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Saving For College, ETF Style: An ETF-Friendly 529 Plan

Michael Johnston — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:43 +0000

The ETF industry has been routinely praised for its innovation over the last several years, which is no doubt a contributing factor to the surge in interest and assets. Generally, reference to such innovation relates to the growth in the product lineup, as issuers of all sizes have launched a number of creative, first-to-market products over the past few years that have dramatically opened up the asset classes and investment strategies available through the exchange-traded structures [see also Free Report: How To Pick The Right ETF Every Time]. But there are other aspects of the industry that deserve credit for exciting new developments as well. While ETFs are still hard to find in most 401(k) account and other retirement plans, they are now readily accessible in a popular college savings account; a program from State Street allows new parents to use ETFs in a college savings plan for children, through an [...]

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ETF Insider: Bears Still In Charge

Stoyan Bojinov — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:00:50 +0000

The Wall Street roller coaster doesn’t seem to be running out of fuel as stocks endured yet another wild week. Investors remain very fearful of an impending “double dip”, while the deteriorating financial health of the Euro zone is putting additional downward pressure on global equity markets. Uncertainty continues to pave the way higher for gold and the precious hit new all-time highs on Friday, charging to $1,881 an ounce as equities slid lower throughout the trading session. We advised investors to be cautious of a dead cat bounce in Monday’s Insider, which turned out to be sound advice seeing as how equity indexes failed to establish support above last weeks highs, and instead fell lower in the final days of trading accompanied by high volume. Against this uncertain backdrop, nearly all of our model portfolios remain in deep-red territory, while our conservative approach has yet again saved us from [...]

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ETF Insider: Stocks Look For Support

Stoyan Bojinov — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:08:25 +0000

It’s been a fairly tame week on Wall Street thus far, with investors keeping quiet as no significant economic data has been released. Positive GDP data from Japan pushed markets higher at the start of the week, although equity indexes were quick to give up gains on both Tuesday and Wednesday around noon time. The technology sector was the only corner of the equity market dragged down into negative territory on Wednesday after Dell missed earnings estimates and revised its sales forecast lower. Gold has been climbing higher all week after the precious metal took a big tumble last Friday before the close. Futures prices for the yellow metal closed around $1,790 an ounce, just a few points below the all-time high set last week at $1,817 an ounce. Checking In: Trading Ideas This week, our trading ideas included a long position in a commodity and currency ETF, as well [...]

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ETF Insider: Beware Of A Dead Cat Bounce

Stoyan Bojinov — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:00:48 +0000

Fear ran wild across every corner of the financial markets last week and nearly every asset class fell victim to brutally volatile trading. Friday was the only day during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average did not swing by more than 400 points, managing to regain some of the losses on Thursday and Friday and end the week lower by less than 2%. Amidst all of the uncertainty, gold made yet another run higher and futures prices for the hot yellow metal hit record highs, soaring to $1,817 an ounce on Wednesday evening. Weekly Outlook The coming week is sparse with major economic data releases, although investors will have a plateful of inflation data to digest as CPI data for the United Kingdom, Canada, and U.S. is slated come out. At home, housing market and industrial production data will take center stage as investors look for reassurance that the economy [...]

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Schwab Rolls Out REIT ETF (SCHH), Mid Cap ETF (SCHM)

Michael Johnston — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:57:36 +0000

Charles Schwab announced the latest addition to its ETF lineup today, launching the Schwab U.S. REIT ETF (SCHH) and Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF (SCHM). The real estate fund will seek to replicate the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select REIT Index, the same index to which the SPDR Dow Jones REIT ETF (RWR) is linked. With an expense ratio of 0.13%. SCHH will be the cheapest ETF in the Real Estate ETFdb Category, which previously averaged 0.43% (VNQ was previously the cheapest at 0.15%). SCHM will be linked to the Dow Jones U.S. Mid-Cap Total Stock Market Index, a benchmark that is comprised of 500 mid-cap U.S. stocks and is already linked to the SPDR Dow Jones Mid Cap ETF (EMM). SCHM will also charge an expense ratio of 0.13%, making it the cheapest in the Mid Cap Blend Equities ETFdb Category (again, the new Schwab fund takes the [...]

