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ETF Insider: Greek Woes Rattle Confidence

Daniela Pylypczak — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:00:54 +0000

Equity indexes crept higher all week as encouraging economic data releases on the home front kept the bull train rolling. However, bearish pressures permeated the market on Friday as Greek debt woes struck again, erasing all of the gains from earlier in the week for most securities. The lack of resolution in the financially fragile currency bloc overseas continues to be a major drag on investors’ confidence and will likely persist until a concrete agreement has been struck. With regards to our Monday edition of ETF Insider, it seems that Greek woes have undoubtedly rained on the bull’s parade. Actionable ETF Trade Ideas Last Week’s Actionable ETF Ideas Ticker Position Performance FCG Long 2.3% TLT Long 1.4% IJR Short 1.6% Our picks from Monday’s Insider posted a mixed performance this past week, although our two profitable trades more than made up for the losing recommendation. Below, we highlight how our trade [...]

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ETF Insider: Will Euro Woes Rain On The Bull’s Parade?

Stoyan Bojinov — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:10:57 +0000

Equity markets soared to multi-month highs last week as investors digested encouraging economic data on the home front coupled with positive corporate performance surprises. Wall Street ended the week on a high note after the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, paving the way for the bulls before Superbowl weekend. Looking forward, with earnings seasons dwindling down to its final releases, investors will need to once again consider the situation in Europe. Greek debt woes have resurfaced early this week as lawmakers overseas continue to struggle to reach a bailout agreement. With no major economic data releases at home this week, investors will likely have to shift their attention back to the debt burdened currency bloc, whether they like it or not. Weekly Outlook The coming week will be filled with central bank meetings and key inflation data releases. Below, we highlight ETFs that may see an increase in trading activity [...]

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Rydex Rolls Out Mid Cap, Small Cap Equal Weight ETFs

Michael Johnston — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:00:49 +0000

Rydex, the issuer behind the ultra-popular S&P Equal Weight ETF (RSP), announced this week the introduction of two new ETFs that offer equal-weighted exposure to the S&P MidCap 400 Index and S&P SmallCap 600 Index. The new ETFs include: S&P MidCap 400 ETF (EWMD) S&P SmallCap 600 ETF (EWSM) Each will each offer exposure to the same basket of securities included in the popular market-cap weighted equity indexes. But instead of assigning weights to individual securities based on market capitalization, each stock will receive an equivalent weighting in the underlying index. Equal Weight 101 Rydex was a pioneer in the development of equal-weighted indexes, and now offers 18 ETFs linked to equal-weighted benchmarks. By far the most popular of those is RSP, which offers an alternative for large cap U.S. equity exposure. That fund, which has more than $3 billion in assets, includes all components of the S&P 500. But [...]

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May ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performing ETFs

Michael Johnston — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:00:43 +0000

The month of May was a generally disappointing stretch for investors, as both international and domestic equity markets struggled to overcome obstacles new and old. Commodities, which had been a nice source of absolute returns for much of the last year, fell on hard times as well; precious metals went into a brief freefall, and most other natural resources saw price declines as well. May demonstrated the importance of a meaningful allocation to fixed income within any long-term portfolio, as most bond ETFs turned in nice gains during the month. The following tables highlight the best performers from each ETFdb Category during the month of May [ETFdb Pro members can download spreadsheets showing performance and expense data for the entire ETF universe]. Equity ETFs Though most equity ETFs finished May in negative territory, there were a handful of bright spots among the hundreds of ETFs that slice and dice the [...]

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Are Your Cap-Weighted ETFs Leaders Or Laggards?

Cathy Carlson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:07:03 +0000

The rapid growth of the ETF industry in recent years has altered the investment landscape in more ways than one. The low expense ratios offered by most exchange-traded products have brought increased scrutiny on active managers and called into question their ability to add value to client portfolios. The immediate diversification offered by a basket of securities has caused some to shift away from the complex research associated with individual stock picking towards more macro analysis required for tactical strategies. And as indexes have evolved from hypothetical measures of performance to essentially investable assets, the methodologies utilized in the construction and maintenance of benchmarks have become increasingly important to investors [see our database of ETF indexes]. The first generation of equity ETFs was dominated by market capitalization-weighted strategies, a methodology that involves assigning a weight to each component based on the total value of its equity. Most of the assets [...]

