Better late than never. E*TRADE, the online brokerage that is perhaps best known for its commercials starring infant trading whizzes, has begun offering commission free trading on a lineup of exchange-traded funds. ETFs issued by Global X, WisdomTree, and db-X (Deutsche Bank) will be eligible for commission free trading on the E*Trade platform. That lineup includes about 90 ETFs covering a wide variety of asset classes, including currencies, international bond markets, dividend-weighted indexes, and commodity-producing equities. The most popular ETFs that are now available commission free on E*Trade include: [click to continue…]
Over the past few years it has become increasingly clear that China is now the most important economy in the world. Though second to the U.S. in total size, China accounts directly for a significant portion of global GDP growth and has contributed indirectly to expansion in developed and emerging markets around the globe–particularly resource […]
The month of May was a generally disappointing stretch for investors, as both international and domestic equity markets struggled to overcome obstacles new and old. Commodities, which had been a nice source of absolute returns for much of the last year, fell on hard times as well; precious metals went into a brief freefall, and […]
Last week marked a shortened trading week in observance of Good Friday, but that does not mean that investors were left with an uneventful four days. On the contrary, markets went haywire last week as a downgrade of the outlook on U.S. debt crushed markets one day, only to see them rally on strong earnings […]
Global financial markets experienced significant volatility last week as the tragic earthquake and devastating tsunami that struck Japan continue to ripple throughout the global economy. The G-7 intervened in the foreign exchange markets last Friday in a truly historic fashion, selling Japanese yen to help contribute to the formation of a stable exchange rate following […]
China has long been considered the world’s most important economies, thanks to its massive size, tremendous potential, and impressive growth rates over the last two decades. With a population that is rapidly urbanizing, many predict the Chinese economy will be the largest in the world within just a decade, potentially knocking the U.S. from the […]
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was shrouded with disagreement, and uncertainty as it was awarded in a rather unique fashion. For the first time, the recipient was not present at the ceremony, as Liu Xiaobo, the winner of the coveted honor, is currently imprisoned in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Xiaobo for being a […]
Once upon a time, exposure to the Chinese stock market was a binary decision for U.S. investors–they either had it or they didn’t. Thanks in part to increased flexibility in cross-border listings and in part to the proliferation of exchange-traded funds, investors now have countless options for exposure to the world’s second largest economy.
Although many industrialized nations have seen growth levels slow to a crawl, some emerging markets have begun to pick up the slack and continue to expand at impressive rates. Despite a ‘slowdown’ in China, the country’s economy is still expected to grow by 9.2% this quarter and between 8% and 8.5% in the fourth quarter. […]
The impact of the recent global economic slowdown was first felt by consumers around the world who were forced to cut back on purchases in order to endure the recession. While some consumer segments such as the wealthy, have begun to spend again, the events of the last two years have also had a profound, […]
In the not-so-distant future, China will officially pass Japan to become the world’s second largest economy (if it hasn’t already). A few years after claiming that spot, the country will likely overtake the U.S. as the largest economy in the world, completing its meteoric rise from a predominantly rural third world nation to a driver […]
