A Look At The New Hedge-Fund Guru ETF (GURU,…

By Benzinga.com For those that have always wanted to invest in a hedge fund, but can’t afford those pesky minimum investments (often well into six and seven figures) or for those that want to part with 2% or 3% in management fees on top of 20%-30% of the profits, the ETF industry is attempting to […] Read More

5 June, 2012

High-Yield ETFs Lure Investors Bypassing Dealers: Credit Markets

  reporting from Lisa Abramowicz Exchange-traded funds that own junk bonds are attracting unprecedented sums of cash from institutional investors seeking to slip in and out of the market as dealer inventories decline. Institutional holders own 51 percent of BlackRock Inc.’s high-yield ETF, up 11 percentage points this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. […] Read More

4 June, 2012

In Volatile Markets, Pensions Rediscover Covered Call Options

by Rosalyn Retkwa Writing covered call options against a portfolio of stocks to get extra income and hedge against downside risk isn’t new — not to individual investors, who’ve been doing it for decades. But to pension fund managers, “historically, covered call writing programs have always been considered a marginal strategy,” says Neil Rue, a managing director […] Read More

4 June, 2012

ETFs Are Duking It Out Over Fees

By LIAM PLEVEN Exchange-traded funds have lured many investors away from mutual funds by offering lower fees. But increasingly, some ETFs are also using fees to compete with other ETFs. In a handful of high-profile cases, particularly in commodities and stocks, investors can choose between two ETFs that are virtually identical except for their fees. […] Read More

3 June, 2012

African exchanges embrace ETFs

  Rebecca Hampson 04 Jun 201 Africa is fast becoming a hotspot for the exchange-traded fund market, with South Africa in particular driving growth.The total value of the ETF market on South Africa’s national bourse, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, grew 60% to R4.8bn ($622m) at the end of 2011 compared with the same period a […] Read More

3 June, 2012

AlphaClone ETF Invests In Hedge Fund Equity Positions

  The AlphaClone Alternative Alpha ETF (ALFA), which began trading on Thursday, will invest in disclosed equity positions held by established hedge fund managers—the first ETF to do so. The new ETF “seeks to capture alpha from these managers’ long positions while protecting against protracted market downturns through a dynamic hedge mechanism.” Its strategy has […] Read More

31 May, 2012

Hedge Fund ETF Weapons Turn Dangerous (?)

By Christopher Condon on May 31, 2012   If you are convinced, really convinced, the price of crude oil will rise today and U.S. stocks will fall, Factor Advisors LLC has an exchange-traded fund for you. The FactorShares 2X: Oil Bull/S&P500 Bear (FOL) (FOL) offered by the New York-based firm makes a two-times long wager […] Read More

31 May, 2012

Black Swan ETFs Debut

by Michael Johnston on May 31, 2012 Innovation in the ETF industry has become standard over the past several years, with countless first-to-market products opening up new asset classes and strategies. And it turns out that the U.S. isn’t the only place where product development is going full throttle; our neighbors to the north have […] Read More

31 May, 2012

The Pros and Cons of Options Exchange Proliferation ::…

Good op-ed courtesy of TabbForum re: debate about whether having yet more options exchanges makes sense, or is just plain silly. The Pros and Cons of Options Exchange Proliferation :: TabbFORUM – Where Capital Markets Speak. Read More

29 May, 2012

Consolidated Tape Moves Step Closer In European ETF Space

    iShares, the exchange-traded fund provider, and data vendor Bloomberg have joined forces to offer a consolidated tape for ETFs in a bid to increase post-trade transparency and limit the effects of market fragmentation in Europe. As part of the joint venture, the first of its kind in the European ETF market, Bloomberg will […] Read More

29 May, 2012

Jacques Cousteau grandson floats ETF

Jacques Cousteau’s grandson is the newest member of the exchange-traded-fund world. Philippe Cousteau, the grandson of the famed conservationist, has teamed up with ETF provider AdvisorShares Investments LLC to launch an actively managed socially conscious ETF. Mr. Cousteau won’t have anything to do with managing the newly minted AdvisorShares Global Echo ETF (GIVE). Forty basis […] Read More

25 May, 2012

Red Kite Warns Copper ETF Would ‘Wreak Havoc’

  May 25 2012 | 3:26am ET Metals trading hedge fund RK Capital Management has thrown down the gauntlet to JPMorgan Chase over the latter’s plan to launch a physical copper exchange-traded fund. Lawyers for the firm, which runs the Red Kite hedge funds, warned the Securities and Exchange Commission that the ETF would inflate […] Read More

25 May, 2012

Social Media ETF Index Weights Facebook (FB) at 8.8%

  The Solactive Social Media Index, the index tracked by the Global X Social Media Index ETF (Nasdaq: SOCL), has allocated 8.8% of its weight to Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), according to Global X. The Global X Social Media Index ETF, the lone ETF devoted exclusively to the burgeoning social media ETF, has been widely viewed […] Read More

25 May, 2012

As Market Sagged in Q1, Many Hedge Funds Held…

  It is no secret hedge funds have been using exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to make directional bets on a broad market index or a specific industry group. They frequently buy “call” options or hedge with “put” options. Sometimes they hedge by shorting the funds outright. This said, one of the interesting unnoticed themes to emerge […] Read More

23 May, 2012

iShares Files for new Latin America Bond ETF

iShares, the global leader in ETF assets and total number of funds, appears to be continuing its bond ETF push with its latest SEC filing. In the release, the company revealed plans for a new emerging market bond fund, targeting the quickly growing region of Latin America. If approved, the fund would be just the […] Read More

22 May, 2012

What’s Next?..Options Trading On Facebook (FB)

Options on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) will be available as early as May 29th. With volatile price action in FB after its IPO, traders will look to options strategies to profit In the next several months FB is going to face pressure to grow into its current 100 Billion dollar valuation. As a growth stock trading […] Read More

18 May, 2012

Are Junk Bond ETFs Sending Signals? (HYG, JNK, SJNK)

By The ETF Professor Benzinga Staff Writer The proliferation of new junk bond ETFs in 2012 has been nothing short of impressive and two industry stalwarts, BlackRock’s (NYSE: BLK) iShares and Van Eck Global’s Market Vectors unit, have been leading the charge. But it is some of the more seasoned high-yield bonds that are catching […] Read More

18 May, 2012

Top Managers Find Better Ways to Trade Tiny ETFs

By Murray Coleman Heading into this month, just 25 funds held 61% of all the assets in U.S.-listed ETFs–and there are more than 1,458 on the market right now, according to investment researcher XTF Global. That herd-like mentality is credited by analysts to an emphasis–some say an overemphasis–on size and liquidity. A growing number of […] Read More

18 May, 2012