ETFs Taking Away From Mutual Funds
April 30, 2006 – Financial advisers continue to use mutual funds, but more of them are beginning to use exchange traded funds.  In 2003, Financial Research Corp. of Boston surveyed advisers and found all of them were using... Continue Reading »

Taiwan ETF (EWT) Top Performer for April
April 29, 2006 – iShares MSCI Taiwan (EWT) was up 13% for the month, making it one of the best exchange traded fund performers, behind the two gold ETFs, streetTRACKS Gold Shares (GLD) and iShares COMEX Gold Trust... Continue Reading »

Is a Copper ETF Next?
April 28, 2006 – Barclays’ silver ETF (SLV) is barely out of the gate and investors are asking "What’s next?"  There’s talk that Barclays has a copper ETF in registration using the same formula and structure of the... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Grab a Piece of Europe (FEZ)
April 27, 2006 – Not only has Europe outperformed its domestic counterparts, but the like stocks are also cheaper.  The streetTRACKS Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 (FEZ) exchange traded fund offers a great cross section of large-cap European... Continue Reading »

Silver ETF (SLV) Expected This Friday
April 27, 2006 – Let the trading begin.  The long awaited silver exchange traded fund is set to start trading this Friday, April 28th.  Barclay’s deposited 1.5 million ounces of silver into the trust and shares of the... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - South Korea (EWY)
April 26, 2006 – The easiest way to participate in the expansion in China is to buy ETFs in surrounding countries like Taiwan and South Korea. (Business Week) The iShares MSCI South Korean Index Fund (EWY) has gained close to... Continue Reading »

Silver ETF Locked and Loaded
April 25, 2006 – India Daily reports "Barclays Capital Inc. (on April 21) deposited with the custodian of a planned silver exchange-traded fund 1.5 million ounces of silver to back 150,000 shares with each representing 10 ounces of silver, according to a... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends-New NASDAQ 100 Equal Weight ETF
April 25, 2006 – The First Trust NASDAQ-100 Equal Weight Index Fund (NASDAQ: QQEW - News) is launching today. This exchange-traded fund is designed to replicate the holdings and weightings of the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index, an equal weighted version of... Continue Reading »

Country ETFs Capitalize On Eastern Europe
April 24, 2006 – Gross National Product (GDP) in Eastern Europe will run 1-2% ahead of Western Europe while interest rates remain low, reports Murray Coleman at Investors Business Daily. Although there are no specific Eastern European ETFs available,... Continue Reading »

Asian ETFs Leading the Way
April 24, 2006 – Jonathan Bernstein of ETF Zone illustrates the strength in Asian exchange traded funds.  Asian ETFs have outperformed domestic markets on a 1, 2 and 5-year return basis.  The performance of single country ETFs in... Continue Reading »

Is Your Advisor Using ETFs?
April 23, 2006 – I attended the Tiburon CEO Summit this past week. The numbers on mutual fund flows are staggering. 91% of net new money going into mutual funds goes into one of the following companies: Fidelity American Funds Barclays Vanguard Dodge and... Continue Reading »

Federated Enters the ETF Game
April 22, 2006 – Federated Investors (FII) launched three target maturity mutual funds, which invest primarily in exchange-traded funds.  The funds are aimed to provide a low-cost option for retirement plans, such as defined contribution plans and IRA... Continue Reading »

Reduced Fees on iShare ETFs
April 21, 2006 – Every little bit counts. Exchange traded funds are known for their low expenses, compared to mutual funds.  Now Barclay’s plans to reduce the fee on sector ETFs even more.  The reduction in fees will... Continue Reading »

Canadian ETF (EWC) Growth on the Rise
April 19, 2006 – According to the IMF, high energy and commodity prices are helping the Canadian economy.  Other factors contributing to the growth are high employment, increased consumer spending and healthy corporate profits.  iShares MSCI Canada Index (EWC)... Continue Reading »

Water ETF (PHO) Flowing to Investors
April 19, 2006 – There are still parts of the developing world that do not have access to piped water.   In fact, only 11% of households in India do and China is another country facing delivery problems.  As... Continue Reading »

Small-Cap ETFs Better Than Small-Cap Funds
April 18, 2006 – For the past five years, small-cap stocks have outperformed large-cap stocks by a huge factor. No doubt, investors have chased this trend. In an effort to get a handle on the growing portfolios (and... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Go For The Exploration (PXE)
April 18, 2006 – Going for oil?  Stick with the oil exploration companies via the PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration (PXE) exchange traded fund.  Oil prices hit a new high of $70.88 a barrel in Tuesday trading, amid international... Continue Reading »

Nanotech ETF (PXN)-Small But Mighty
April 17, 2006 – Business Week Europe dug into the the PowerShares Lux Nanotech ETF (PXN). Not only has the fund performed well out of the gates, but prospect look strong for future growth based on the widespread demand... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - How To Play Eastern Europe - iShares Austria (EWO)
April 15, 2006 – Economies are booming in Cental and Eastern Europe, but finding publicly traded companies to buy in a diversified way isn’t easy. The iShares Austria fund (EWO) gives average investors an opportunity to participate: Austrian firms derive... Continue Reading »

ETFs We Wish We Had
April 14, 2006 – The number of ETFs continue to grow, but we could use a few more. Roger Nusbaum at ETF Investor updates his wish list of ETFs. "I stumbled across a couple of articles by Matt Haugen, who... Continue Reading »

