The rise of the ETF industry is often attributed (in large part at least) to a shift in investor preference from pricey active management to low-cost indexing strategies. ETFs burst on to the investment scene by offering fees equivalent to only a fraction of those charged by traditional actively-managed mutual funds, and have continued to attract assets as investors frustrated with the inability of active management to consistently generate alpha seek out more cost-efficient alternatives. [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…]
Thursday marked the first day of trading for the UBS E-TRACS S&P 500 Gold Hedged ETN (SPGH), a unique product that offering investors exposure to large cap equities along with a hedge against a declining U.S. dollar. SPGH will track the S&P 500 Gold Hedged Index, a benchmark designed to measure the performance of an [...]
Commodities are the new black in the world of investing, thanks in no small part to the rise of ETFs as the tool of choice in more and more portfolios. Commodity ETFs saw cash inflows of more than $30 billion in 2009, as total assets more than doubled on the year. According to the ETF [...]
As the ETF industry has expanded in recent years, a significant portion of growth has come from the tremendous rise in popularity of exchange-traded commodity products. In addition to broad-based funds such as DBC or DJCI, several commodity-specific products have accumulated billions of dollars in assets, and several were even among the very largest of [...]
To most, cotton is a part of everyday life, a part of the textiles found in every wardrobe. But after prices surged in 2009, some investors have begun making cotton a part of their portfolio as well, and are turning to cotton ETFs as a way to gain exposure. While this soft commodity has the [...]
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 [...]
The reasons for the rise of the ETF industry are numerous: intraday liquidity, (potentially) superior tax efficiency, and enhanced transparency relative to traditional actively-managed mutual funds have all contributed to the billions of dollars of inflows that these funds have seen in recent years. But the real attraction for most ETF investors is the reduced [...]
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 [...]
The rise of the ETF industry has made commodity investing readily available to millions of investors whose options for exposure to this “fourth asset class” were previously limited. Most of the money in commodity exchange-traded products is in diversified funds offering exposure to more than a dozen natural resources through a single security (see a [...]
Last week, Deutsche Bank announced that it will increase the fees of seven PowerShares exchange-traded funds, citing “increased costs of managing the Funds due to changing regulatory requirements.” The changes will be effective beginning January 4, and will affect five commodity funds and two currency products.
The National Stock Exchange has released the latest facts and figures on the ETF industry for the month of November, and the results continue to impress. Total ETF assets increased to $752 million, an increase of more than 6% over October results. Strong performances from equity markets played a major rise in the asset uptick, [...]