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Ten Shocking ETF Charts From The “Flash Crash”

Michael Johnston — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:30:08 +0000

An already tumultuous day took a terrifying turn in afternoon trading on Thursday, as several major U.S. indexes lost multiple percentage points in a matter of minutes before reclaiming big chunks of the ground lost. At 2:40 on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 415 points, putting it on pace for one of its worst days of the year. But the worst was yet to come; by 2:47, just seven minutes later, the Dow had plummeted another 583 points, putting it down nearly 1,000 points for the day. In the next ten minutes, the Dow jumped more than 600 points; by 2:57 it was down “only” 388 points on the day. The steep decline immediately sparked speculation on Wall Street. Anxiety had been building over the deteriorating situation in Greece, but there seemed to be more at work behind the sudden plunge (see Six ETFs To Watch [...]

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Advanced ETF Investing: Acquired Fund Fees

Michael Johnston — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:01:52 +0000

Once investors have narrowed down the universe of 900+ exchange-traded products to those that could potentially match the risk/return profile they’re seeking, the real work begins (see Five Free Tools For Finding The Right ETF). When comparing ETFs to find the best fit for a portfolio, one of the metrics most frequently analyzed is the fee structure. While differences in expense ratios may not have a material impact on short-term trades, the long-term impact of compounding costs for buy-and-holders can be significant (see other metrics to consider when comparing ETFs). In most cases, comparison of fees is a relatively straightforward process; the expense ratio for each ETF is readily available from the issuer Web site (or for download from the ETF Screener). But occasionally ETFs will display multiple expense ratios or something called “acquired fees & expenses” (the adjacent image is from the home page for the iShares S&P Aggressive [...]

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PowerShares Launches Nine Small Cap Sector ETFs

Michael Johnston — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:31:20 +0000

PowerShares launched nine highly anticipated new ETF products on Wednesday, introducing a line of funds that offer a new twist on traditional sector-specific investing. The nine PowerShares S&P SmallCap Sector Portfolios are based upon respective S&P SmallCap 600 Capped Sector Indexes, each of which is designed to measure the overall performance of common stocks of a respective sector. The new ETFs include: S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary Portfolio (XLYS) S&P SmallCap Consumer Staples Portfolio (XLPS) S&P SmallCap Energy Portfolio (XLES) S&P SmallCap Financials Portfolio (XLFS) S&P SmallCap Health Care Portfolio (XLVS) S&P SmallCap Industrials Portfolio (XLIS) S&P SmallCap Information Technology Portfolio (XLKS) S&P SmallCap Materials Portfolio (XLBS) S&P SmallCap Utilities Portfolio (XLUS) If the ticker symbols look familiar, that’s because PowerShares added an “S” (as in “SmallCap”) to the tickers for each of the existing sector SPDRs. Similar to these popular ETFs from State Street, each of the new PowerShares ETFs [...]

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Revenue Weighted ETFs Continue Impressive Run

Michael Johnston — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:47:17 +0000

The rise of the ETF industry has changed a lot about the business of investing. It has altered the way investors look at expenses, making it difficult to justify handing over 200 basis points (or more) each year to an active manager who can’t regularly beat a benchmark. It has also expanded the universe of investable securities; asset classes that were once available only to the biggest and richest investors (such as hedge fund strategies and commodities) are now readily available to anyone with an online broker. ETFs have also changed the way investors look at indexes. When indexes were primarily benchmarks used to measure manager performance, few gave much thought to the rules or investment theses governing the construction and maintenance. But as indexes have evolved into (essentially) investable assets, the underlying methodologies have been more carefully scrutinized. As a result of this increased scrutiny, some of the flaws [...]

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Fidelity To Offer Commission-Free Trading On 25 iShares ETFs

Michael Johnston — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:33:13 +0000

Fidelity Investments announced today that it will offer its retail customers commission-free online trades for a suite of 25 iShares ETFs. The funds included in the commission-free platform include ETFs in all nine domestic equity style/size categories, as well as international equity and fixed income options. “Fidelity has partnered with the leading ETF provider in the market to bring investors the best brokerage offering in the industry today,” said Kathleen A. Murphy, president of Personal Investing at Fidelity Investments. “Simply put, we’re offering the broadest selection of commission-free ETFs from the undisputed ETF leader, and it’s only available through Fidelity.” The iShares ETFs will be available for commission-free trading beginning tomorrow. Commission-Free iShares ETFs Value Blend Growth Large Cap IVE, IWD IVV, IWB, IWV IVW, IWF Mid Cap IJJ IJH IJK Small Cap IJS, IWN IJR, IWM IJT, IWO EAFE EFA, SCZ Emerging Markets EEM Global ACWI Total Bond Market [...]

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ETF Database » IJR

ETF Insider: Greek Woes Rattle Confidence

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ETF Insider: Will Euro Woes Rain On The Bull’s Parade?

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Rydex Rolls Out Mid Cap, Small Cap Equal Weight ETFs

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May ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performing ETFs

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Advanced ETF Investing: Acquired Fund Fees

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