S&P

Following a bullish start to 2010, a quick three-day plunge shows investors are still playing defensively. Investors placed bearish put option bets worth more than $1.2 billion in stock on several top exchange-traded funds. A total of 400,000 contracts were traded in the Materials Select Sector SPDR fund (XLB: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), the [...]

PowerShares has filed to create 10 new small cap ETFs to take advantage of extreme investor demand for niche industry ETFs. Small cap stock funds have been in heavy demand, with investors betting small names will outperform larger companies in a year of recovery. The ten new proposed funds are as follows: 1. PowerShares S&P [...]

The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) experienced on Wednesday a trade of three times its average daily options volume. The purchaser is hoping the fund will remain near its highs for as long as six more months. The fund is already trading near its 52-week high, as investors get over [...]

Exchange-traded index funds do not simply track the returns of an index; they can also beat their benchmark – just like two S&P 500 funds did in 2009. Both the RevenueShares Large Cap (RWL: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) and Rydex S&P Equal Weight (RSP: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) beat the same S&P500 index [...]

Investor activity in the popular SPDR S&P 500 (SPY: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) suggests a grave outlook for the market’s future. Heavy put volume indicates that traders aren’t expecting 2009′s bullish rampage to continue through 2010. One of the most telling aspects of options activity are premiums, which demonstrate just how much traders are [...]

Among all different types of investors and groups, exchange-traded funds added the most municipal bonds than any other. In total, municipal bond holdings increased 28% to $5.1 billion. Municipal bond funds are one of the fastest growing segments in the exchange-traded fund industry, especially with the addition of more than 20 funds in the past [...]

Despite the CTFC-inspired closure of the Direxion 3x Oil ETF Fund (DXO), Direxion is still planning to introduce additional leveraged products. The four new funds, however, will avoid the questionable commodities sectors and instead look for more traditional ETF plays. The following are the four proposed funds: 1. Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bull 3x Shares [...]

EGA Emerging Global Shares has filed for a new line of seven exchange-traded funds that would center on BRIC nations and their economies. Six of the funds target infrastructure and mid cap stocks, while the remainder is set to track a broader index of Asian companies. The new funds filed with the SEC are: 1. [...]

The otherwise smaller exchange-traded fund issuer, AdvisorShares has taken an early lead over the actively-managed ETF competition. Its new product, the Dent Tactical ETF (DENT: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), is already the fastest growing actively-managed fund on Wall Street. The Dent Tactical ETF has been launched for only four weeks, but investors are already [...]

As oil prices carve out new 2009 highs, clean energy ETFs are also grabbing their share of a solid bull run. Although clean energy producers dived during the credit crunch, they’re back with vengeance, moving up more than 70% since March. The iShares S&P Global Clean Energy Index Fund (ICLN: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) [...]