According to an excellent article on Schwab.com, written by Michael Iachini , CFA, CFP®, Managing Director of ETF Research, Charles Schwab Investment Advisory, Inc. there are a few important things investors need to understand when they invest in actively-managed ETFs. Compared to Index ETFs, actively-managed ETFs usually have higher risks and are more costly Since there are only 47 [...]

According to an article in USA Today , one of the latest trends in the Exchange traded funds or ETF market is the expansion of theme into the huge markets of tax-differed savings plans like 401(k) retirement plans and 529 college savings plans. While they still make up a small portion of the investments in these plans, [...]

With the economy still showing concern in the U.S. and job rates still high, many investors are looking at equity investments outside the US. One of the easiest ways of investing internationally is with Exchange-Traded Funds or ETFs.  Of the roughly 1,500 ETFs available to trade, there are 7 large ones that focus on international [...]

It seems that gold mining ETFs have declined sharply today as can be witnessed by our Top 10 Gainers and Losers Table at ETF.com The top winner at 12:15 pm, EST is DUST, Direxion’s Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Bid 55.10 Ask 55.15 Today’s High 55.24 Today’s Low 53.01 52 Week High 56.53 52 Week Low 27.37 Today’s Volume 69,745 Average Volume 187,148 OpExpense Ratio 0.95% Money Flow 0.00 Net Assets (x1000) 18.68 Shares Outstanding 350 Beta -0.54 Relative Strength Ranking 99 and the biggest loser is NUGT, Direxion’s Daily [...]

It seems that there are legitimate studies that show that a country’s loss in a major sports competition like the World Cup can adversely affect that country’s stock markets the next day says an article in MarketWatch. According to the study, “Sports Sentiment and Stock Returns,” an elimination of a team from the competition leads to [...]

According to a recent article at Market Watch , there are currently over 1,500 exchange-traded fund (ETF) products of which  97% are of the passive and unmanaged type. ETFs are becoming increasingly popular among mutual funds holders due to their ease of liquidity, high transparency, better tax efficiency, and lower cost. However,this passive investing strategy is starting [...]

Four banks ( Citigroup Inc., C -2.32% Morgan Stanley , MS -2.52% UBS AG UBS +1.42% and Wells Fargo WFC -1.59% & Co.have been fined more than $7.3 million dollars and have had to pay $1.8 million in restitution to customers by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for the alleged sale of leveraged and inverse Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in 2008 and 2009. According to FINRA, in the Wall [...]

Guggenheim has declared monthly ETF Distributions for 16 of its ETF funds. The distributions range form a high of $0.113 for BSJE Guggenheim BulletShares 2014 High Yield Corporate Bond ETF 5/1/12 5/3/12 5/7/12 $0.113 To a low of $0.015 for BSCC Guggenheim BulletShares 2012 Corporate Bond ETF 5/1/12 5/3/12 5/7/12 $0.015 To read the complete article, click here [...]

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 [...]