The latest round of new product launches has pushed the total for the ETF total to 1,300, close to twice the number of products trading just a couple of years ago. But if the activity behind the scenes is any indication, the growth spurt is far from over. Multiple issuers continue to stuff the product pipeline with proposed funds, many of which represent first-to-market ideas that haven’t yet been offered up in ETF form. [click to continue…]
With more than 1,100 ETPs now trading, investors and advisors have access to more asset classes and investment strategies than ever before. But it can also be challenging for advisors and investors to navigate through all the ETF options and identify those that meet their investment objectives–especially with new funds debuting on a regular basis. [...]
Global X announced today the launch of the first pure play Argentina ETF, bringing to market another option for accessing South America. The Global X FTSE Argentina 20 ETF (ARGT) will seek to replicate the FTSE Argentina 20 Index, a benchmark that includes the top 20 companies within the investable universe of Argentina-domiciled companies or [...]
As ETFs have become increasingly popular among more active traders in recent years, it may be easy to forget that the vehicle was originally designed with the long-term buy-and-holder in mind. For those who take stock in the numerous academic studies indicating that active management generally destroys value over the long haul, cost efficient vehicles [...]
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 [...]
As investor confidence in developed markets has waned in recent months many have taken their dollars abroad in an attempt to buy into high growth emerging markets overseas. While a good chunk of this cash has piled into the BRIC countries and other large emerging markets such as Indonesia, some have taken a different route [...]
As the ETF industry has grown rapidly in recent years, many of the best-known tickers have attracted the majority of new assets. While these “super-tickers” include the building blocks of many buy-and-hold portfolios, some funds receiving considerably less attention present intriguing options as well. Below, we profile five more ETFs that are generally flying under [...]
Over the last several years, the ETF industry has seemingly been locked in to “three steps forward, one step back” mode. August was the most recent step back, as ETFs experienced net cash outflows for only the second time this year. Total ETF assets declined by about $20 billion during the month, and outflows totaled [...]
The monthly ETF statistical bulletins have become somewhat predictable in recent months, as continued inflows into the ETF industry have been about as certain as death and taxes. So the latest figures from the NSX came as a bit of a shock; total ETF assets declined from about $835 million to $815 million during the [...]
As exchange-traded funds have grown in popularity, ETF issuers have gradually ventured into more exotic and unconventional markets in order to differentiate new products from those already on the market. Many firms have set out to offer greater levels of exposure to hard-to-reach developing economies; there are now a number of emerging markets ETFs that [...]
Van Eck, the ETF issuer behind international ETFs targeting several emerging and frontier markets, announced today the launch of the Egypt Index ETF (EGPT). The new fund is designed to track the performance of the Market Vectors Egypt Index, a benchmark measuring the performance of publicly traded companies that are domiciled and primarily listed on [...]
