The debut of PIMCO’s highly-anticipated Total Return ETF (TRXT) earlier this month has been hailed as a pivotal moment for the active ETF industry, potentially opening up the floodgates to significant future inflows. There seems to be an opinion that the active ETF movement has been something of a failure to date, failing to bring in significant amounts of assets and gain much in the way of traction. The momentum has certainly been lacking for equities; the dozen or so actively managed stock ETFs have little to show in terms of AUM. But in other asset classes such as fixed income and alternatives, a number of active ETFs have taken off and accumulated in excess of $100 million. Below, we profile ten of the largest active ETFs on the market [see also The Guide To The Biggest Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector]: [click to continue…]
The year-end periods provides the ETF industry with a couple of opportunities to flex its collective muscle; performance comparisons generally tend to favor those products with lower expense ratios–a defining feature of exchange-traded funds. But early January also puts another benefit of exchange-traded products into focus: enhanced tax efficiency relative to traditional mutual funds. The [...]
Rydex, the firm behind the CurrencyShares suite of exchange-traded products, made a splash with the latest addition to its product lineup on Tuesday. The recently-launched CurrencyShares Chinese Renminbi Trust (FXCH) will offer exposure to the official currency of the People’s Republic of China, bringing the total number of currency products offered by the company up [...]
Earlier today, Eric Dutram, Analyst and Head of Editorial at ETF Database, was on BNN discussing ETFs that could be new safe havens in the current market environment. Now that investors can no longer rely on the Swiss franc, many have been scrambling to find new places to stash cash and could take a look [...]
Over the last few months, investors have becoming increasingly skeptical about the long term health of the world’s two major currencies, the dollar and the euro. Debt worries are plaguing each and forcing many to reconsider the wisdom of holding onto assets denominated in these two sinking ships. As a result, many have sought refuge in alternative [...]
Since PowerShares debuted its first active ETFs in the spring of 2008, this corner of the exchange-traded product market has grown tremendously. Though many active ETFs have been somewhat slow to accumulate assets, the increase in the size of the lineup highlights the trend towards vehicles that combine active management with the exchange-traded structure. There [...]
One of the biggest stories in global finance over the past few months has been China and their unwillingness to revalue their currency to what many Western nations see as an appropriate level. Some analysts believe that the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40%, potentially giving the People’s Republic an unfair advantage in [...]
Guggenheim, the Chicagoland ETF issuer that has been a pioneer in the target maturity date bond ETF space, may have plans to take its fixed income lineup international. The company recently made an SEC filing detailing plans for a China bond ETF. Details on the proposed fund were scarce–no ticker symbol, expense ratio, or even [...]
With the health of the global economy still riding in the balance, leaders from twenty of the most powerful and important economies in the world will meet in Seoul, South Korea this week to discuss a number of critical issues. The G-20 organization, which consists of 19 countries around the world as well as the [...]
No matter where investors look in the developed world, the picture isn’t pretty. In the U.S. unemployment remains intolerably high, and uncertainty over the latest round of QE will continue to hang over stock markets. In Europe efforts to control surging deficits have been met with protests and public outrage, complicating the process of reeling [...]
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 [...]
