As the ETF industry has grown and evolved, the product lineup has become increasingly sophisticated. Many of the products now hitting the market are designed to address issues posed by earlier indexed products, as issuers strive to devise new strategies for accessing both traditional and exotic asset classes. A number of issuers, led by Schwab and Vanguard, have lowered costs on stock and bond funds, seeking to attract cost-conscious investors. Last week, Rydex rolled out a suite of equal-weighted equity ETFs that many investors believe are a more appealing option than cap-weighted funds. And in the commodity space, a number of issuers have introduced products that seek to address what some perceive as an oversized impact of contango on fund returns. [click to continue…]
Commodity ETFs have seen a tremendous surge in popularity in recent years, as the marriage of futures contracts the exchange-traded structure has democratized an asset class that was once accessible only to large, sophisticated investors. Oil ETFs have become particularly popular, as investors have embraced the opportunity to bet on one of the world’s most […]
As storm clouds continue to gather over the euro zone, the repercussions of a rise in uncertainty have been felt in nearly every corner of the global economy. All assets denominated in euro have fallen out of favor. Financial stocks with exposure to European debt have been sold off. Even South American emerging markets have […]
The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) has been one of the most perplexing exchange-traded products of 2009. The fund has lost almost 60% so far this year, but has seen cash billions of dollar in cash inflows ($5.4 billion through November, well more than the $4.0 billion in total assets the fund had at […]
U.S. Commodity Funds, the issuer behind ultra-popular commodity ETPs such as UNG and USO, has launched the United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund under the ticker UNL. The investment objective on UNL is to reflect the changes in percentage terms of the spot price of natural gas delivered at Henry Hub, Louisiana, as measured […]
Denver-based United States Commodity Funds has launched another exchange-traded commodity product, its first to offer inverse exposure to commodity prices. The United States Short Oil Fund (DNO) began trading this week on the NYSE Arca Exchange. DNO is the sixth product from United States Commodity funds, joining products offering exposure to crude oil (USO), natural […]
It’s been an interesting week in the world of ETFs: The United States scrapped a missile defense system in Eastern Europe and gold is now holding steady above $1010/oz. Here are the ETF Database staff picks of the week’s most important and interesting stories from around the Web:
