ETF Trends - Alternative vs. Traditional Energy
July 31, 2006 – PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy (PBW) was a top performing exchange traded fund earlier this year, but over the last three months it has fallen behind other energy ETFs, such as Energy Select Sector (XLE). ... Continue Reading »

ETF Assets Rise in June
July 29, 2006 – According to the Investment Company Institute, as of June 30th, total exchange traded fund assets, in 263 funds, are $335.1 billion. That is a 38% increase over the last year.  In June, ETF assets... Continue Reading »

ETF Providers Join Forces
July 28, 2006 – PowerShares and Deutsche Bank are uniting to offer commodity and currency exchange traded funds.  They will begin by rebranding the current DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) as PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund... Continue Reading »

New ETFs with International Focus
July 28, 2006 – WisdomTree Investments announced today they are introducing ten new exchange traded funds that will have an international focus.  The international sector ETFs will be the first pure international exposure, as opposed to current ETFs... Continue Reading »

Turkey ETF Coming Soon
July 27, 2006 – We may have a new global region added to the list of exchange traded funds in the near future - Turkey.  Finans Asset Management launched the first ETF in Turkey in January 2005, the... Continue Reading »

ETF Expansion for First Trust
July 27, 2006 – David Hoffman of Investment News reports on First Trust Portfolios, which launched their first exchange traded fund in September 2005.  Their assets were $124 million as of June 30th, ranking the firm 12th among... Continue Reading »

Mutual Fund of ETFs Launched
July 26, 2006 – According to Tom Leswing of Ignites, former Fidelity and Rydex executives have come together to form Arrow Funds - mutual funds that invest in exchange traded funds.  The company filed with the SEC to... Continue Reading »

Telecom ETFs Boosted
July 26, 2006 – Telecom companies boosted the exchange traded fund, Telecom HOLDRs (TTH) today.  AT&T (T) and BellSouth (BLS) are top holdings in the ETF, and both companies reported solid quarterly earnings.  The companies were up 5%... Continue Reading »

ETF Innovation and Growth
July 25, 2006 – Ignites reports on the proliferation of exchange traded funds and how some in the industry believe there is too much growth, while others see it as an innovative opportunity.  There are currently 270 ETFs... Continue Reading »

Short ETF Outperforming
July 25, 2006 – Launched just a month ago, ProShares Short QQQ (PSQ) has the best performance of exchange traded funds for the month, up 9%.  The daily objective of this ETF is to inverse the Nasdaq 100... Continue Reading »

ETF Broad-Based Commodity from Barclays
July 24, 2006 – It took a year to get through SEC review, but on Friday, Barclays launched a new commodity exchange traded fund.  iShares GSCI Commodity Index Trust (GSG) has assets consisting of a pool of commodity... Continue Reading »

Consumer ETF (XLP) Performing in the Downturn
July 21, 2006 – Consumer staples are things like toothpaste and toilet paper, the type of products you buy no matter what the economy is doing.  A consumer staples exchange traded fund holds a basket of companies that... Continue Reading »

ETF Options Listed
July 20, 2006 – Yesterday, the Chicago Board Options Exchange began listing options on five exchange traded funds.  The ETFs are First Trust IPOX-100 Index (FPX) iShares FTSE/Xinhua China Index (FXI) Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX) Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy (PBW) Powershares Water... Continue Reading »

Utility ETF (XLU)
July 20, 2006 – The utility stocks are usually viewed as boring and conservative and known for their consistent profit growth.  Lately the industry has been going through consolidation and the stocks have been performing.  Utilities tend to... Continue Reading »

Energy ETF (XLE)
July 19, 2006 – All the news lately seems to involve energy.  We hear about possible interruptions in oil supply and a heat wave across the country sending energy use higher and higher.  What does that mean for... Continue Reading »

Mexico ETF (EWW) Winning Election
July 19, 2006 – Even with election turmoil, the Mexican market has held up well and so has the exchange traded fund, iShares MSCI Mexico (EWW).  The apparent victory of Felipe Calderon as Mexico’s president has given the... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - New iPath Oil Filing
July 18, 2006 – Index Universe reports that Barclays filed to launch a third exchange traded note, which will track the Goldman Sachs Crude Oil Total Return Index.  The index tracks the value of a futures based exposure... Continue Reading »

