After enjoying a record year in 2010, many in the ETF industry were disappointed when January figures revealed a material decline in total assets, breaking an impressive string of month-over-month expansion. The latest ETF statistics from the National Stock Exchange are out, and February results were more typical of the industry’s recent growth. Total ETF assets increased from about $745 billion to $765 billion, while monthly cash inflows totaled $5.4 billion. [click to continue…]
ETFs have surged in popularity in recent years in part because of the numerous advantages they offer over traditional actively-managed mutual funds: lower costs, potential tax efficiencies, intraday trading, and enhanced transparency. But ETFs aren’t without potential drawbacks of their own. Although most funds appear relatively simple on the surface, there are some rather complex nuances as well. Below, we highlight five important questions for investors looking to avoid potential pitfalls and maximize efficiency of ETF portfolios (for more tips on ETF investing, sign up for our free ETF newsletter). [click to continue…]
Grail Advisors, known in the ETF world as the issuer responsible for the first actively-managed ETF that allowed managers total discretion, announced today the launch of two actively-managed fixed income ETFs. The Grail McDonnell Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF (GMMB) and the Grail McDonnell Core Taxable Bond ETF (GMTB) began trading on the NYSE Arca Exchange [...]
The past year was a stellar one for almost all global equity markets, but it was the world’s emerging economies that truly stole the show. As investors regained their appetite for risk, those markets that have historically been deemed to be the most risky surged. But the impressive gains for emerging markets in 2009 weren’t [...]
Following a tremendously successful 2009 that saw more than $40 billion flow into fixed income ETFs, the number of bond ETFs is expected to increase significantly in 2010. In what could be the first of many new product launches, iShares introduced a line of new municipal bond, or “muni,” ETFs on Friday. Unlike existing muni [...]
In two weeks, the curtain will close on 2009, bringing to an end a banner year for the ETF industry that saw hundreds of fund launches and tens of billions of dollars in cash inflows. Ongoing product development and innovation continues to expand investor options, bringing almost every corner of the investable asset universe within [...]
State Street has become the latest ETF issuer to jump in on the corporate bond ETF boom, launching the SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Corporate Bond ETF (SCPB) on Wednesday. SCPB will be linked to the Barclays Capital U.S. 1-3 Year Corporate Bond Index, a benchmark that measures the performance of investment grade corporate debt [...]
The reasons for the incredible rise of the ETF industry are numerous. Intra-day trading, enhanced transparency, and efficient tax features are all features that investors, individual and institutional alike, have embraced in record numbers. But perhaps the main reason why ETFs have attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in assets in recent years is the [...]
While the differences between traditional actively-managed mutual funds and exchange-traded products include several somewhat complex distinguishing characteristics, most investors focus on the relatively simple issue of expenses when making comparisons. Due to their passive nature, ETFs generally offer much lower expenses than mutual funds that can employ teams of analysts and conduct thorough research in [...]
Not too long ago, J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly posted 25 Useful Financial Rules of Thumb. These guidelines are designed to help everyday people do more with their finances. We wanted to expand on that idea and make a more investing-specific list, with useful rules of thumb for the everyday, buy-and-hold ETF/index fund investor. [...]
