One of the biggest stories in the ETF world over the past few trading sessions has been the Gold SPDR (GLD) taking the top spot among most widely-held ETFs, finally surpassing SPY for the AUM crown. Yet, just as soon as this happened and gold hit $1,900/oz., investors saw a brutal sell-off in the precious metal, causing prices to fall to their current level around $1,770/oz. While the reasons for this decline are unclear– some blame profit-taking while others point to market manipulation– one has to wonder if a similar situation plagued the rest of the precious metal group and their respective ETFs, specifically, silver, platinum, and palladium.
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ETF Securities, the giant of the European ETF market that has amassed more than $4 billion in a suite of seven U.S.-listed products, is taking steps towards an initial public offering according to the Wall Street Journal. The ETF issuer has reportedly retained Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to discuss its strategic options, [...]
ETF Securities, the Europe-based ETF issuer responsible for a series of ultra-popular physically-backed precious metal ETFs, recently made an SEC filing detailing plans for a series of physically-backed exchange-traded products targeting the industrial metal space. In total, the filing calls for seven funds with one targeting each of aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin, and zinc, [...]
It doesn’t seem like that long ago that exchange-traded commodity products were the darlings of the ETF world. Praised for democratizing an entire asset class (and one capable of delivering non-correlated returns to investors at that), commodity ETFs saw billions of dollars of cash inflows in 2009. Investors rushed to get their hands on everything [...]
ETF Securities, the European-based ETF issuer famous for its lineup of physically-backed precious metal ETFs, announced further expansion of its product offering with the launch of an ETF that holds physical gold bullion in Singapore, the ETFS Physical Asian Gold Shares Trust. The new fund will trade under the symbol AGOL and will charge investors [...]
As we put the finishing touches on 2010, the year has shaped up to be one of the most eventful in recent memory for global markets as a number of important events impacted the world economy. Among the events that dominated financial headlines this year were an (ongoing) sovereign debt crisis, the flash crash, a [...]
As traders head back to work after a week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, there is no shortage of activity and anxiety in global equity markets. The critical holiday shopping season is well underway, and an escalating debt crisis in Europe and potentially explosive confrontation in Korea have forced investors to cast a wary eye [...]
With the U.S. dollar plummeting, resource-hungry emerging markets racing ahead, and concerns over inflation beginning to pop up, hard assets have been red hot. And ETF issuers are seemingly taking notice, coming up with creative ways to offer investors exposure to natural resources. Just days after JPMorgan filed papers with the SEC detailing plans for [...]
ETF Securities, the European ETF giant that has now accumulated more than $2 billion in U.S. ETF assets, announced the latest addition to its product line on Friday. The ETFS Physical Precious Metal Basket Shares (GLTR) will be the first U.S.-based, physically backed precious metal basket ETP. GLTR (pronounced “glitter”) will hold gold, silver, platinum [...]
As the U.S. economy continues to struggle and more intervention from the Fed seems inevitable, the dollar has been battered in currency markets. The greenback has already lost close to 8% over the past few months against the world’s other major currencies, and while a Chinese rate hike earlier this week helped to temporarily stem [...]
Perhaps no corner of the ETF market has exploded as rapidly as the precious metals space, as the democratization of an asset class previously off limits to many investors has resulted in billions of dollars in cash inflows. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is now the second-largest ETF by total assets, with more than $53 [...]
