Courtesy of Justin Lahart, WSJ You would think that the whole point of a stock index is to be, well, an index of the stock market’s performance. But thanks to the popularity of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, stock indexes have in recent years been doing double duty as investment vehicles. At the same time, there […] Read More
Courtesy of Bloomberg LP reporter Nina Mehta 2013-03-22 22:29:10.364 GMT U.S. regulators approved Nasdaq Stock Market’s request to allow the sponsors of some exchange- traded funds to offer payments to market makers. The Securities and Exchange Commission decision loosens a ban on the compensation that has been in place since 1997. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., […] Read More
Courtesy of WSJ MarketBeat Columnist Matthew Jarzemsky March 20, 2013 Investors are getting awfully creative in the way they play the volatility surrounding Europe and its crisis. Amid a renewed flare-up of worries, one investor placed a big bet on European stocks but with a twist; dodging the impact of swings in the euro. The […] Read More
Courtesy of Tom Lydon and ETFTrends The long term outlook for potable water remains uncertain, but the prospects for water becoming a valued commodity is not a matter of if, just a matter of when as the global population rises. “The increasing need for fresh water has emerged in recent years as a potentially […] Read More
Courtesy of Olly Ludwig Invesco PowerShares filed regulatory paperwork to bring to market a short-term global bond exchange-traded fund focused on high-yield credits, its second filing this month detailing a short-dated bond fund after it put one into registration two weeks ago focused on investment-grade debt. Together the two proposed funds will serve up access to […] Read More
Courtesy of Tom-Steinert-Threkeld Nasdaq OMX Group plans to re-launch its PSX exchange as a “better trading venue” for exchange-traded funds, notes and other related products, as early as next month. The exchange will execute trades in all National Market System securities, but will give special incentives to retail and institutional investors to participate as well as special […] Read More
Refreshing Market Commentary courtesy of Ron Quigley, Mgn.Dir./Head of U.S. Syndicate Desk & Primary Sales for Mischler Financial Group. With Washington in full-out gridlock, Americans should be turning to the best national news, namely corporate profits. Corporations are driving the resurgence in equity markets posting overall fabulous earnings. The flight to under-owned equities has also […] Read More
Courtesy of Max Chen ALPS Portfolio Solutions has launched a new exchange traded fund that provides investors with income through selling put options on the largest U.S. stocks with the highest volatility. The U.S. Equity High Volatility Put Write Index Fund (NYSEArca: HVPW) tries to reflect the performance of the NYSE Arca U.S. Equity High […] Read More
Courtesy of John Spence, ETF Trends The percentage of ETF trading relative to overall volume tends to shoot higher in headline-driven markets when asset classes are moving together on macroeconomic or political events. That’s exactly what happened on Monday when global markets swooned on fears parliamentary elections in Italy will result in political gridlock. After […] Read More
Courtesy of “The ETF Professor”–his work appears courtesy of Benzinga.com, and is also re-distributed through leading publishers Conservative investors and risk-takers alike have been rewarded for owning U.S. health care stocks and ETFs focusing on those names in recent years. The data supports that assertion. A look at three major health care ETFs, all […] Read More
Courtesy of Carolyn Pairitz While the U.S. markets continue their bull run to baffle even the best investors on Wall Street, the ETF market has started to take off in the last two weeks, with a number of new funds entering the space. After the slow down of new funds since mid-January, the solid economic […] Read More
Courtesy of the ETF Professor at Benzinga.com The $28 billion purchase of ketchup king H.J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) and Brazilian financier Jorge Paulo Lemann has had a predictable result. Traders and investors want to know who is next; what company will be Buffett’s next elephant? Buffett has an […] Read More
Courtesy of Jeff Sommer, New York Times THE economy may be lurching into another crisis, but you wouldn’t know it from the stock market, where an epic party is under way. Yet this effervescence belies some ominous developments in politics and the economy. After the State of the Union address by President Obama on Tuesday […] Read More
Courtesy of Lisa Abramowicz The biggest buyers of junk bonds are in retreat as exchange-traded funds suffer unprecedented withdrawals with the debt facing its first losses in eight months. The outflows sent the combined value of the five biggest junk-debt funds down 7 percent from a four-month high in January to $29.8 billion, according to […] Read More
Courtesy of Laton McCartney at Securities Technology Monitor Editor note: this story is from the Believe It or Nuts aka If you’re a twit you should tweet Dept. NYSE Technologies said it will begin distributing sentiment statistics based on social media postings, through its SuperFeed market data service. The statistics, developed in conjunction with Social […] Read More
Courtesy of Olly Ludwig Sooner or later the bond market is going to start falling, and a perfect exchange-traded vehicle to play the unraveling of the more than three-decade rally in fixed-income markets is “LQD,” a corporate bond fund that happens to be one of the largest fixed-income ETF in the world, James Grant told […] Read More
Courtesy of Brad Zigler. This article first appeared in the February 2013 issue of REP/WealthManagement.com. In 2013, the market for alternative investment exchange-traded products seems to revolve around one word. That word is “hedge.” Judging by their proportion of regulatory filings and launches last quarter, product sponsors are keen on risk-controlled equity and bond plays. […] Read More
Courtesy of MarketsMedia.com The burgeoning exchange-traded funds sector in Europe is expected to grow still further in the coming years, after the industry recently celebrated its 20th birthday. ETFs, which are funds that track baskets of shares, bonds or commodities and are traded like stocks, were invented in 1993 in the U.S. and have been […] Read More
