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…]
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, [...]
Thanks to inflationary pressures and booming emerging markets, a number of key commodities have seen their values soar so far in 2011. While this trend has been especially pronounced in the energy and food commodity markets, precious metals have also been a huge beneficiary of the movement as many traders and investors have piled into [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
One of the recurring investment themes over the last several months has been the seemingly unstoppable climb of gold. As the U.S. dollar has encountered weakness driven by worries over inflation and deteriorating credit quality, investors have embraced hard currencies as a hedge against the greenback, sending prices of gold bullion skyrocketing. The precious metals [...]
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 [...]
With consumer confidence plunging and governments around the world racking up seemingly unpayable bills, many investors have sought refuge outside of fiat currencies in order to help protect some of their assets from the ravages of inflation which is sure to come eventually. Almost by default, investors have piled into gold which has seen its [...]
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Investors have been pulled in opposite directions in recent sessions, as conflicting data leaves the short term outlook very uncertain. Earnings season has gotten off to a hot start, with Intel, Alcoa, and CSX all impressing the Street. Meanwhile, diminishing fears over the [...]
ETF Securities, the London-based firm that holds a big slice of market share on the European ETF scene, has established itself as a formidable player in the U.S. market in its first year in the game. The company’s gold (SGOL) and silver (SIVR) ETFs have been successful in competing with much larger, well-established products, and [...]
