As a handful of brave souls find out every four years, running for President of the United States generally involves opening up your personal life to intense examination by opponents, the media, and general public. Generally, the scrutiny focuses on personal histories–arrests, affairs, and lawsuits make for juicy reading. But being a public servant can also mean opening up your financial records to the public–especially if you’re potentially in a position to profit from insider information on regulatory developments.
A recent analysis by the Wall Street Journal revealed the unusual composition of the portfolio held by Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate who is known as a critic of the Federal Reserve and opponent of big government. The asset management strategies of the Texas Congressman, who is also a physician, are anything but traditional. Paul’s portfolio, which he indicated was worth between $2.4 million and $5.5 million, has little in the way of large cap stocks or U.S. Treasuries. Instead, his bets are primarily geared to perform well in the event that the U.S. economy collapses or inflation accelerates–meaning that his personal portfolio is largely consistent with his political views. [click to continue…]
This past year has shaped out to be nothing short of a roller coaster ride for investors. Confidence in the global economic recovery was rattled after disaster struck in Japan; waves of uncertainty spread across financial markets as the economic superpower coped with one of the worst earthquakes in its history. On the home front, [...]
Global X continued a busy week of product development; after rolling out a pair of ETFs linked to NASDAQ indexes, the New York-based issuer followed up with the first product offering pure play exposure to Greece. The new FTSE Greece 20 ETF (GREK) will seek to replicate the FTSE/Athex 20 Index, a benchmark that includes [...]
This year more than ever before, investors of all sizes are giving thanks for the tremendous expansion in the ETF industry in recent years. ETF assets continue to climb, even in challenging economic environments. And in many cases, the growth of this industry is thanks to an exodus of cash from traditional mutual funds to [...]
Direxion laid the groundwork for several new products in a recent SEC proposal, including a handful of sector ETFs as well as an international equity offering. The Boston based issuer detailed plans to potentially ramp up its product lineup with four new 3x leveraged bull-bear pair ETFs. Triple-exposure products are the bread and butter of [...]
Precious metal investors have been on a wild ride so far in 2011. After falling to start the year, gold took off from its level just above $1,300/oz., skyrocketing higher on inflation concerns and an increasingly weak dollar. The price eventually hit the $1,577 mark in early May before quickly selling off, falling by close [...]
Van Eck announced this week that it has reduced the expense caps for five of its exchange-traded funds, effective May first. The move represents the latest development in a string of fee reductions by ETF issuers, reflecting both increasing asset bases and economies of scale as well as efforts to lure cost-conscious investors. The ETFs [...]
The ETF industry as a whole has grown tremendously in recent years, with both assets and the number of products surging as investors embrace the exchange-traded structure as an efficient vehicle for accessing everything from U.S. stocks to Asian bonds to corn and cocoa. Certain corners of the market have, of course, expanded more quickly [...]
Global X continued an aggressive expansion of its ETF lineup on Tuesday, announcing the launch of two funds offering exposure to companies engaged in the extraction and production of widely-traded commodities. The Pure Gold Miners ETF (GGGG) will seek to replicate the Solactive Global Pure Gold Miners Index, while the Oil Equities ETF (XOIL) is [...]
IndexIQ, the firm known for pioneering the hedge fund replication ETF space, recently made an SEC filing detailing plans for close to a dozen new funds targeting international equity markets. The filing was light on details such as ticker symbols or expense ratios, but highlighted the investment objectives for the innovative funds:
Last year was a good year for most asset classes, as investor portfolios continued to recover from the recent recession. The difference in performance between many comparable funds was significant, and many of the best performers of 2010 are relatively small funds that maintain considerably smaller asset bases than their more popular competitors. Below, we [...]
