U.S. ETF assets declined slightly in November according to the latest data from the National Stock Exchange, as the rapidly-growing industry experienced net outflows amidst a general flight from both domestic and international equities. The industry finished last month with $1.06 trillion in net assets, down about 2% from the previous month but up 12% from the same period last year. The net decline in assets was attributable to domestic equity ETFs, which saw $7 billion in outflows, and international equities, which saw another $1.9 billion. Those big losses were offset by tremendous interest in commodities and bonds; fixed income ETFs raked in more than $5 billion in cash inflows, while exchange-traded commodity products captured almost $2.9 billion [see Ten Unexpected Observations In YTD Returns]. [click to continue…]
Last week’s hopeful surge in the markets were quickly overshadowed this week with worse-than-expected news from overseas, contributing to the never-ending cycle of the European debt crisis. Major stock indexes remained unchanged earlier in the week then dropped during Thursday’s trading session as investors digested the latest euro-zone developments. The European Central Bank announced its [...]
The latest addition to the fast-growing ETF lineup is a fund from State Street that will offer exposure to investment grade debt that adjusts interest payouts based on prevailing market conditions. The SPDR Barclays Capital Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF (FLRN) is linked to an index that consists of investment grade debt with a floating [...]
Financial advisors and individual investors who have embraced ETFs are generally painted as a cost conscious crowd, passing over expensive active mutual funds in favor of cheap indexing strategies. In general ETFs are considerably cheaper than mutual funds, thanks not only to the indexing strategy but also to the more efficient exchange-traded structure. But not [...]
The saying “never judge a book by its cover” is certainly applicable to a wide range of situations. That includes the business of investing; for advisors and individuals who use ETFs, the old adage can be very relevant, valuable advice. There are now more than 1,300 exchange-traded products now available to U.S. investors, and that [...]
The rapid expansion of the ETF industry has been one of the most important developments of the last several decades to financial professionals; as the lineup of exchange-traded products has surged past 1,300, financial advisors now have more tools in their toolkits than ever before to help construct client portfolios. With these new financial products [...]
Equity markets have taken investors for a wild ride over the past three months with chaotic trading dominating virtually every nook and corner of Wall Street. Amidst the volatility, investors have been seeking out refuge and fleeing to “safer” asset classes; although rational, this approach inevitability overlooks certain corners of the market that may in [...]
[This article is a free preview of the special ETF research report Dividend ETFs In Focus: Finding The Best Yield . ETFdb Pro members can read the entire report here; sign up for a free 7-day trial to get your copy] Dividend investing is one of the oldest and most popular strategies amongst retail and institutional equity investors on Wall [...]
The impressive pace of expansion in the ETF industry over the last several years has been well documented; continuous product development has resulted in the launch of more than 250 so far in 2011, and there are now more than 1,300 names in the ETF lineup. But while the depth of the ETF space has [...]
September was one of the worst months in years for global equity markets. Volatility swept throughout every corner of the financial markets as escalating Euro zone debt woes worried investors of an impending crisis. Investor confidence has been slowly eroding given the concerning global economic outlook, prompting many to pull out of the markets all [...]
A new ETFdb Portfolio offering a broad-based approach to fixed income exposure is now available to ETFdb Pro members. The Better-Than-AGG ETFdb Portfolio is designed to give investors exposure to every corner of the global bond market, tapping into segments that are often overlooked despite meaningful return enhancement and diversification benefits.
