ETF Database » EMT

Two Commodity Producer ETFs To Liquidate

Michael Johnston — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:30:35 +0000

Heading into 2011, many observers of the ETF industry were warning that this year could see a wave of fund closures, as ETFs that were failing to generate positive cash flow for the institutions behind them could be shuttered. That wave of contraction has yet to really play out, as only a handful of ETFs have closed their doors and returned investor money in 2011. FaithShares, the firm behind a lineup of faith-based products, pulled the plug a few months ago and opted to reorganize as a turnkey ETF company. Javelin shut down its contrarian ETF after failing to gain traction, and a handful of other companies have made similar moves. With 2011 drawing to a close, the ETF death count for the year is slated to climb a bit higher; ALPS announced this week that it will close down two commodity-focused products before the end of the year. The [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Inflation ETF Special: 25 ETF Ideas To Fight Rising Prices

Stoyan Bojinov — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:30:23 +0000

Inflation has been a particularly frustrating topic in recent months. Despite widespread predictions for a surge in CPI in the wake of unprecedented injections of liquidity into global financial markets, upward pressure on prices has not yet materialized–at least not in many developed markets. 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. Countless investors have been wrong in their calls on inflation, ranging from Wall Street titans such as Morgan Stanley to smaller money managers and individuals. Another frustrating aspect of inflation is the difficulty many investors face in protecting their portfolios from the phenomenon. Debates over the relative merits of various securities as safeguards against inflation have raged for decades, with different investors pursuing different strategies. Each inflationary environment is unique, and inflation [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Closer Look At Copper ETF Options

Michael Johnston — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:00:46 +0000

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 up with product offerings that address the often undesirable impact of contangoed futures markets on fund returns. The recent debut of the United States Commodity Index Fund (USCI), hailed as a “third generation” commodity ETF, represented one attempt to address this issue. In compiling a diversified basked of futures contracts, the index underlying USCI first seeks out those commodities that are exhibiting the steepest backwardation or most moderate contango, before considering momentum scores as well. USCI is relatively new, but has come flying out of the gates by whipping other diversified commodity products in terms [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Playing Precious Metals Through Equity ETFs

Michael Johnston — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:00:28 +0000

Perhaps no corner of the ETF market has exploded as rapidly as the precious metals space, as the democratization of an asset class previously off limits to many investors has resulted in billions of dollars in cash inflows. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is now the second-largest ETF by total assets, with more than $53 billion under management. Two other physically-backed gold ETFs (IAU and SGOL) have aggregate assets of nearly $5 billion, while a couple of silver funds (SLV and SIVR) hold another $6 billion. Even the relatively young platinum ETF (PPLT, $485 million) and palladium ETF (PALL, $393 million) have been huge hits with investors. In aggregate these seven physically-backed precious metals ETFs represent about 8% of total ETF assets, a remarkable statistic highlighting the amount of interest in this asset class. Precious metals represent the only corner of the commodity market where exposure to spot prices is [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Emerging Global Splits Shares On Four Emerging Markets ETFs

Jared Cummans — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:00:43 +0000

Economic growth in the U.S. in recent years has been virtually non-existent, prompting more and more investors to turn to emerging markets, whose economies–as well as overall populations–are growing at an exponential rate. With the majority of growth occurring overseas, ETF issuers were soon to follow, now offering a wealth of funds to track these booming nations. Relatively new to the emerging market space is Emerging Global Shares, who issued their first ETF in early 2009. Since then, the company has released eight funds to help investors to target developing markets [see also Sector Investing With Emerging Markets ETFs]. Earlier this week, EG Shares announced that four of its most popular funds will undergo splits. Two-for-one splits will occur in EEO, EFN, and EEG, while EMT will split three-for-one. The splits will be effective for all shareholders of record on September 13th, with the actual split payout coming after market [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Seven ETFs To Invest Like Peter Schiff

Michael Johnston — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:00:31 +0000

