Battle For The Bond Market
April 20th at 1:15am by Tom Lydon
Until recently, Barclays was the only exchange traded fund (ETF) provider offering fixed income ETFs. Recently, things heated up as Vanguard came to the game with four new bond ETFs. Then Barclays issued a new high yield bond fund, bringing their total of fixed income ETFs to sixteen.
John Spence for MarketWatch.com reviews the new offerings and also finds the competition could increase even more. Ameristock Funds filed to launch five fixed income ETFs tracking Treasury indexes managed by Ryan ALM Inc. Morningstar also has some bond indexes they want to license for ETFs. And more players could enter the game. In looking at the bond ETF offerings, municipal bonds are clearly missing. Liquidity is a challenge with muni bonds, but once someone figures it out, there is sure to be an ETF.
