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Six Noteworthy ETF Innovations

Michael Johnston — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:30:21 +0000

Since the ETF industry was conceived close to two decades ago, innovation has been a hallmark of this rapidly-expanding corner of the investing landscape. Thanks to a unique structure that allows for liquidity, transparency, and tax efficiency, ETFs have quickly and consistently taken market share from other types of securities, bringing newfound flexibility to all types of portfolios. If anything, the pace of innovation has accelerated dramatically in recent years; an aggressive product pipeline has produced hundreds of new products in the last several years, many of which are first-to-market ideas that tap in to new asset classes and investment strategies. Some of these innovations have benefited investors broadly, while others have been noteworthy primarily to more targeted groups [see 25 Things Every Financial Advisor Should Know About ETFs]. In case you haven’t been keeping up with all the latest developments in the ETF industry, here’s a quick recap of [...]

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Nikkei ETF Debuts: Newcomer Precidian Launches NKY

Michael Johnston — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:13:39 +0000

Precidian Funds, a New Jersey-based ETF newcomer, announced on Thursday the launch of the first U.S.-listed ETF offering exposure to the Nikkei 225 Index. The new MAXIS Nikkei 225 Index ETF (NKY) will seek to replicate the widely followed benchmark of Japanese stocks, often referred to simply as the Nikkei or the Nikkei Index. That benchmark is a price-weighted index consisting of 225 stocks listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei has been calculated by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper since 1950. There are several investment products linked to the Nikkei in existence around the world, but NKY is the first U.S.-listed ETF to offer exposure to the well known index. Under The Hood Like the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the U.S., the Nikkei is a price-weighted index. That means that the index will make the largest allocations to the companies with the highest stock prices, a methodology [...]

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ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performers From First Half Of 2011

Michael Johnston — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:00:40 +0000

The first half of 2011 is officially in the books, and many investors find their portfolios in approximately the same place as they were to start the year (though a furious rally in the final week of the quarter gave a nice boost at an opportune moment). Most major equity indexes are up slightly on the year, while fixed income benchmarks have similarly hovered around breakeven. Beyond these broad generalizations, there are some significant performance discrepancies among exchange-traded products that may seem to offer up similar risk/return profiles. The following tables highlight the top performers from every ETFdb Category during the first six months of the year, shedding some light on the asset classes that have struggled and thrived so far in 2011–and reinforcing that the seemingly minor distinctions between ETPs can lead to big differences in performance [for monthly updates on the best performers, sign up for the free [...]

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IndexIQ Debuts Japan Mid Cap ETF (RSUN)

Michael Johnston — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:06:18 +0000

IndexIQ, the firm behind a suite of hedge fund replication ETFs and small cap country-specific funds, notched another first for the ETF industry on Thursday. The IQ Japan Mid Cap ETF (RSUN) will seek to replicate an index that consists of about 100 mid cap Japanese stocks. The weighted average market capitalization of the companies that make up the index will be approximately $3 billion. RSUN is the ninth ETF in the Japan Equities ETFdb Category, and the first to focus exclusively on mid cap stocks; RSUN will offer a tool for establishing complementary exposure to large cap Japan ETFs (such as EWJ) and small cap funds (including SCJ, JSC, and DFJ). In recent years, investors have embraced small-cap and mid-cap equities as a means of establishing more “pure play” exposure to international markets. Whereas funds dominated by large caps tend to include multi-national firms that generate revenue around the [...]

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Van Eck Launches Small Cap Germany ETF (GERJ)

Michael Johnston — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:02:45 +0000

Van Eck announced the latest addition to its fast-growing ETF lineup today, rolling out a fund that offers exposure to small cap German companies. The Market Vectors Germany Small-Cap ETF (GERJ) will seek to replicate the Market Vectors Germany Small-Cap Index, a benchmark that includes small cap companies listed in Germany or that generate at least 50% of their revenues in Germany. Prior to the launch of GERJ, the only “pure play” Germany ETF available to U.S. investors was the iShares MSCI Germany Index Fund (EWG). That product, which has close to $3 billion in assets, consists of about 50 large cap German companies; the largest allocations go to Siemens, BASF, Allianz, Bayer, and Daimler. The median market cap of the underlying index was more than $11 billion at the end of 2010, and the smallest company in the MSCI Germany Index has a market cap of $2.5 billion. The launch [...]