ETF Providers Lure Investors
July 17, 2006 – Ian Salisbury of The Wall Street Journal reports on the new exchange traded fund products that are aimed to attract investors from mutual funds.  Thus far, the SEC has only approved ETFs that track... Continue Reading »

Gold ETFs Rising on Global Concerns
July 15, 2006 – Gold rose this week as global violence escalated from the Mumbai bombings to the Middle East, where tensions intensified between Lebanon and Israel.  On Friday, oil prices reached new highs and gold climbed over... Continue Reading »

German ETF (EWG) Play on Global Economy
July 14, 2006 – Although the World Cup is over, it doesn’t mean we should stop looking at Germany.  Murray Coleman of Investor’s Business Daily took a look at the exchange traded fund iShares MSCI Germany (EWG).  He... Continue Reading »

ETFs Are Now Double Inversed
July 14, 2006 – More new exchange traded funds were added to the growing list today, as ProShares launched their UltraShort ETFs.  These ETFs are designed to magnify short exposure to market indexes and investors can now "go... Continue Reading »

ETF Provider Reaches Goal
July 13, 2006 – In just two weeks, ProShares exchange traded funds daily trading volume exceeded 1 million shares.  For the past two trading days, the daily volume on the June 21st launched ETFs passed 1 million shares. ... Continue Reading »

Commodity ETF Fees Cut
July 13, 2006 – Deutsche Bank announced they will reduce the management fee on DB Commodity Index Tracking (DBC) exchange traded fund.  The fee will be reduced from 0.95% to 0.75% and they will also assume expenses of... Continue Reading »

ETF Portfolio with Heavy Turnover
July 12, 2006 – A new exchange traded fund with high turnover began trading Tuesday on the American Stock Exchange.  The First Trust DB Strategic Value Index Fund (FDV) is based on Deutsche Bank’s CROCI Index, which covers... Continue Reading »

Italy’s Win a Hopeful Boost for ETF (EWI)
July 11, 2006 – Italy’s win in the World Cup could help boost their economy.  With such a victory, Italians are feeling confident, enough so that some believe there could be an ease on budget cuts with increased. ... Continue Reading »

Oil Subsector ETFs
July 11, 2006 – Oil seems to be a topic everyone is talking about lately.  And exchange traded fund providers (Barclays iShares and State Street Global Advisors) recently launched oil subsector ETFs to give investors more to talk... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Providing Telecom Services (VOX)
July 10, 2006 – During the last two months of the market volatility, telecommunication services have done well.  Vanguard Telecom Services (VOX) exchange traded fund is up 1.15% for the month versus the S&P 500’s 0.3%.  The ETF... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Create Your Own International Index
July 9, 2006 – Morgan Stanley’s Europe, Australia and Far East Index is probably the most well know of the international indexes. Better known as EAFE, the index covers 21 foreign countries and 1,200 common stocks. You can own the index by... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Mexico (EWW) and the President
July 8, 2006 – The Mexican market had a ride this week, as markets rose and fell based on the leader in Sunday’s elections.  In the Mexican presidential race, the market favorite, Felipe Calderon, was declared the winner... Continue Reading »

ETF Providers Race to the Top
July 7, 2006 – According to Investment News, PowerShares currently has 37 exchange traded funds, with 31 more in registration.  They want to be the leading ETF provider and are on track to close the gap with Barclays... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Vanguard Name Change
July 6, 2006 – What’s in a name?  Apparently Vanguard thinks so.  As exchange traded funds become popular, Vanguard is dropping "Vipers" to be known as ETFs.  Vipers is an acronym for "Vanguard Index Participation Equity Receipts".  It... Continue Reading »

ETFs Offering Biotechnology Focus
July 5, 2006 – Ferghana-Wellspring expects to launch their 12 Healthshares this summer.  These exchange traded funds will slice the biotechnology pie, as they will focus on specific areas of biotechnology.  There are currently ETFs covering biotechnology, but... Continue Reading »

ETF Market Is Not Too Crowded
July 3, 2006 – In an article in Barron’s this weekend, it was suggested that the ETF market is getting too crowded. Roger Nusbaum, from Seeking Alpha has his own opinions on the subject which are worth considering too.... Continue Reading »