ETF Database » OOK

September ETF Roundup: Launches, Filings, and Closures

Jared Cummans — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:00:06 +0000

The month of September brought an unexpected but very welcome rally in stock markets, as many equity ETFs enjoyed their best month of the year. September also set a number of records from the product development perspective in the ETF industry; more than two dozen new funds from a handful of different issuers hit the market, and the month’s additions had pulled in aggregate assets of nearly $300 million by month end. The month also saw Claymore rebranded under the Guggenheim name, as well as the departure from the ETF industry of two issuers, Geary and GlobalShares [see more at Claymore Changes Name To Guggenheim Funds]. In total 27 new ETFs were born in September, covering a wide variety of markets, asset classes, and investment strategies. The net increase in the ETF lineup, however, was only 19, as three different issuers announced the closing of eight ETFs in aggregate. New [...]

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Oklahoma ETF, Texas ETF To Shut Down

Michael Johnston — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:00:38 +0000

Geary Advisors, the firm that last year pioneered state-specific ETFs, has announced that it will close down the Oklahoma Exchange-Traded Fund (OOK) and Texas Exchange-Traded Fund (TXF) by the end of the month. Both funds launched in late 2009, but despite impressive performances struggled to build up assets and trading volumes. OOK seeks to replicate the SPADE Oklahoma Index, a benchmark consisting of publicly-traded companies whose corporate headquarters are located in Oklahoma or who maintain significant operations within Oklahoma. Though OOK’s assets are spread across a number of sectors, the fund maintains a heavy tilt towards firms engaged in the transport of natural gas. That made it an intriguing option for playing that corner of the energy market, but assets were slow to accumulate [see How To Survive An ETF Liquidation]. Similarly, TXF is linked to a benchmark, the SPADE Texas Index, that consists of companies headquartered in Texas. Not [...]

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Natural Gas ETFs: Seven Ways To Play

Michael Johnston — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:30:18 +0000

As more issuers have rushed into the ETF game and waves of cash inflows have contributed to surging asset levels within the industry, investors find themselves with more options than ever before. Once upon a time, exposure to a specific country or sector through ETFs was a binary decision; investors either had it, or they didn’t [use our country lookup tool to find all ETFs with exposure to a specific economy]. Now many corners of the ETF industry offer an impressive level of granularity, with numerous options for tailoring exposure to meet exact specifications. This trend is evident in a corner of the domestic energy market that was largely overlooked until only a few years ago. Natural gas has been a part of most Americans’ lives for some time, but until recently very few viewed it as in investment opportunity. As talk of developing alternatives to foreign oil was intensifying, [...]

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ETF Price Wars? Schwab Slashes Expense Ratios

Michael Johnston — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:00:16 +0000

Charles Schwab may be a relative newcomer to the exchange-traded fund game, but the San Francisco-based firm has made quite a splash since wading into the ETF waters late last year. On Monday, Schwab shook up the industry again, announcing that it was reducing the expense ratios on six ETFs, or three quarters of its existing product line. Each of the ETFs impacted by the changes now features the lowest expense ratio in its ETFdb Category: Ticker Expense Ratio ETFdb Category ETFdb Category Average SCHB 0.06% All Cap Equities 0.34% SCHG 0.13% Large Cap Growth 0.41% SCHV 0.13% Large Cap Value 0.40% SCHA 0.13% Small Cap Blend 0.44% SCHF 0.13% Foreign Large Cap 0.49% SCHE 0.25% Emerging Markets 0.68% The two Schwab product maintaining their current expense ratios are the U.S. Large Cap ETF (SCHX, 0.08%) and the International Small Cap Equity ETF (SCHC, 0.35%). Schwab’s reputation for low costs [...]

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Closer Look At The Texas ETF (TXF)

Michael Johnston — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:34:49 +0000

From a certain perspective, the ETF space shows the signs not of a still-nascent industry, but of a mature corner of the investing world. For the better part of a decade, the industry totem pole has remained unchanged, with four big firms accounting for nearly 90% of all ETF assets. But a closer look reveals that quite a bit has changed in recent years, as the number of players in the ETF game has grown significantly. None of these start-ups are a real threat to challenge the iShares and State Streets of the world, but many have experienced success in carving out a niche of more targeted products. The number of exchange-traded products available to U.S. investors has climbed steadily towards 1,000, with the expansion occurring largely as the result of innovation, not duplication. Instead of a wave of identical S&P 500 ETFs (there are still only two), the growth [...]

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UNG vs. FCG: A Better Natural Gas ETF?

