In recent months a great deal has been written regarding the wildly different recoveries underway in the world’s developed and emerging economies. With the U.S. economy held in check by still mounting job losses and western Europe has facing a potential debt crisis, the world’s developing economies have emerged as the primary drivers of global growth. Much of the attention has focused on the BRIC bloc of countries, but the relative success of emerging and frontier economies goes far beyond Brazil and China. [click to continue…]
The proliferation of commodity ETFs has brought this “fourth asset class” within reach of more investors than ever before. But as many have learned the hard way, resource fundamentals are only one of the factors that impact many exchange-traded commodities, and the nuances of the futures market often have a more significant impact than changes in spot prices. Most ETF investors looking for commodity exposure do so in one of two ways: 1) physically-backed or futures-based commodity products (such as GLD or DBC) or 2) equities of commodity producing companies. But some have embraced international funds as a way to achieve indirect commodity exposure while maintaining some degree of diversification in emerging economies. Below, we profile some alternative ETF options for investing in commodities (for more actionable ETF ideas, sign up for our free ETF newsletter). [click to continue…]
The ETF industry has expanded by leaps and bounds in recent years, with new issuers entering the arena and countless new product launches that offer investors the ability to gain exposure to various geographic regions and investment styles. The first ETFs were essentially “plain vanilla” products that mirrored widely-followed equity benchmarks. Today, the vast majority [...]
