The reasons for the rise of the ETF industry are numerous: intraday liquidity, (potentially) superior tax efficiency, and enhanced transparency relative to traditional actively-managed mutual funds have all contributed to the billions of dollars of inflows that these funds have seen in recent years. But the real attraction for most ETF investors is the reduced expenses these products offer, often only a fraction of the fees charged by mutual funds. [click to continue…]
As the ETF industry has expanded in recent years, a significant percentage of the expansion has come from equity ETFs embracing new regions and investment styles and from commodity funds offering small investors exposure to resources that were previously available only to the ultra-rich (although position limits are threatening to restrict access to numerous commodity funds). Despite the importance of fixed income instruments in investor portfolios (as proven by their performance relative to stocks during the recent downturn), fixed income ETFs lag behind their equity counterparts in terms of number of funds. According to our ETF Database, there are currently about 70 fixed income ETFs, compared to more than 600 equity funds. [click to continue…]
Pimco, which made major waves when it launched its first exchange-traded fund in June, has introduced its second fund, the Pimco 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index Fund (STPZ). When Pimco filed to launch its 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury Fund (TUZ), it also filed for approval on six additional indexed ETFs, including:
