The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has seen its influence over the global energy market wane in recent years, as a prolonged economic downturn caused demand for oil to plummet, limiting the effectiveness of the group’s once eagerly-anticipated supply decisions. But with a seemingly stable recovery underway and many emerging markets demonstrating an insatiable thirst for raw materials and energy, OPEC once again finds itself in a position of power. The bloc of oil rich nations didn’t hesitate to flex its muscles on Wednesday, showing that its decisions are still capable of impacting oil markets. [click to continue…]
Most of what’s written about ETNs is cautionary in nature, focusing on the credit risk inherent in any debt security. And with good reason; the risks of ETN investing are very real. While most exchange-traded notes are issued by major financial institutions with lofty credit ratings, the last few years have taught investors that credit risk, however negligible, can never be written off completely. But ETNs also offer some potential advantages to investors. For one, they often offer exposure to hard-to-access asset classes and indexes that traditional ETFs may have difficulties tracking accurately or in a cost-efficient manner. [click to continue…]
The International Energy Agency (IEA), an energy advisor to rich nations such as the U.S., released its highly-anticipated World Energy Outlook on Tuesday, singling out potential climate change initiatives as a major driver of oil consumption and prices in coming decades. If a major agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions is signed and implemented in [...]
Direct investment in crude oil products used to be limited to major financial institutions and oil companies themselves, but the development of the ETF industry in the U.S. has democratized the investment process in many ways, including making investments in various oil products accessible to average investors. There are a number of exchange-traded products that [...]
It’s been an interesting week the world of ETFs: ETFs trended upwards at the beginning of the week but fell back in trading late Thursday and Friday. Here are the ETF Database staff picks of the week’s most important and interesting stories from around the Web:
Big oil is turning its attention to Iraq once again. But this time, instead of fear and dread, oil companies are looking to the Gulf state with hope and optimism. In recent years, the Iraqi oil industry usually made the news for all the wrong reasons: sabotages of pipelines, bomb attacks at drilling sites, employee [...]
Millions of Iranians headed to local polling places on Friday to participate in the most heated presidential race since the founding of the Islamic Republic 30 years ago. The passions of Iranians surrounding this election have been evidenced by numerous (mostly peaceful) rallies and demonstrations spilling into the streets throughout the country in recent days. [...]
Perhaps you’ve noticed that many of the investment vehicles in the ETF industry are technically referred to as exchange-traded notes, or ETNs. While ETNs are similar to ETFs in many ways, there are also some key differences that should be considered before investing.
With the rapid declines in the equity markets over the past year and increasing worries about inflation, many investors have been looking for alternative ETF investments to reduce volatility in their portfolios and establish at least a partial hedge against deteriorating economic conditions. One of the most popular options for doing so has been commodity [...]