New ETF Tracks IPOs (FPX)
April 13, 2006 – The First Trust IPOX-100 (FPX) will track the performance of the biggest US IPOs. As new ETFs are developed its nice to see one that tracks an index that’s ween around for a while. Google,... Continue Reading »

Oil ETF (USO) as Oil Aproaches $70 a Barrel
April 13, 2006 – Political turmoil in Iran and Nigeria along with news of a drop in the gasoline inventory, has helped keep oil and gas prices up.  Oil is trading in the $68 - $70/barrel range and... Continue Reading »

China ETF (FXI) Has Had Good Fortune
April 12, 2006 – The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) represents a diversified group of 25 Chinese stocks. As economic news from China rolls in, it’s difficult to bet against China. Boeing Co. expects its sales in China... Continue Reading »

Australia ETF (EWA) - Something’s Going On Down Under
April 12, 2006 – Australia’s economic growth is expanding and there is increased confidence across most sectors for the first quarter 2006 earnings.  This is reflected in the Australian exchange traded fund.  iShares MSCI Australia (EWA) is up... Continue Reading »

Buying New ETFs-Why Wait For Performance?
April 11, 2006 – Does one have to wait for a performance record on an exchange traded fund before making the purchase?  Not necessarily. Many ETFs track indexes and if that is the case, then the index already has an... Continue Reading »

Biotechnology ETF (IBB) - Letting Go
April 10, 2006 – iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (IBB) is an exchange traded fund made up of companies which do research and development on drugs with living material.  Amgen (AMGN) is the largest holding in the ETF, making up... Continue Reading »

Oil ETF (USO) -Will It Really Launch Monday?
April 10, 2006 – Brad Foss (AP) points out that the new Oil ETf (USO) is aimed at those pining to profit from the multiyear surge in oil prices is distressing energy and stock-market experts because of the allure and risks... Continue Reading »

Italy ETF (EWI) Strong as Italians Go To Polls
April 8, 2006 – Italians go to the polls on Sunday in a general election that could unseat Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after five years of economic stagnation. Opinion polls have not been published in two weeks, but the prime minister has... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Waiting For A Correction
April 7, 2006 – The S&P has not had a 10% correction in many months. Yes, the market is due. Yes, around here would be a perfect time for one to start as May through November is historically the worst... Continue Reading »

Gold ETFs Hot as Spot Hits $600
April 6, 2006 – Gold futures climbed above $600 an ounce today for the first time in 25 years.  Individual investors can hold gold, just as the institutional investors, through exchange traded funds.  The two gold ETFs available... Continue Reading »

Ireland ETF Wanted - Barclays, SSGA Are You Listening?
April 6, 2006 – Ireland has the market cap. The US has 40 million Irish ancestors. Why isn’t there an Ireland ETF available in the states? The Dublin ISEQ equity market continued to perform strongly against global markets in the first... Continue Reading »

Nasdaq’s ETF Dynamic Heatmap
April 6, 2006 – Nasdaq has a great new ETF tool; The ETF Dynamic Heatmap. View the price of 100 Exchange Traded Funds at a glance. Each colored rectangle represents an individual Exchange Traded Fund. Green means the stock... Continue Reading »

Transportation ETF (IYT) Trucks Along Despite Higher Oil Prices
April 5, 2006 – While the price of gas continues to rise, this hasn’t slowed down the transportation sector.  The exchange traded fund, iShares Dow Jones Transportation (IYT) is up 11% year-to-date.  Carl Delfeld explains that the trade... Continue Reading »

Is Your ETF Diversified?
April 5, 2006 – The B2B Internet HOLDRs ETF was up (BHH) 7.3% today. The market was up, but not that much. Unfortunately, here’s an ETF that isn’t very diversified. Checkfree (CKFR) represents 60% of the assets alone and... Continue Reading »

Bond ETFs Look Dangerous as Interest Rates Rise
April 4, 2006 – Last week marked the 15th straight increase for interest rates since June 2004.  With the continued rise, bond exchange traded funds have not held up as well as most of their equity counterparts.  iShares... Continue Reading »

Quarterly ETF Performance
April 3, 2006 – The first quarter of 2006 ended on Friday and ETFtrends.com has an updated ETF performance report.  The report reviews different exchange traded fund sectors, asset classes and global regions and highlights performance during the... Continue Reading »

ETF Assets Top $300 Billion
April 3, 2006 – John Spence at Market Watch chimes in on asset growth of ETFs: "It seems like there’s more ETFs in registration than exist now," said analyst Paul Mazzilli of Morgan Stanley. "All these firms are throwing them up against... Continue Reading »

ETF Assets Continue to Surge
April 2, 2006 – DIYA GULLAPALLI from The Wall Street Journal reported that "more than 50 ETFs have been launched in just the past year. Currently there is $322 billion invested in ETFs, a number that is expected to jump to... Continue Reading »

ETF Humor on April Fool’s Day
April 1, 2006 – Now we know that ETFs have truly arrived. Jack Columbo, who writes for Forbes, takes a humorous look at ETFs on April Fool’s Day. We could always use a few more ETFs…. Continue Reading »

International ETF Fees a Bit More Pricey
April 1, 2006 – One of the key advantages to ETFs is their low expenses; especially compared to actively managed mutual funds. The high volume ETFs that mirror major domestic market indexes from Russell to S&P have expenses from... Continue Reading »