Among investors interested in exposure to commodities, gold and crude oil tend to dominate most discussions; these natural resources are among the most widely traded in the world, and tend to account for the lion’s share of allocations to the “third asset class” in most long-term portfolios. But these two commodities are, of course, only the tip of the iceberg; there are dozens of resources that can be used as investable assets, ranging from dietary staples such as wheat and corn to raw materials used widely in construction such as timber and copper. [click to continue…]
American equity markets had a day to remember during Monday’s trading session as major benchmarks plunged across the board thanks to Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt. The ratings agency dethroned the world’s largest economy from its AAA rating one notch to AA+, causing a ripple effect throughout the market as investors reassessed [...]
The old adage “never judge a book by its cover” has been applied to a wide variety of situations over the years, from encouraging open mindedness in social situations to shopping for a car to, well, judging books by their covers. And it turns out this piece of advice can be quite valuable for investors [...]
Innovation has always been a hallmark of the ETF industry, as recent years have seen issuers get creative in efforts to expand the universe of assets available and refine the mechanisms through which such exposure is offered. Some of the latest initiatives have focused in on the commodity space, where issuers are scrambling to come [...]
Innovation throughout the ETF industry has been one of the primary themes of recent years, but perhaps no corner of the market has seen more progress on the product development front than the commodity space. U.S. investors now have the ability to invest in dozens of natural resources, primarily through exchange-traded funds than consist of [...]
Commodities have been one of the hottest corners of the ETF market, exploding on to the scene in recent years as investors have rushed to gain access to a suddenly democratized asset class that has been shown to add valuable diversification benefits to traditional stock-and-bond portfolios [see Rethinking Commodity ETFs]. But some investors have been [...]
Global X, the New York-based ETF issuer known for its line of sector-specific China ETFs, has launched two new ETFs focusing on stocks of copper and silver miners. The Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX) and Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) began trading on the NYSE Arca on Tuesday, becoming the latest exchange-traded products [...]
After a few speed bumps early in 2010, ETFs are back on track and traveling full steam ahead. In the first three months of 2010, nearly 60 new ETFs have been launched, which is already equivalent to nearly half funds to hit the market over the course of 2009. The recent SEC decision to halt approval on products using derivatives may slow this pace a [...]
A week highlighted by the relatively uneventful Federal Reserve meeting saw equity markets head generally higher, as investors cheered the prospect of several more months of low interest rates. After months of heated debate, a vote on health care reform looms over the weekend, and health care funds above-average volumes throughout the week. Below, we [...]
First Trust, the ETF issuer best known for its line of quant-based AlphaDEX funds, introduced two new ETFs last week that tap into an increasingly popular investment strategy. The First Trust ISE Global Platinum Index Fund (PLTM) and First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund (CU) join a number of other ETFs focused on mining [...]
