by Eric Dutram on October 22, 2010 | Updated April 20, 2011
As the ETF world continues to grow, the competitive landscape continues to evolve. In recent years, a growing number of firms have attempted to differentiate themselves by offering unique exposure to asset classes and strategies not previously available–such as funds tracking the Philippine stock market or ETNs linked to the price of industrial metals such as zinc or tin. More recently, the ETF industry has witnessed escalating price wars, with multiple issuers lowering management fees in an attempt to lure cost-conscious investors. These price wars have sent expense ratios to as low as six basis points, much to the delight of investors accustomed to forking over upwards of 1.5% annually to active mutual funds. But many ETF issuers have recognized that the total cost of ETF investing goes beyond just expense ratios, and have aggressively marketed programs designed to save investors money when executing ETF trades [see The Total Cost Of ETF Investing]. [click to continue…]
by Eric Dutram on October 10, 2010 | Updated October 20, 2010
As the ETF world continues to expand, more online brokerage houses are beginning to offer their clients commission-free trading on ETFs as a way to generate interest in these relatively new investment vehicles. Among the first firms to offer this program were Fidelity, which currently offers 26 commission-free iShares ETFs, Charles Schwab (11 ETFs), and [...]
While the majority of the nearly $800 billion in ETF assets is found in equity funds, it is other corners of the market that have accounted for the significant cash inflows and asset growth exhibited in recent years. Fixed income and commodity funds have been particularly hot, taking in more than $25 billion in aggregate [...]
While there are historically low interest rates in the United States (as well as rates of 0.1% in Japan), many other developed countries, including Australia and Norway, have begun to raise rates as a sustainable economic recovery has taken hold. With virtually all of the major central banks meeting in the next three weeks, currency [...]
For those of you who haven’t heard (and you must’ve been on the moon if you haven’t), President Obama recently marked the end of his first 100 days in office. Ever since FDR pushed through 15 major bills in his first 3+ months on the job, pundits have sold the idea of this period as [...]
The majority of ETFs on the market follow the traditional ETF model – tracking an underlying equity or bond index. But as the benefits of the ETF structure become more widely accepted, inflows from increasingly sophisticated have created a demand for increasingly complex funds. Here are five of the more complex ETFs available to investors today, along [...]
