Global X continued a busy week of product development; after rolling out a pair of ETFs linked to NASDAQ indexes, the New York-based issuer followed up with the first product offering pure play exposure to Greece. The new FTSE Greece 20 ETF (GREK) will seek to replicate the FTSE/Athex 20 Index, a benchmark that includes 20 of the largest companies that are domiciled in, principally traded in, or whose revenues are derived primarily from Greece. GREK is the first ETF to specifically target Greek equities, and the fund launches at a time when the Greek economy is on the brink of a fiscal nightmare. [click to continue…]
As the ETF universe has expanded rapidly over the past few years, so too has the reach of its exposure. Where there was once only a few hundred products for basic investing, there now stands over 1,400 ETFs with more than one trillion in combined assets. There are now ETFs for not only broad-based investing, [...]
With three quarters of 2011 officially in the books, it is now safe to say that the year has not played out as many investors had hoped it might. After coming flying out of the gates–most major benchmarks were solidly in positive territory after the first quarter–a perfect storm of negative developments has conspired to [...]
This year started off with strong markets as the U.S. slowly worked through its recovery from “The Great Recession”. But as 2011 progressed, things quickly turned south. A number of factors all over the world have led to markets exhibiting high volatility, and prompted many analysts and investors to question if we can pull out [...]
While reports of jobless rates in the U.S. or the pace of inflation in China occasionally pop to the top of the headlines, the last several months have seen the spotlight focused on European markets as the continent continues to battle a debt crisis that has threatened to derail a fragile economic recovery. While the [...]
With more than 1,200 products in a lineup that adds dozens of new funds every month, navigating through the ETF universe has become an increasingly challenging task in recent years. Innovation in the space has given investors more options than ever before for accessing asset classes and investment strategies that may have previously been out [...]
With more than 1,100 ETPs now trading, investors and advisors have access to more asset classes and investment strategies than ever before. But it can also be challenging for advisors and investors to navigate through all the ETF options and identify those that meet their investment objectives–especially with new funds debuting on a regular basis. [...]
Egypt has become the center of the news world over the last week, as a series of violent protests and intensifying calls for a regime change have left the future of one of Africa’s most populous countries in doubt. Though violence has been limited to a relatively small number of incidents, protesters have continued to [...]
The economic recovery that has breathed life back into equity markets after the most recent recession seems to be balancing on a knife’s edge. Corporate earnings reports have been solid, but a frustrating lack of job creation looms over every trade on Wall Street, standing as a major obstacle to ongoing economic growth. In recent [...]
Thanks to stubbornly high unemployment and low levels of growth forecast for much of the developed world, many are now worried about the possibility of deflation rather than inflation as the global economy comes ever closer to falling into a double dip recession. With interest rates and long-term yields at record lows, there is not much [...]
As July draws to a close, a glance around the investing landscape carries an eerie similarity to a Yosemite campground littered with discarded food; there are bears everywhere. Unemployment remains elevated, and more and more investors are coming to accept that a meaningful recovery won’t progress until signs of job creation materialize. After implementing aggressive [...]
