ETF Database » UOY

ETF Hall Of Shame: Nine Exchange-Traded Debacles

Michael Johnston — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:00:31 +0000

Over the past several years, exchange-traded funds have enjoyed a tremendous surge in popularity, passing many major milestones as they were embraced by retail and institutional investors alike. Once comprised solely of “plain vanilla” products tracking well-known equity indexes, the ETF industry has evolved at an incredible pace in recent years, and now offers investors exposure to nearly every corner of the investable market. Along the way, we’ve seen brilliant innovations (such as leveraged ETFs, “intelligent” ETFs, and actively-managed ETFs, just to name a few) and a plethora of new fund launches (at last count, there were 850 ETFs in the ETFdb Database). But it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows along the way. There have been a number of missteps along the way as issuers aggressively launched and promoted funds for which the market had no appetite. With ETF issuers pitching so many new products to investors, it is [...]

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Checking In On MacroShares Housing ETFs

Michael Johnston — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:20:41 +0000

It’s been a little more than a month since MacroShares jumped back into the ETF game with the introduction of the Major Metro Housing Up (UMM) and Major Metro Housing Down (DMM) exchange-traded products. Shortly before launching the Up/Down housing funds, MacroShares had pulled the plug on similar paired funds offering exposure to crude oil prices – MacroShares $100 Oil Up (UOY) and $100 Oil Down (DOY) – due to the inability to attract a certain level of assets. UOY and DOY were actually the reincarnation of similar products that were initially offered in 2008 but closed down when oil prices skyrocketed, causing assets to shift completely into the up fund. So how are the new MacroShares products faring this time around? Unique ETP Model It’s safe to say the the current MacroShares products are unlike any other exchange-traded products on the market today. The funds are created in pairs, [...]

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MacroShares Back With Up/Down Housing ETFs

Michael Johnston — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:45:13 +0000

A week after folding the second incarnation of its unique up/down crude oil funds due to the failure to attract sufficient investments, MacroShares burst back on to the scene with the launch of two new exchange-traded products (they’re not technically ETFs). The MacroShares Major Metro Housing Up (UMM) and Major Metro Housing Down (DMM) began trading on Tuesday. While these funds are attracting significant attention because of their unique strategies and exposure, they are also being greeted with a fair amount skepticism. According to their fact sheets, DMM and UMM will track three times the cumulative percentage change in U.S. single-family home prices, as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite-10 Home Price Index. This benchmark is a frequently-monitored indicator of single-family home prices in ten major markets (New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Miami). After relatively steady appreciation since the early 1990s, [...]

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MacroShares Goes Bust: Will They Be Back?

Michael Johnston — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:05:02 +0000

Thursday marked the last day of trading for MacroShares $100 Oil Up (UOY) and $100 Oil Down (DOY), two securities that drew a lot of attention from the ETF community (even though they’re not technically ETFs), but were slow to catch on with investors. The development comes as no surprise, as MacroShares reported back in May that it intended to close the funds due to the failure to attract $50 million in assets. Following the early termination of the funds, which were actually the reincarnation of an original pair of funds that collapsed when oil prices jumped dramatically in 2008, it’s possible that MacroShares will soon be back, selling a similar story with a different cast of characters. Take Two The Oil Up and Oil Down funds were based on a unique premise. The funds, which were created in equal amounts, were actually invested in short-term Treasury Bills, but sought to track [...]

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Five ETFs Most Investors Don’t Understand

Michael Johnston — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:48:59 +0000

The majority of ETFs on the market follow the traditional ETF model – tracking an underlying equity or bond index. But as the benefits of the ETF structure become more widely accepted, inflows from increasingly sophisticated have created a demand for increasingly complex funds. Here are five of the more complex ETFs available to investors today, along with explanations of their objectives and strategies. PowerShares S&P 500 BuyWrite Portfolio (PBP): This ETF is based on the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index, which measures the rate of return of an S&P 500 covered call strategy. This strategy consists of holding a portfolio indexed to the S&P 500, and selling a series of call options, each with an exercise price at or above the current level of the S&P 500. Selling options hedges downside risk if the market falls (since the ETF receives premiums from options that are out-of-the-money), but limits upside returns if [...]

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ETF Database » UOY

ETF Hall Of Shame: Nine Exchange-Traded Debacles

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Checking In On MacroShares Housing ETFs

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MacroShares Back With Up/Down Housing ETFs

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MacroShares Goes Bust: Will They Be Back?

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