Inflation has always been a particularly frustrating topic among investors, as a spike in prices can be a nasty surprise for investors who are not amply prepared. Its effects can reduce your real return on an annual basis and make it much more difficult to keep up with your standard of living. Inflation, however, has not yet materialized in recent years, though the prospect of what seems to be an inevitable outcome has prompted many to take measures to protect their portfolios, increasing allocations to asset classes expected to generally perform well when inflationary pressures spike [see also Free Report: How To Pick The Right ETF Every Time].
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Wall Street got off to a fairly tame start as investors came back from a long holiday weekend, as domestic equity indexes closed near the breakeven point and the NASDAQ edged out a small gain. Moody’s rating agency downgraded Portugal’s government debt to a grade of Baa2 from Baa1, almost immediately sending the euro lower [...]
The rapid development of exchange traded products has brought with it increased diversity in the investing space. Markets segments that were once nearly impossible for the average Joe to reach have now become as easy to buy as a share of ExxonMobil. Some of these elusive market segments include emerging markets, high yield fixed income, [...]
Unlike mutual funds, ETFs are bought not from the company that creates and manages the products, but from other market participants. While that arrangement is responsible for many of the benefits of ETFs–such as intraday liquidity–it also introduces some potential pitfalls. Specifically, using market orders can be potentially hazardous as it introduces the possibility of [...]
Recently we sat spoke with Sal Gilbertie President of Teucrium to discuss the market for commodity ETPs and how these investments could make for an interesting component of a portfolio. Additionally, we delve into the company’s flagship product, the CORN fund to find out why investors should take a closer look at this important commodity. [...]
IndexIQ, the ETF issuer best known for its lineup of hedge fund replication and county-specific small cap ETFs, announced the launch of a new fund today targeting an increasingly popular and relevant corner of the global equity market. The Global Agribusiness Small Cap ETF (CROP) will track the IQ Global Agribusiness Small Cap Index, a [...]
Global markets started the week on a positive note, with domestic indexes jumping aboard the bull on Monday. Worse than expected housing data was largely ignored by investors, as the market instead focused on Tiffany’s robust profits and talks of AT&T buying T-Mobile. The jump in equities was warranted with a rise in energy prices [...]
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 the ETF industry has grown and evolved, the product lineup has become increasingly sophisticated. Many of the products now hitting the market are designed to address issues posed by earlier indexed products, as issuers strive to devise new strategies for accessing both traditional and exotic asset classes. A number of issuers, led by Schwab [...]
A round of positive economic data lifted the markets nicely before Thanksgiving, allowing investors to take a breather after the hostile activity between North and South Korea on Tuesday spooked investors and sent them to safe havens such as gold and U.S. Treasury bonds [see Korea ETFs Plummet As North/South Tensions Flare]. An uncertain global [...]
ETFs are a relatively new addition to the scene, but they have already begun to impact the world of investing in more ways than one. The bargain basement expense ratios have forced investors to reevaluate the merits of pricey active management, with many turning away from mutual funds. The enhanced liquidity and immediate diversification have [...]
