Direxion, a prominent issuer of leveraged ETFs, is intending to execute a 1 for 5 reverse split on shares of its Daily Large Cap Bear 3x Shares ( BGZ). The split will be applied to its Daily Mid Cap Bear 3x Shares ( MWN), Daily Developed Markets Bear 3x Shares ( DPK) and Daily Semiconductor Bear 3x Shares ( SOXS) [...]

ETF assets at Schwab grew to $111 billion, a 34% jump in a single year. The assets include those held in third party funds combined with ETFs issued by the company. Percentage of assets held by ETFs owned by retail investors rose by more than 61% in the last year. These investors now own 37% of all [...]

Exchange traded equity funds saw outflows in excess of $2.17 billion in the week that ended on Feb 2. US based funds saw inflow of $4.2 billion during the same period. Investors are shying away from investing wholly in emerging markets. The global economic crisis in 2008 saw investors preferring emerging markets as investment destinations. Demand [...]

Morningstar now offers four data points to assess the costs and risks associated with ETFs. Three data points, Tracking Error, Estimated holding cost and Market impact cost help investors compare costs with performance and liquidity in the secondary market. The fourth point, Portfolio Concentration, measures concentration of portfolio in single or small number of variables like [...]

Global X Funds has made an entry in the emerging market funds through the two new debut ETFs, the Global X Russell Emerging Markets Growth ETF (EMGX) and the Global X Russell Emerging Markets Value ETF (EMVX). These two new ETFs are being correlated with fresh set of Russell indexes which has been planned to express the [...]

Vanguard Group has introduced a Total International Stock Index Fund. This fund shall track the MSCI All Country World ex-USA Investable Market Index. The fund covers developed markets like Canada and Europe as well as emerging markets like India, China and other Asian markets. Bulk of the fund’s exposure, more than 40%, is directed to Europe. Emerging [...]

Rydex SGI has 34 ETFs and is ranked 9th in the market with combined assets worth $7.7 billion. It is seeking to establish itself as the top service provider in the equal weight ETF niche. ETFs invest funds in the companies forming the part of the index it tracks either on a basis of capitalization or on [...]

The National Stock Exchange, Inc. (NSX ®) just released its January 2011 ETF/ETN data reports.  Highlights from the January 2011 reports include:       Assets in U.S. listed Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) and Exchange-Traded Notes (ETN) totaled a new record of approximately $1.02 trillion at January 2011 month-end, an increase of approximately 37% over January 2010 month-end when assets totaled $744.7 billion.  ETF net cash inflows [...]

According to the World Gold Council, the price of an ounce of gold in 2009 averaged $972.32 while the price of an ounce in 2010 averaged $1,224.52.  Athough 2010 was the second-best year for exchange-traded products backed by gold, the net inflow fell 41% from 2009. Inflows into ETFs and other exchange-traded products have declined in [...]

The world’s largest ETF provider, Black Rock’s iShares, has filed to open two new quant strategy funds.  With almost $600 billion under management, this move represents a departure from their more straightforward index-based products.The goal is to reduce losses from the stock markets’ worst periods by using mathematical techniques developed by index provider MSCI Inc.  For more [...]

The World Gold Council stated that inflow into gold back ETFs and other such products was pegged at 361 metric tons in 2010. The gold industry trade group also revealed that total holding had reached 2167 metric tons valued at $98 billion by end of the year. Gold is a universal favorite in times of economic downturn. [...]

National Stock Exchange, Inc. (NSX ®) just released its expanded, year-end 2010 Exchange-Traded Funds and Exchange-Traded Notes (ETF/ETN) data reports showing a comprehensive overview of the growth of ETFs over the past 5 years in categories such as Net Cash-Flows, Assets Under Management (AUM), Notional Volume and Share Volume as well as providing a complete product [...]

According to the Financial times on Tuesday,  BlackRock plans to launch an in-house trading platform next year and is hiring programmers and other staff for the launch. Being the world’s largest money manager, this new platform would compete with many Wall Street firms. Setting up an internal trading platform could allow the company to lower [...]

BETHESDA, Md.–( BUSINESS WIRE )–ProShares, a premier provider of alternative exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced the launch of ProShares RAFI ® Long/Short (RALS). The ETF, the first dedicated fund that offers a long/short strategy based on Research Affiliate’s pioneering Fundamental Index (RAFI ®) methodology, lists on NYSE Arca today. The RAFI approach uses fundamental measures of company size—sales, dividends, cash [...]

According to Charles Schwab and Co., ETF assets custodied at Schwab have grown to $100 billion, up 30% over the past year and 14% in the past quarter. Retail Investor ETF assets have grown 57% and now account for 37% of the total ETF assets at Schwab. While only 9% of total ETF assets, the [...]

On Tuesday, Nov. 30, Barclays Bank PLC launched 11 leveraged exchange-traded notes under its iPath brand that offer investors long and short exposure in the form of paired products that track a variety of equity indexes covering everything from broad U.S. capitalization ranges to emerging markets. The bank also issued a new leveraged ETN tied to [...]

National Stock Exchange, Inc. (NSX ®) just released its November 2010 ETF/ETN data reports.  The full reports can be accessed by clicking here . Highlights from the November report include: Assets in U.S. listed Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) and Exchange-Traded Notes (ETN) reached a record of $947 billion at November 2010 month-end.  This is an increase of approximately 26% over November 2009 month-end [...]

BlackRock, Inc.  announced that the iShares Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, the world’s largest manager of ETFs, launched the new iShares MSCI Russia Capped Index Fund ( ERUS) on the NYSE Arca. The new fund launch completes the suite of iShares BRIC single country funds. In addition, with the launch today, the iShares international single country [...]

Total ETF Assets at Schwab Exceed $100 Billion
Charles Schwab announced today that exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets held by its individual investor and independent advisor clients have exceeded $100 billion. This significant milestone was achieved in part because of the early success of Schwab’s own ETF products.