Six months have passed in 2013 and the financial world has had plenty to buzz about. From a bull run in U.S. to worries over the stability of the global economy, the first half of the year has been one of the most memorable stretches the investing world has seen in a long time. Already, we have seen 65 new ETFs debut, as the industry continues to expand and offer more ways to slice-and-dice the market. With two quarters of the year on the books, we take a look back at some of the wildest charts in the ETF world to have surfaced in 2013 [for more ETF news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter]: [click to continue…]
The proliferation of exchange-traded products has opened up the investing landscape to participants of all styles and experience levels. Virtually anyone with a personal brokerage account can now tap into any number of global asset classes; whether its domestic or foreign stocks, commodities, or bonds, there’s more than likely several ETFs covering the space. While […]
Last month, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke unveiled the latest creation from the central bank – the infamous QE3. As details continue to emerge about the next round of quantitative easing, many investors, including a number of hot-shot analysts and experts, have been weighing in on how they believe the new stimulus measures will pan out. Some have received the […]
No one can argue just how far the ETF industry has come since the debut of the first ever exchange-traded fund in 1993. The investment landscape now boasts a lineup of nearly 1,500 offerings, allowing investors to gain cheap and easy access to nearly every corner of the investable universe. From the plain-vanilla funds to […]
Thus far, 2012 has proven to be a rather rocky year, with equities exhibiting up and down performances and struggling to find a definitive direction. The hoopla surrounding the eurozone debt debacle and the Fed’s “elusive” future stimulus programs have hindered markets from gaining any significant and sustainable momentum. Taking a look from a year-to-year perspective […]
ProShares added a pair of products designed for investors looking to bet on the short term performance of the often volatile financial sector today. Two new ETFs, the ProShares UltraPro Financials (FINU) and ProShares UltraPro Short Financials (FINZ) will offer 300% daily leveraged exposure to the Dow Jones U.S. Financials Index, a benchmark that consists […]
Under the umbrella of exchange-traded products, ETNs have attracted far less interest than their ETF cousins and now represent only a small portion of total ETP assets. Exchange-traded notes are debt instruments linked to the performance of an index, and as a result there won’t be any tracking error with these products. Although these investment vehicles […]
ETFs have gathered more than $1 trillion in assets thanks to a number of structural advantages, including enhanced transparency, significant tax advantages, and intraday liquidity. But make no mistake about it: the ETF boom has been fueled in large part by an increased attention to expenses, and intensifying desire among investors to minimize their fees. […]
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have burst on to the scene in the late 2000s and early 2010s, raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in assets and prompting a major shift towards indexing strategies in the process. ETFs have empowered financial advisors (FAs), registered investment advisors (RIAs), Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), money managers, and retail investors […]
At times, it seems as if the number of ETFs available to U.S. investors will soon exceed the number of stars in the sky. That might be overstating things a bit, but the pace of expansion in the ETF industry has truly been impressive over the last several years. With multiple products seemingly debuting every […]
As the ETF universe has expanded by leaps and bounds, investors now have tools at their disposal to accomplish almost every objective. From plain vanilla stock and bond indexes to hyper-targeted regional and sector funds, there are ETFs to bet on just about every asset class. And there are also a number of ETFs that […]