The rapid growth of the ETF industry in recent years has altered the investment landscape in more ways than one. The low expense ratios offered by most exchange-traded products have brought increased scrutiny on active managers and called into question their ability to add value to client portfolios. The immediate diversification offered by a basket of securities has caused some to shift away from the complex research associated with individual stock picking towards more macro analysis required for tactical strategies. And as indexes have evolved from hypothetical measures of performance to essentially investable assets, the methodologies utilized in the construction and maintenance of benchmarks have become increasingly important to investors [see our database of ETF indexes]. [click to continue…]
The rise of the ETF industry has changed a lot about the business of investing. It has altered the way investors look at expenses, making it difficult to justify handing over 200 basis points (or more) each year to an active manager who can’t regularly beat a benchmark. It has also expanded the universe of [...]
As 2009 draws to a close, it appears that this will be another “year of the mid cap.” Although equities of all sizes have posted strong gains this year (particularly when compared to 2008), mid caps have led the way, and mid cap ETFs have generally outperformed their small and large cap peers. Some investors [...]
Following a year that saw some of the worst performances in recent memory, many asset classes have bounced back in 2009. But some have performed better than others, and as the year draws to a close we take a look at some of the best-performing ETFs. The year’s top gainers include a few of the [...]
Advisors and individuals who favor a tactical asset allocation to investing have historically analyzed broad macroeconomic trends and statistics to identify asset classes and sectors poised deliver strong returns. In the early days of the ETF industry, this meant homing in on a certain sector or style and picking the fund that tracked that segment. [...]
Sean O’Hara is the President of RevenueShares Investor Services. He recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk about weighting methodologies, alpha, and more with ETF Database.
As ETFs have become the investment vehicle of choice for an increasing number of asset managers and individual investors, the landscape continues to evolve, sometimes seemingly on a daily basis. The first ETFs to burst onto the scene generally tracked traditional asset classes and indexes. And while these “plain vanilla” funds remain among the most [...]
