An eventful week came to a close on a down note Friday. After a nearly $1 trillion rescue package formed in conjunction with the ECB, the IMF, and several European countries sent markets rallying, investors took a second look at the systemic risks of the region and pulled back sharply on Friday. The Dow shed much of its 400 point gain following the announcement on Monday, closing at 10,620.16 for the week. The euro fell below $1.24 (an 18-month low), and risk contagion over Europe’s financial troubles largely offset promising U.S. economic data. Financials in both the US and Europe were hit hard, as the market looks to find a bottom.
Below, we highlight some of the best ETF stories from around the Web: [click to continue…]
After enjoying a record year in 2010, many in the ETF industry were disappointed when January figures revealed a material decline in total assets, breaking an impressive string of month-over-month expansion. The latest ETF statistics from the National Stock Exchange are out, and February results were more typical of the industry’s recent growth. Total ETF [...]
As the ETF industry has continued its rapid expansion, there has been much debate surrounding the sustainability of the current growth and the potential saturation of the market. The first ETFs were relatively simple products, offering exposure to the world’s most widely-followed equity benchmarks. But the last ten years have seen hundreds of new ETFs [...]
Leveraged ETFs have been in the news a great deal lately, although the majority of the coverage has been less than flattering. Over the last week, several prominent financial institutions have ceased purchasing leveraged ETFs on behalf of their clients, citing the incompatibility of the short-term nature of these products with their long-term views on [...]
The old saying “any publicity is good publicity” certainly seems to ring true in the ETF industry. Over the last several months, leveraged ETFs have been the subject of intense scrutiny, first from individual investors and analysts, and more recently from regulatory agencies such as FINRA. Despite allegations that these funds are dishonest products that [...]
Leveraged ETFs have quickly become the hot-button issue in the ETF industry, dividing investors and observers into two distinct camps. On the one side are sophisticated day traders who believe these funds, which use derivatives and other complex financial instruments to provide amplified daily returns on a target index, are the greatest thing since sliced bread. And on [...]
After growing at a torrid pace in 2008, the ETF industry had showed signs of slowing down through the first four months of 2009. But May represented a return to old form, with more than $14 billion in new assets flowing into ETFs during the month according to Morningstar, the largest monthly inflow of the [...]
