AdvisorShares, one of the largest issuers of actively-managed ETFs, has forged a partnership to bring an active sector rotation ETF to market. The new Rockledge SectorSAM ETF (SSAM), which began trading Thursday, will seek to generate stable and consistent returns in all market conditions, developing a dollar neutral portfolio comprised of sector ETFs. The new ETF will utilize the Sector Scoring and Allocation Methodology (“SSAM”), a technique based on a proprietary quantitative analysis model that forecasts the projected returns to various sectors of the U.S. economy. The ETF will establish long positions in sector ETFs that are expected to outperform the S&P 500 and short positions in those that are expected to underperform that benchmark. [click to continue…]
Job creation–or the lack thereof–has taken center stage throughout much of the developed world, emerging as one of the most substantial hurdles to economic growth and potential catalysts of a double dip recession. The jobs situation in the U.S. is shaping up to be the central issue in the next presidential election, sticking out as [...]
Equity markets got off to a stronger than expected start this week as investors refrained from selling, and instead stepped in to buy up stocks on the cheap and push domestic indexes higher off last week’s lows. Wall Street rallied on Wednesday after a positive durable goods report boosted investor’s sentiment as orders rose by [...]
Equity markets struggled to pick a direction last week, fluctuating between small gains and pesky losses one day after the other. Late in the week, however, worse than expected economic data on the home front and escalating European debt woes managed to push the markets of a cliff one more time, with equity indexes sinking [...]
The last week was an up-and-down stretch for global equity markets, as the intensifying crisis in Greece dominated headlines and investors scrambled to analyze the potential fallout from what seems increasingly likely to be a default on sovereign debt obligations. The jump in equity markets–which snapped a six week losing streak–wasn’t really attributable to good [...]
After a sixth consecutive week of losses, investors will be looking for some indication that the steady losses have been a bit of overkill and that a bounce back is warranted in coming sessions. Equity markets have tumbled past key technical and psychological levels in recent weeks, and anxiety is once again running high both [...]
The last month has been an extremely rough one for emerging markets, as a flight to quality has pushed investors into safe haven asset classes such as gold and silver. While some emerging nations such as Russia have been able to weather the storm thanks to commodity wealth, others have not been so lucky. Thanks [...]
Last year was a good year for most asset classes, as investor portfolios continued to recover from the recent recession. The difference in performance between many comparable funds was significant, and many of the best performers of 2010 are relatively small funds that maintain considerably smaller asset bases than their more popular competitors. Below, we [...]
With the new year just around the corner, it seems as if 2010 will go down as a generally positive year for investors. Despite numerous and somewhat serious lingering concerns over the health of the global economy, most asset classes have posted impressive gains on the year as the odds of a “double dip” have [...]
No matter where investors look in the developed world, the picture isn’t pretty. In the U.S. unemployment remains intolerably high, and uncertainty over the latest round of QE will continue to hang over stock markets. In Europe efforts to control surging deficits have been met with protests and public outrage, complicating the process of reeling [...]
As the developed economies of the world remain mired in economic quagmires complete with persistently high unemployment, widening budget deficits, and sagging consumer confidence levels, interest in emerging markets continues to soar. Most investors looking to gain exposure to developing markets focus in on the BRIC bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, and China–a group of [...]
