consists of natural [...]
Continuing a trend that has been playing out over the last couple years, two more issuers announced reductions to expense structures over the past few days. Teucrium, the company behind three resource-specific commodity products, announced the introduction of an expense cap on its natural gas ETF, while WisdomTree cut fees on one of its most [...]
Commodity ETPs can be extremely powerful tools for tapping into an asset class capable of providing both return enhancement and diversification benefits. With dozens of products available–there are more than 120 U.S.-listed commodity ETFs according to the ETF screener–picking the right fund for your investment objectives and risk tolerances can be challenging. Beyond the type [...]
Unlike mutual funds, ETFs are bought not from the company that creates and manages the products, but from other market participants. While that arrangement is responsible for many of the benefits of ETFs–such as intraday liquidity–it also introduces some potential pitfalls. Specifically, using market orders can be potentially hazardous as it introduces the possibility of [...]
iPath has introduced its Seasonal Natural Gas ETN (DCNG), giving investors yet another way to gain exposure to natural gas prices through exchange-traded products. The new ETN will be linked to the Barclays Capital Natural Gas Seasonal TR Index, a benchmark that is designed to reflect the returns that are potentially available by maintaining an [...]
In general, 2010 has been a pretty solid year for most portfolios. Despite lingering concerns about unemployment and mounting debt burdens, most global equity markets have moved higher on the year. Commodity markets have been red hot, with prices of many natural resources climbing to new highs thanks to strong demand from emerging markets and [...]
As more issuers have rushed into the ETF game and waves of cash inflows have contributed to surging asset levels within the industry, investors find themselves with more options than ever before. Once upon a time, exposure to a specific country or sector through ETFs was a binary decision; investors either had it, or they [...]
Direxion is best known as the issuer that introduced investors to 3x leveraged ETFs, but the Boston-based firm has built out its offering of 2x leveraged funds in 2010. The expansion of that portion of Direxion’s product line continued today with the launch of four new leveraged ETFs, bring the company’s total leveraged ETF count [...]
Since its launch in April 2007. the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) has endured a strange existence. After enjoying moderate success during its first 18 months–assets stood at more than $700 million at the end of 2008, UNG exploded as the natural gas craze hit and investors lined up for access to the “fuel [...]
The rapid rise of the ETF industry has caused the expanded the investment arsenal of millions significantly, bringing asset classes previously reserved for only the largest and most sophisticated investors within reach. This development is perhaps best demonstrated by the surge in popularity of exchange-traded commodity products. According to data from the National Stock Exchange, [...]
