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ETF Update: Pipeline Continues To Fill

Michael Johnston — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:00:13 +0000

The summer months generally bring a slowdown in trading activity on Wall Street, so it isn’t surprising that product development activity has seemingly slowed a bit in the ETF industry as of late. After dozens of new product launches in previous months, just ten new ETFs debuted in July according to the ETF Launch Center. And as we near the midway point in August, only four new ETFs have started trading this month: the India Consumer ETF (INCO), Emerging Markets High Beta Low Income ETF (HILO), SmallCap 600 Equal Weight ETF (EWSM), and MidCap 400 Equal Weight ETF (EWMD). But while the pace of new launches may have slowed, issuers have remained busy behind the scenes laying groundwork for new ETPs that could begin trading later in 2011 (of course, many proposed ETFs may never see the light of day). Among the ideas stuffed into a bursting pipeline over the [...]

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ETFs With Significant Goldman Sachs Exposure

Michael Johnston — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:12:33 +0000

After generally impressive earnings reports sent markets higher for much of the last week, Friday’s shocking allegations against Goldman Sachs ensured that the week ended on a down note. The SEC filed fraud charges against the Wall Street giant on Friday, alleging that the firm failed to make important disclosures surrounding a subprime mortgage product some believe was destined to fail. The SEC claims that Goldman constructed and marketed ABACUS, a synthetic collateralized debt obligation linked to the performance of subprime MBS. Goldman didn’t make certain “vital information” known to investors. Specifically, the hedge fund run by John Paulson was involved in selecting which securities would be part of the portfolio, while standing to reap a huge profit if the mortgage-backed securities failed. Financial ETFs Sink The news sent Goldman stock plummeting, as GS finished Friday off more than 12% on volume nearly ten times the daily average. But once [...]

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Special Report: Alpha ETFs Come Of Age

Michael Johnston — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:00:55 +0000

In the summer of 1992, Eugene Fama and Kenneth French published “The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns” in The Journal of Finance, a groundbreaking analysis that prompted financial presses to run headlines declaring “beta is dead.” While the death sentence may have been a bit severe, it struck a significant blow to a widely-accepted and longstanding financial concept, causing academics and investors to reconsider tenets they once took for granted. In recent decades, a collection of academic studies, disillusioned investors, and financial innovations have contributed to a similar prognosis for beta’s Greek neighbor, alpha. The idea that was hatched by Brinson and Hood and supported by the likes of Ibbotson and Kaplan and Barras and Scaillet was fueled by years of investor frustration. Following the introduction and rapid rise in the popularity of indexing and ETFs, it seemed that what started out as a scholarly whisper had grown into a [...]

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ETFs To Play Along With Soros, Paulson, and Fournier

Michael Johnston — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:01:36 +0000

Even the most vocal supporters of passive management and indexing have to admit that certain investor track records are far too stellar to attribute entirely to luck. While I’ve frequently disparaged the concept of active investing, I’m still eager to hear what trends legendary investors are following. The Wall Street Journal’s Gregory Zuckerman recently compiled some thoughts from George Soros, John Paulson, and others on the current economic environment. So what are these experts betting on? Some of the answers might surprise you: Soros, known for his controversial currency attacks, calls the current environment a “trading market,” advising investors to take profits when prices rise. Although he is less involved in the day-to-day management of his $24 billion fund, Soros does have some investment ideas, and is bullish on most of the BRIC countries, particularly China. “China is the major beneficiary of the collapse of the financial system. For them it was [...]

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ETF Database » PFI

ETF Update: Pipeline Continues To Fill

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