While much has been made of the launch of the Cubes (ticker: QQQ), Spider (ticker:SPY) and Diamonds (ticker: DIA) on the New York Stock Exchange, some of the country’s smaller exchanges are also positioning themselves to take a bite out of what are the biggest slices in the ETF cake.
Barclays Global Investors Canada has launched its 11th ETF, this one tracking MSCI’s International Equity Index. The iUnits MSCI International Equity Index RSP Fund (ticker: TSE:XIN), which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has a management expense ratio of 0.35%.
Exchange-traded funds are a relatively young investment, with most having become available within the last three years.
Research by Salomon Smith Barney, UBS Warburg and Credit Suisse First Boston has provided new figures quantifying the cost benefits of ETFs versus futures. The results of the research, which compares the average cost of holding positions in the iShares S&P 500 Index Fund (ticker: IVV) versus the active S&P 500 Index futures (ticker: SPA), shows that an average one-year S&P 500 index holding costs in the ETF are 29.34 basis points compared to 42.82 basis points for the futures product.
As the exchange-traded fund community awaits the Security and Exchange Commission’s concept release about actively managed products, fund manufacturers and investment managers continue to debate these products’ relative merits.
Our monthly databank breaks down ETF returns for every market segment.
Deutsche Börse AG, Europe’s second largest exchange, garnered nearly 59% of the volume of Europe’s ETF business during May, says Rainer Riess, head of primary markets for Deutsche Börse
Pricing Pressures Affect Commodity Indexes, Too