Michael Johnston — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:17:33 +0000

One of the hottest segments of the ETF industry is the commodity space, which has exploded in recent years as investors have embraced exchange-traded products as a means of reaching an asset class that offers potentially valuable diversification benefits. While most commodity products are physically-backed or futures-based funds, an alternative means of gaining commodity exposure has become increasingly popular among ETF investors. A number of equity ETFs focusing on stocks of companies engaged in the production or extraction of hard assets have popped up and received a very warm reception from the market. This concept is nothing new–investors have been making bets on changes in oil prices through stocks in the energy sector for ages–but the expansion to nearly every corner of the commodities market is a relatively recent development. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) is the largest ETF in the Commodity Producers Equities ETFdb Category with assets [...]

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Why OOK Is Crushing XLE

Michael Johnston — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:44:45 +0000

Last year saw more than 100 new ETF launches, ranging from the relatively “plain vanilla” to funds offering more targeted and unique exposure. One of the more interesting product launches came late in the year, when Geary Advisors introduced the first state-specific ETF, the Oklahoma Exchange-Traded Fund (OOK). OOK is designed to track the performance of the SPADE Oklahoma Index, a modified market capitalization-weighted benchmark that measures the performance of companies whose corporate headquarters are located in Oklahoma or who maintain significant operations in Oklahoma. Given this objective, it isn’t surprising that the index has a heavy tilt towards the energy industry, as the drilling & exploration, pipelines, oil & gas, and coal sectors make up about 70% of the benchmark. The remainder of exposure is spread across utilities, financials, and consumer companies, giving OOK some level of diversification while maintaining a heavy tilt towards oil and gas companies. Essentially, [...]

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Checking In On Ten Major ETF Launches From 2009

Michael Johnston — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:15:20 +0000

Last year saw more than 100 new product launches, ranging from plain vanilla equity and bond funds to ETFs offering exposure to exotic new investment strategies and asset classes previously available only to a limited slice of the investing community. The innovation that has made ETFs a popular alternative to mutual funds seems ready to continue through2010. Based on discussions with industry executives and others covering the industry, it seems like a safe bet that 2010 will shatter existing records for new ETF launches. But there has also been some concern over saturation in the ETF industry, as well more than 100 funds currently have less than $10 million in assets. Hype around the launch of new products doesn’t always translate into sustained investor demand. While many investors and advisors are looking forward to some of the exciting products in the pipeline for 2010, we take a look back, checking [...]

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Three ETF Alternatives To UNG

Michael Johnston — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:34:44 +0000

The rapid rise of the ETF industry has caused the expanded the investment arsenal of millions significantly, bringing asset classes previously reserved for only the largest and most sophisticated investors within reach. This development is perhaps best demonstrated by the surge in popularity of exchange-traded commodity products. According to data from the National Stock Exchange, commodity ETFs took in more than $30 billion in 2009, an amount that is even more remarkable considering that domestic equity funds saw outflows of over $8 billion. In addition to broad-based products, dozens of commodity-specific funds have come to market, offering exposure to everything from gold and crude oil to cotton and coffee. One of the most popular resource specific exchange-traded products is the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG), which is designed to track in percentage terms the movements of natural gas prices. UNG alone saw cash inflows of $5.6 billion in 2009, [...]

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Talking OOK, TXF, And All Things ETF With Keith Geary

Michael Johnston — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:17:46 +0000

Keith Geary is the chairman, president, and CEO of The Geary Companies, an Oklahoma-based financial services firm. Geary Advisors recently launched the Texas Large Companies Exchange-Traded Fund (TXF) and Oklahoma ETF (OOK), the first state-specific equity ETFs available to U.S. investors. He recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk about his firm’s products with ETF Database. ETF Database (ETFdb): Geary Advisors recently launched two ETFs — tell us about how you came up with the idea for OOK and TXF. Keith Geary (KG): Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Geary Securities runs a program that we call “Give OK Stocks As Gifts.” It started out as a discussion between my wife and I, talking about how so many parents spend $300 on a Nintendo or X-Box for their kids, and five years later they’re completely outdated or in the trash. So we thought: if these parents had [...]

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ETF Database » OOK

September ETF Roundup: Launches, Filings, and Closures

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Oklahoma ETF, Texas ETF To Shut Down

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Natural Gas ETFs: Seven Ways To Play

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ETF Price Wars? Schwab Slashes Expense Ratios

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Closer Look At The Texas ETF (TXF)

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UNG vs. FCG: A Better Natural Gas ETF?

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Why OOK Is Crushing XLE

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Checking In On Ten Major ETF Launches From 2009

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Three ETF Alternatives To UNG

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Talking OOK, TXF, And All Things ETF With Keith Geary

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