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ETFs To Round Out Your International Exposure

Michael Johnston — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:00:39 +0000

A growing number of financial advisors are using exchange-traded funds to achieve international equity exposure for their clients, embracing funds that offer access to both developed and international market beyond the U.S. This should hardly be surprising; the exchange-traded structure delivers an efficient way to tap into an asset class that should be at the core of most long-term, buy-and-hold portfolios–especially in an environment that sees the U.S. market struggling mightily to gain traction. Those looking to keep the portfolio construction process simple tend to gravitate towards broad-based ETFs that offer exposure to a number of different economies. Some of the most popular international stock ETFs are those linked to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and MSCI EAFE Index, two benchmarks that offer deep, balanced exposure to developing and advanced economies outside the U.S., respectively. A combination of the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) and Europe Pacific ETF (VEA) [...]

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ETF Pipeline: Nigeria Fund, Cloud Computing ETF On Tap

Michael Johnston — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:00:28 +0000

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. Nigeria ETF Van Eck’s ETF lineup already includes a number of products offering targeted exposure to smaller emerging and frontier markets, from Vietnam (VNM) to Egypt (EGPT). Joining a proposed Mongolia ETF in the product development pipeline recently was the Market Vectors Nigeria ETF, which would focus on companies listed in or operating in one of Africa’s oil-rich economies. The proposed ETF would seek to replicate the Market Vectors Nigeria Index, a modified capitalization weighted, float [...]

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Spotlight On ETF Country Exposure Tool

Jared Cummans — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:00:22 +0000

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. ETF Database maintains a suite of free analytical resources designed to make the ETF world easier to access and understand; today, we profile a free tool that can be valuable for anyone seeking international equity exposure. The ETF Country Lookup Tool is a free resource that allows investors to identify all U.S.-listed equity ETFs that maintain exposure to a particular country. There are two ways to utilize the tool: investors can either click on a country on our interactive world map or use a dropdown box to make a selection. The resulting table will show [...]

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Global X Debuts Argentina ETF (ARGT)

Michael Johnston — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:03:30 +0000

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 companies that have substantial revenues or assets in Argentina. “ARGT provides a relatively cost effective way to access the second largest economy in South America, a glaring hole in the existing ETF offerings,” said Bruno del Ama, chief executive officer of Global X Funds. ETF First ARGT is the first ETF to offer pure play exposure to Argentinian equities, and continues a trend of expanding options for investing in South America beyond Brazil. Recent years have seen the introduction of iShares ETFs focusing on Chile (ECH) and Peru (EPU), while Global X has debuted a [...]

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ETFs For The Forgotten Asset Classes

Michael Johnston — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:00:58 +0000

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 that own the market have obvious appeal over pricey funds that attempt to beat it. While ETFs are now components of sophisticated and short-term trading strategies, they remain as critical portfolio building blocks of retirement portfolios and other longer-term investment objectives [see also ETF Alternatives To The World’s Largest Mutual Funds]. The immediate diversification and broad scope of many of the ETFs ideal for construction of long-term, buy-and-hold portfolios has greatly simplified the asset allocation process; a portfolio offering exposure to various asset classes and thousands of individual securities can now be constructed with only [...]

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Emerging Market ETFs: Seven Factors Every Investor Should Consider

Eric Dutram — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:30:53 +0000

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 in government spending through austerity and establishing a platform for sustainable economic growth. And in Japan, the central bank has taken steps to weaken the currency in order to keep the country’s important exporters competitive on the global stage. However, the country’s debt levels now approach 200% of GDP–by far one of the highest levels in the developed world–raising all sorts of red flags around a market that has been stick in economic quicksand for the better part of two decades. While a few advanced markets have managed to avoid this malaise–namely those with significant [...]

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Why Frontier Market ETFs Are Not As Risky As You Might Think

Eric Dutram — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:57:33 +0000

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 and have put the frontier market ETFs under the microscope. However, investors who think that these funds are at the top of the risk spectrum for international equities may be extremely disappointed if they take more than a cursory glance at the funds’ top country allocations. By popular definition, frontier markets are known as “pre-emerging markets” and may face any or all of the following risks; political instability, poor liquidity, inadequate regulation, substandard financial reporting and large currency fluctuations. In addition, many markets are overly dependent on volatile commodities. While this can create opportunities for [...]

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Ten ETFs Every Advisor Should Know (But Most Have Never Heard Of): Part II

Michael Johnston — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:15 +0000

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 the radar of financial advisors, but could be valuable tools when constructing client portfolios [see Part I of the list]: 5. EG Shares Emerging Markets Consumer ETF (ECON) This ETF was launched less than a week ago, so it’s completely excusable if you’ve never considered ECON for emerging markets exposure. As mentioned in Part I, the emerging markets ETFs utilized most commonly by advisors for client accounts seek to replicate broad-based, market-cap weighted indexes. While these products (such as EEM and VWO) are by no means flawed, the methodology behind the underlying index does expose [...]

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Emerging Markets ETF Boom Continues

Michael Johnston — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:25:59 +0000

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 nearly $2 billion. Perhaps reflecting overall market sentiment, investors ran to the exits of domestic equity funds during August, as outflows from this asset class topped $12 billion last month. Although interest in U.S. equity markets has waned, appetite for emerging markets exposure remains strong. Cash inflows into the 50 funds in the Emerging Markets ETFdb Category for August stood at nearly $4.6 billion; including the 13 funds in the Latin America Equities ETFdb Category and the 16 in the China Equities ETFdb Category takes the grand total for August north of $5 billion. Year-to-date, [...]

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August ETF Data: Reversing Course

Michael Johnston — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:00:20 +0000

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 month of August. And while much of that drop was attributable to falling asset values, the industry also saw cash outflows for only the second time this year. Cash outflows in August totaled $1.9 billion, though that figure would have been positive if not for the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), which saw $6.6 billion of outflows. The last time the ETF industry saw net outflows for a month was in January, when a little more than $17 billion went out the door. Every month since then has been positive, with about $66 billion flowing into [...]

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ETF Database » FRN

ETFs To Round Out Your International Exposure

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ETF Pipeline: Nigeria Fund, Cloud Computing ETF On Tap

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Spotlight On ETF Country Exposure Tool

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ETFs For The Forgotten Asset Classes

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Emerging Market ETFs: Seven Factors Every Investor Should Consider

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Why Frontier Market ETFs Are Not As Risky As You Might Think

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Ten ETFs Every Advisor Should Know (But Most Have Never Heard Of): Part II

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