With the housing market cratering, consumer confidence sagging, and catalysts for real economic growth nowhere to be found, many investors have quietly become pessimistic over the outlook for the U.S. economy. And then there’s the camp that has been much more vocal with forecasts of doom and gloom, a group that includes the always entertaining Peter Schiff. A former economic advisor to Ron Paul and former U.S. Senate candidate, Schiff is firmly anti-deficit and anti-stimulus. “We are going to be in a depression,” said Schiff recently in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It is going to be an inflationary depression, and our standard of living is going to fall dramatically in this country.” After being laughed out of the room at the height of the most recent bubble, Schiff now has the ear of investors around the world after his predictions of the collapse of the housing market [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Mining ETFs: Eight Ways To Play

Michael Johnston — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:45:39 +0000

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 frustrated by the nuances of the futures-based investment strategies implemented by commodity ETFs, watching stiff headwinds in the form of contangoed markets erode returns. That has led some to take another approach to establishing commodity exposure: investing in equities of companies engaged in the discovery and extraction of the resources. This strategy is nothing new–investors have been betting on oil prices through Exxon for decades–but the rise of the ETF industry has made it easy to establish diversified exposure to a group of companies whose operations revolve around a particular commodity [see What Every Investor [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Next Frontier Of ETF Investing: Long/Short Trades

Michael Johnston — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:00:07 +0000

There is no denying that the ETF boom is in full swing, as billions of dollars continue to flow into the industry every month despite a difficult economic environment. As individual investors and advisors alike become more informed on the nuances and potential benefits of ETFs, usage has surged. Part of the impressive surge in assets is no doubt attributable to the flexibility of the exchange-traded structure; these securities have found homes in the portfolios of investors across the risk tolerance spectrum. ETFs have been embraced by long-term buy-and-holders because of the extremely competitive expense ratios relative to traditional actively managed mutual funds [see True Cost Of Mutual Fund vs. ETFs]. They’ve also become quite popular as “replacements” to equities; more active investors who measure holding periods in hours have gravitated towards the exchange-traded structure because it provides exposure to a basket of securities that can be traded throughout the [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Judgment Day For Mining ETFs

Michael Johnston — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:11:20 +0000

Analysts covering the U.S. mining industry no doubt spend a great deal of their time monitoring activity in resource rich South America and searching through the latest bulletins out of Beijing for hints on the strength of China’s raw materials appetite. But the future of the industry may depend on an escalating conflict in a tiny West Virginia town, where the coal industry and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are locked in a struggle that could have major ramifications for mining operations throughout the country. In 2007, the Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit to blast for coal in an Appalachian valley known as Pigeonroost Hollow. But now the project, known as Spruce 1, is in serious jeopardy. The Obama administration’s EPA has broken with the more coal-friendly policies of the Bush era, and is threatening to drastically scale back the mining operation or veto the permit altogether. Although the [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Five Unlikely ETF Winners From Yuan Policy Shift

Michael Johnston — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:42:18 +0000

The timing of perhaps the most significant policy shift in China’s recent history was interesting for a number of reasons. Beijing’s announcement that the Chinese currency would be afforded increased flexibility came in the middle of the weekend, just days ahead of a G-20 summit in Toronto at which China’s currency policy was expected to be a central issue. And the news came after speculators had all but given up on a yuan appreciation. At the beginning of the year, currency derivatives markets markets had been pricing in about a 3% increase in the value of the yuan relative to the dollar over the next 12 months; recently the expectations had declined to about 1%, reflecting perceived stubbornness from Beijing on its currency policy. The Saturday night announcement was likely designed to blunt the backlash of export-dependent industries that have thrived on a cheap currency. It also set the stage [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

ETF Database » EMT

Two Commodity Producer ETFs To Liquidate

Related Posts:

Inflation ETF Special: 25 ETF Ideas To Fight Rising Prices

Related Posts:

Closer Look At Copper ETF Options

Related Posts:

Playing Precious Metals Through Equity ETFs

Related Posts:

Emerging Global Splits Shares On Four Emerging Markets ETFs

Related Posts:

Seven ETFs To Invest Like Peter Schiff

Related Posts:

Mining ETFs: Eight Ways To Play

Related Posts:

Next Frontier Of ETF Investing: Long/Short Trades

Related Posts:

Judgment Day For Mining ETFs

Related Posts:

Five Unlikely ETF Winners From Yuan Policy Shift

Related Posts: