Creativity on the product development front has become a defining characteristic of the ETF industry, as the surge in the number of ETF offerings in recent years has been driven not by duplication but by innovation. Many of the new fund launches are first-to-market concepts, offering exposure to asset classes or strategies not previously available within the ETF wrapper. The bond ETF space in particular has seen a number of major developments in recent years, and many of the ETF newcomers have become popular among investors and furthered huge asset growth rates. [click to continue…]
Russell Investments and Research Affiliates announced this week the creation of a new suite of indexes based on the Fundamental index methodology developed by Research Affiliates founder Rob Arnott. The two companies formed a partnership last year, and are now introducing 24 fundamental-weighted benchmarks measuring the performance of domestic and international equity markets.
American equity markets endured another rocky session as most companies reached a high point in early morning trading before retreating back to finish up the day. The Dow managed to edge higher by eight points while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 posted more robust gains of 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively, while most commodity markets jumped [...]
State Street, the Boston-based firm that maintains a broad-based lineup of fixed income ETFs, recently made an interesting SEC filing detailing plans for a new type of bond ETF. The proposed SPDR Barclays Capital Issuer Scored Corporate Bond ETF (CBND) would seek to replicate the performance of the Barclays Capital Issuer Scored Corporate Index, a [...]
As investors have become more comfortable with the marriage of fixed income exposure and the ETF wrapper, billions of dollars have flowed into bond ETFs in recent years. Impressive innovation in the space has provided investors with more options than ever before, including enhanced granularity in virtually every corner of the fixed income market. Still, [...]
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 the ETF industry has grown rapidly in recent years, many of the best-known tickers have attracted the majority of new assets. While these “super-tickers” include the building blocks of many buy-and-hold portfolios, some funds receiving considerably less attention present intriguing options as well. Below, we profile five more ETFs that are generally flying under [...]
The impressive ETF boom of the last several years has in many ways changed the investing landscape quite dramatically. Although index mutual funds have been around for more than 30 years, the introduction of low-cost ETFs has many investors questioning the merits of pricey active management [see Two Cases Against Active Management]. The introduction of [...]
After lingering in the background of the ETF industry for the last several years, fixed income funds have stepped up in recent months to become one of the primary drivers of growth. Through the first seven months of 2010, cash inflows to ETFs totaled $49 billion. Of this amount, more than $23 billion has been [...]
In recent years, investors have grown increasingly comfortable with the thought of achieving their fixed income exposure through ETFs. Through the first six months of 2010, bond ETFs had seen cash inflows of more than $18 billion, nearly half of the total for the ETF industry as a whole. Many of the most popular bond [...]
The tremendous surge in ETF assets in recent years has been attributable not to equity funds, but rather to products offering exposure to other asset classes. The number of exchange-traded commodity products has surged, enabling investors to establish exposure to everything from copper to sugar through the exchange-traded structure. Another big growth area has focused [...]
