Half Year In Review: Six ETF Stories From The First Six Months of ’09

Michael Johnston — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:05:58 +0000

With a roller coaster six months behind us that saw no shortage of interesting twists and turns and unsuspected headlines, we’ve finally reached the midway point of 2009. Ahead of us is the highly anticipated “second half of 2009,” which for months we’ve heard will hold returns to growth, a recovering economy, and enough green shoots feed a revolution (possibly the one taking shape in the streets of Iran?). When looking graphically at the market’s performance over the last two quarters, I felt like I was going through a sloppy to-do list. Everything looks like a squiggly checkmark, with a sharp decline in the beginning of the year followed by a longer upslope, bringing us right about back to where we started. But not all ETFs followed this pattern. Here’s a look at six groups of ETFs that distinguished themselves in the first half of 2009: 1. It’s G-O-O-D to be [...]

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Basics of ETN Investing

Michael Johnston — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:00:29 +0000

Perhaps you’ve noticed that many of the investment vehicles in the ETF industry are technically referred to as exchange-traded notes, or ETNs. While ETNs are similar to ETFs in many ways, there are also some key differences that should be considered before investing. More Alike Than Different ETNs share many of the same advantages of ETFs compared to traditional actively-managed mutual funds. ETNs track the performance of an index (or individual asset). They also maintain relatively low expense ratios, may offer some unique tax advantages (more on this below), and feature lower minimum investment levels and greater transparency. So in many important respects, ETNs are similar to their ETF cousins. Underlying Assets Whereas ETFs typically offer investors exposure to various equity markets, many ETNs seek to mimic the return of certain commodity and currency markets (there are, however, several ETNs that offer exposure to various equity markets). The chart below lists several ETNs, along with [...]

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Half Year In Review: Six ETF Stories From The First Six Months of ’09

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