ETF Updates Archive

Faith Based ETFs: Investing with Conviction

In today's investing world, many individuals simply choose the assets class (ex.

ETFs in Your 401k?

With over 900 ETFs to choose from, why are they not showing up in 401K plans?

ETFs are empowering individual and professional investors with the power of transparency, diversification, low fees, and, compared to many of active fund managers, better performance.  Exchange Traded Funds allow investors the ability to buy and hold virtually anything.  ETFs also allow active traders to move in and out of markets where liquidity, or even access to the market, was virtually non-existent before. 

If you’re new to ETFs, the simple way to explain them is to compare them to mutual funds.  A mutual fund manager is buying and selling stock throughout the year to try and beat an index, say the S&P 500, which is made up of the 500 largest companies in America. 

Gold, Gold Miners and ETFs

ETF MarketPro recently connected with Ed Lopez of Van Eck Global to learn more about investing in gold and the firm's new fund - the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ).

ETF MarketPro (ETFMP): Has the investment case for gold changed given the declines in major currencies this year?

Van Eck Global: This year the U.S. dollar has certainly slid against most currencies and in such a scenario gold has historically been a strong performer. Historically, one reason investors buy gold is to protect purchasing power in the face of declining values of fiat currencies and/or inflation expectations.

The Debt Problem in Bond ETFs

International bond ETFs are an asset we can no longer ignore, but as some industry experts have brought up in the past, bond ETF construction has many inherent flaws.

The construction flaws in ETFs often stem from the methodology of the indexes which the ETFs track.  Bond indexes use a method similar to market cap weighting, sometimes called market value weighted, in which bonds are weighted by debt outstanding, rewarding companies and countries that have more debt with a higher percentage of the index’s allocation.

Below is a chart of the growth in the iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond Fund (AGG) compared to the two international Treasury bond funds,  Continue Reading »

Inflation and ETFs

ETF MarketPro recently connected with Salvatore Bruno, Chief Investment Officer of IndexIQ, to learn more about inflation hedging and the firm's new funds - IQ ARB Global Resources ETF (GRES) and  IQ CPI Inflation Hedged ETF (CPI).

ETF MarketPro (ETFMP): For your latest product launch, why did do you decide to focus on solutions that help investors hedge against inflation? 

Bruno: With the large increase in fiscal and monetary stimulus coming out of Washington over the last year, we believe that the seeds