The introduction and rapid expansion of the ETF industry has no doubt been a very positive development for investors big and small. The low fees characteristic of the exchange-traded structure have allowed cost-conscious investors to minimize expenses without sacrificing returns, while the enhanced tax efficiency and intraday trading capabilities have contributed increased flexibility to the investing public. [click to continue…]
While ETFs have been praised for their ability to offer immediate diversification and low cost exposure to a wide variety of asset classes, more and more investors are also realizing that ETFs may also allow them to tap into relatively complex investment strategies that historically would have required either significant time and analysis or a [...]
The ETF industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, thanks in large part to a shift by investors towards cost-efficient passive indexing strategies and away from pricey active management. But many in the industry have opined that actively-managed ETFs–in a sense hybrid products that exhibit characteristics of both active mutual funds and [...]
Less than a week into November, the month is shaping up to be one of the most active in recent memory for the ETF industry. Vanguard (international real estate ETF), UBS (another MLP ETN), PIMCO (laddered Treasury fund), and Global X (Gold Explorers) have already launched new ETFs, and several more issuers are expected to [...]
Traditionally, investors have sought to smooth out the volatility of equity portfolios through the addition of fixed income securities. But in the current liquidity-fueled environment, the relationship between stocks and bonds has strengthened considerably. Since the beginning to 2009, the correlation between the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) and the broad-based Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Fund [...]
The past few years have seen no shortage of innovation in the ETF space; targeted international products, state-specific funds, and single-commodity ETPs are just a few of the developments to come out of the rapidly-expanding industry. Some of the most interesting products to hit the market recently are found in the Hedge Funds ETFdb Category, [...]
The anticipation has been building throughout the last year in the ETF industry, with several of the world’s largest asset management firms laying the groundwork to roll out actively-managed ETFs. Big players in the mutual fund industry, including T. Rowe Price and Legg Mason, are among those crowding around the periphery of the ETF industry, [...]
To say opinions on the future of active ETFs are mixed would be a major understatement. Nearly two years after PowerShares launched its first line of active ETFs and a year after the much-publicized launch of the Grail American Beacon Large Cap Value ETF (GVT), active ETFs remain stuck in first gear. Investors have expressed [...]
As seasoned investors know, any potential investment must be evaluated not on a stand-alone basis but on its contribution to an overall portfolio. In addition to considering the risk and return profile of a particular asset, the relationship between that asset and the other holdings of the investor is of vital importance in the construction [...]
San Francisco-based iShares, which was acquired by BlackRock from Barclays last year, has more than 180 U.S.-listed ETFs. But the distribution of assets is far from even across these funds. At the end of 2009, the ten largest iShares ETFs–only about five percent of the issuer’s product line–accounted for 50% of total assets. So there’s [...]
ETFs experienced a rocky week, as president Obama gave his first State of The Union Address and Apple debuted its much anticipated tablet computer, the iPad. In other news, Ben Bernanke won a secnd term after passing Senate confirmation in a 70-30 vote. Below, we offer our picks for the week’s most important and interesting [...]
