As the ETF industry has expanded rapidly in recent years, the universe of asset classes and investment strategies accessible through the exchange-traded wrapper has increased dramatically. In addition to funds offering exposure to natural resources and volatility–two asset classes previously beyond the reach of many investors–a number of products have popped up that seek to deliver opportunities to tap into intriguing investment methodologies in a cost efficient and time efficient manner.
One area of tremendous interest focuses on dividends; there are literally dozens of ETFs that are designed to concentrate exposure on dividend-paying stocks, from those linked to dividend-weighted methodologies to those with stringent consistency requirements for inclusion. Popular equity funds in the space include DOD, IDV, and HDV; while products with international flavor like PID, DWX, and EDIV can help investors expand the geographic scope of their portfolio’s holdings.
[click to continue…]
Van Eck announced the latest addition to its ETF lineup on Wednesday, introducing the Market Vectors Mortgage REITs ETF (MORT). The new fund will seek to replicate the Market Vectors Global Mortgage REITs Index, a cap-weighted benchmark comprised of companies that generate at least half of their revenues from mortgage REITs. That segment of the [...]
By many measures, the U.S. economy has come a long way since the depths of the most recent recession; since bottoming out in early 2009, most equity indexes have climbed sharply higher and reclaimed much of the ground lost during the preceding free fall. GDP growth has swung back to the positive territory, the U.S. [...]
To say that the current investment landscape is complex would be quite the understatement. Recent weeks have seen environmental, humanitarian, and economic crises break out in Japan, with the aftershocks rippling throughout the global economy. Moving across the globe, the Libyan Crisis has dominated headlines for quite some time now, as a series of revolutions [...]
Historically, no portfolio was complete without a material allocation to real estate. Consistently high real returns and low correlations to stocks and bonds made it easy to overlook the out-of-whack fundamentals that ultimately led to an unprecedented collapse. But when real estate markets got a reality check in late 2008, many investors swore off the [...]
As the ETF industry has exploded on to the scene in recent years, sponsors have aggressively launched funds in an attempt to gain market share. While many of these new ETFs have attracted sufficient investor funds to justify continued operation, some have failed to garner a level of investment necessary to support an active, liquid market [...]