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AdvisorShares Teams Up With Cambria On Active Global ETF (GTAA)

Michael Johnston — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:44:05 +0000

AdvisorShares continues to expand its footprint in the active ETF arena, announcing today the launch of the Cambria Global Tactical ETF (GTAA). The new fund comes out of a partnership with Cambria Investment Management, the firm run by Mebane Faber and Eric Richardson. Faber is perhaps best known for his 2007 paper A Quantitative Approach To Tactical Asset Allocation, in which he presented a quantitative market timing model designed to manage risk in various markets and deliver equity-like returns with bond-like volatility and drawdown. Along with Richardson, Faber co-authored The Ivy Portfolio, an influential book that offers average investors a strategy to mimic the world-beating returns posted by endowments at Harvard and Yale. Cambria has been managing separate accounts since 2007, and the firm’s global allocation models became particularly popular during the recent recession when the risk management strategies they implement allowed many investors to sit out much of the [...]

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Schwab Planning To Construct Real Estate ETF

Eric Dutram — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:52:33 +0000

As the fourth quarter nears, the ETF industry remains in flux. A number of newcomers are preparing to to jump into the ETF waters while others, such as Geary and Old Mutual, are pulling the plug on ETF dreams. And competition among some of the industry’s bigger players is heating up, as recent product development initiatives have focused more on duplication than innovation. Charles Schwab appears to be in the early stages of its ETF build-out; the firm’s first waves of products have met a warm reception, and the company has said it plans to continue filling in holes in its ETF coverage map. While Schwab’s initial foray into the ETF market was built around funds targeting the broad U.S. and international equity markets, it has begun to branch out in recent months to other corners of the investable universe. The company recently debuted an international small cap fund as [...]

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Time For A Real Estate ETF?

Michael Johnston — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:41:32 +0000

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 asset class for good. Or so they thought. After losing their shirts in real estate investments during the financial crisis, many investors washed their hands (and their portfolios) of REITs, unable to tolerate such extreme volatility and unwilling to accept the downside ramifications of risky assets. But investors who were able to spot the bottom of the real estate market in the U.S. have been handsomely rewarded, and now many are beginning to consider a more significant allocation to this asset class. The ETF boom has presented dozens of options for investors looking to add [...]

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The Definitive Guide To Real Estate ETFs: Real Estate ETF Investing 101

Michael Johnston — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:05:06 +0000

Once considered a vital “return enhancer” in almost every portfolio, real estate as an asset class has fallen out of favor with investors following its spectacular collapse during (and role in causing) the recent global economic downturn. Real estate was historically embraced because of its potential for delivering excess returns in bull property markets and low correlation with traditional stock and bond investments. But as default rates skyrocketed, values plummeted, and correlations went to 1.0, asset managers have sold off real property and reallocated investor portfolios to equities and fixed income. Despite its fall from grace, real estate is beginning to creep back into portfolios, as investors regain their appetite for risky assets (we include a small allocation to real estate in several of our All-ETF Model Portfolios). Real estate ETFs have seen cash inflows of more than $3 billion year-to-date, reflecting perhaps a preference for achieving diversified exposure within [...]

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This Week In ETFs: October 16th Edition

Eric Dutram — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:04:34 +0000

It’s been an interesting week the world of ETFs: ETFs trended upwards at the beginning of the week but fell back in trading late Thursday and Friday. Here are the ETF Database staff picks of the week’s most important and interesting stories from around the Web: VWO vs. EEM: Which Should You Buy? at Index Universe: Although the Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (EEM) track the same benchmark (the MSCI Emerging Markets Index), the two funds have delivered very different returns. VWO has outperformed EEM in 2009, a trend that can be explained by a few unique factors. VWO uses what is called “full replication” to track its index, meaning it holds all the stocks in its index. EEM, by contrast, uses an “optimization” strategy, holding only a subset of those stocks to replicate the performance of the index. Also, EEM uses a [...]

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ETF Database » RWR

Saving For College, ETF Style: An ETF-Friendly 529 Plan

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ETF Insider: Bears Still In Charge

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Schwab Rolls Out REIT ETF (SCHH), Mid Cap ETF (SCHM)

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AdvisorShares Teams Up With Cambria On Active Global ETF (GTAA)

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Schwab Planning To Construct Real Estate ETF

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This Week In ETFs: October 16th Edition

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