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Three ETFs To Watch This Week: USO, FXE, JSC

Eric Dutram — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:00:41 +0000

This past week was yet another interesting one for the markets as stocks managed to rise broadly despite continued worries over the health of the Japanese economy and the ongoing situation in Libya which is quickly spiraling into an all-out war. Markets, for the most part, shrugged off these concerns and instead focused in on solid economic data in the form of quality jobs reports which showed that over two hundred thousand jobs were created in March. This figure beat analyst expectations and also helped to push the overall unemployment rate down to 8.8%, suggesting to many that a mild jobs recovery is finally underway. This news, along with some M&A activity in the financial sector, helped to boost investor sentiment heading into the second quarter leaving some to hope that markets can repeat the returns that they showed in the first few months of the year and once again [...]

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Japan ETFs In Focus After Devastating Quake

Michael Johnston — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:00:53 +0000

The attention of investors shifted from the Middle East to Japan late last week, as the natural devastation caused by a massive earthquake trumped the manmade chaos that has been playing out in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the oil-rich region. With rescue efforts intensifying in the north of Japan after a magnitude 8.9 quake and resulting tsunami, a potential nuclear crisis has emerged as another threat that could impact the entire country. The death toll had climbed to nearly 1,600 on Sunday, but by some estimates that figure will reach as high as 10,000 as rescue efforts continue. Assessing the economic impact remains challenging as details continue to emerge, though investors have been selling off Japanese stocks since the quake hit and are expected to continue to do so when trading resumes on Monday. The area closest to the epicenter of the quake accounts directly for only a [...]

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Van Eck Launches Small Cap India ETF (SCIF)

Michael Johnston — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:30:03 +0000

Van Eck announced on Wednesday the latest addition to its ETF product lineup, rolling out the Market Vectors Small Cap India ETF (SCIF). The new ETF will seek to replicate the performance of the Market Vectors India Small-Cap Index, a benchmark that includes about 120 constituents with an average market capitalization of approximately $450 million. SCIF joins two existing Market Vectors ETFs offering exposure to small cap equities in emerging markets, including the Brazil Small Cap ETF (BRF) and Latin America Small Cap ETF (LATM). ETFs from other issuers offer exposure to small cap stocks in China (HAO) and Japan (SCJ, JSC). Funds targeting small cap stocks in international market have become popular with investors in recent years because they generally maintain unique risk/return profiles relative to the “first generation” of international equity ETFs that are dominated by large caps. Small cap stocks tend to depend more heavily on the [...]

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IndexIQ Launches Small Cap Taiwan ETF (TWON)

Michael Johnston — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:36:08 +0000

IndexIQ announced on Tuesday the launch of the IQ Taiwan Small Cap ETF (TWON), the firm’s fourth product focusing on international small cap stocks. TWON will track the IQ Taiwan Small Cap Index, a cap-weighted benchmark that includes small cap companies domiciled and primarily listed on stock exchanges in Taiwan. The underlying index consists of approximately 100 securities with a weighted average market capitalization of less than $500 million. Like other funds offering exposure to Taiwan’s equity markets, TWON will have a heavy tilt towards tech firms; the technology sector makes up about 30% of assets, followed by industrials (28%) and materials (18%). Case For Taiwan Once one of the four “Asian Tigers,” Taiwan’s economy has continued to expand at an impressive rate in recent years. The economy may have expanded at its fastest rate in 20 years in the first quarter of 2010, fueled by strong exports and direct [...]

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IndexIQ Launches Small Cap Australia, Canada ETFs (CNDA, KROO)

Michael Johnston — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:02:56 +0000

IndexIQ, the ETF issuer best known for its funds that seek to replicate hedge fund strategies with liquid, transparent securities, announced today the launch of two new ETFs offering single-country equity exposure. The IQ Canada Small Cap ETF (CNDA) will track the performance of the IQ Canada Small Cap Index, while the IQ Australia Small Cap ETF (KROO) will seek to replicate the IQ Australia Small Cap Index. While existing products track the Canadian and Australian equity markets, these will be the first to focus on small cap stocks in these countries. “Investors targeting Canada or Australia typically have been required to invest in funds with broad-based exposure to large cap and global companies domiciled or operating in these markets,” said Adam Patti, chief executive officer at IndexIQ. “However, these domestic economies have their own important dynamics, driven by oil, gas, and metals production in Canada, and coal and metals [...]

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ETF Database » JSC

Six Noteworthy ETF Innovations

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