AdvisorShares, one of the largest issuers of actively-managed ETFs, has forged a partnership to bring an active sector rotation ETF to market. The new Rockledge SectorSAM ETF (SSAM), which began trading Thursday, will seek to generate stable and consistent returns in all market conditions, developing a dollar neutral portfolio comprised of sector ETFs. The new ETF will utilize the Sector Scoring and Allocation Methodology (“SSAM”), a technique based on a proprietary quantitative analysis model that forecasts the projected returns to various sectors of the U.S. economy. The ETF will establish long positions in sector ETFs that are expected to outperform the S&P 500 and short positions in those that are expected to underperform that benchmark. [click to continue…]
Equity markets drifted sideways on Wednesday as investors digested good news from overseas along with worrisome corporate results at home. The Nasdaq led the way lower, sinking 0.99% on the day, after tech juggernaut Oracle posted disappointing earnings. The S&P 500 Index managed to gain 0.20% ahead of tomorrow’s U.S. GDP report, while the Dow [...]
For a brief moment, it seemed like Friday was going to end the week on a positive note, but a sell-off midway through the day ensured that markets would finish relatively flat. All in all, the Dow finished out the day down 2 points and the S&P 500 gained just 0.3%. The euro was able [...]
Markets were finally able to snap their losing streak with mild gains on the day, though they were nowhere near enough to erase the losses the past few days have seen. With euro zone fears heating up around the world, this week has seen most major asset classes exhibiting something of a tailspin. Today saw [...]
Stock markets endured another choppy trading week as hope and anxiety over the Euro zone debt drama sparked rallies one day and sell-offs the next. The much anticipated summit in Brussels left investors with a plateful of good news to digest on Friday as European leaders agreed to closer fiscal ties, although the United Kingdom [...]
Stocks have been drifting sideways all week as anxiety surrounding the upcoming European summit has proven to be an unavoidable cloud of uncertainty. Back and forth negotiations between European leaders have paved the way for choppy trading on both sides of the Atlantic ocean, although as a whole, volatility has been relatively low this week [...]
Domestic equity indexes snapped out of their loosing streak last week as investor confidence in the markets improved after a robust start to the holiday shopping season. The bulls charged through Wall Street on Wednesday after a global central bank initiative to lower the cost of dollar funding through swap arrangements sent a wave of [...]
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 [...]
As ETFs have burst on to the scene in recent years, just about every serious investor and professional money manager has taken a crash course in exchange-traded products, becoming familiar with the countless benefits and nuances of these products. Features such as enhanced transparency, upgraded tax efficiency, and low costs are generally well known at [...]
For investors looking to generate current returns from the equity portion of their portfolio, there is no shortage of exchange-traded products offering attractive dividend yields in the current environment. From ETFs linked to dividend-weighted indexes to those that focus on companies with stellar distribution histories to simply sector-specific funds in high yield corners of the [...]
Sector rotation techniques have been around for decades, a relatively simple strategy often used by investors seeking to capitalize on short-term mispricings in order to generate alpha. In its most basic form, sector rotation involves segmenting the equity universe by industry, and moving into and out of various sectors depending on relative attractiveness from a [...]
