Belgium ETF (EWK) Lifted by Financials
August 31, 2006 – iShares MSCI Belgium (EWK) is one of the European exchange traded funds that has been performing well this year.  Marie Beerens with Investor’s Business Daily reports it is among the top five European ETF... Continue Reading »

China ETF (FXI) A Way to Play on China’s Growth
August 30, 2006 – Few countries have been able to match the pace of China’s sustained economic growth. With GDP increasing, on average, more than 8 percent annually since 1978, China has become a major player in the global... Continue Reading »

More ETFs to Focus on Fixed Income
August 30, 2006 – Mutual fund firm Ameristock Funds has filed to launch five fixed income exchange traded funds.  The ETFs will be based on Ryan indexes and follow one-, two-, five- 10- and 20-year Treasuries.  Barclays is... Continue Reading »

Homebuilding ETF (PKB) - Positioning for a Bottom
August 29, 2006 – Barron’s cover story talked about a bottom in housing stocks. Weak home sales, growing inventories, dwindling orders and falling prices have all contributed to a weakening housing market. Hardest struck have been the home... Continue Reading »

Specialized ETFs Too Risky?
August 29, 2006 – The New York Times looks at the new specialized exchange traded funds and wonders if they might be too risky for individual investors.  These specialized ETFs have opened up investment options to individuals that... Continue Reading »

State Street Closing OOO ETF
August 28, 2006 – State Street reported on Friday it plans to liquidate an exchange traded fund.  The ETF provider will stop trading SPDR O-Strip (OOO) after September 13th and return the proceeds to shareholders.  The decision was... Continue Reading »

ETF Growth at Vanguard
August 25, 2006 – Yesterday, Vanguard launched two new exchange traded funds to complete the firm’s offering of core ETFs.  They also announced plans to launch a high-dividend stock ETF.  The two new ETFs are the Vanguard Mid-Cap... Continue Reading »

ETFs May See Hedge for Home Values
August 24, 2006 – David Hoffman of Investment News reports on a new product similar to an exchange traded fund that will help investors hedge their home value.  MACROs are a type of ETF whose value would be... Continue Reading »

ETF Growth Around the Markets
August 24, 2006 – Money continues to flow into exchange traded funds and a report from Morgan Stanley predicts the amount of money invested in ETFs will top $2 trillion in 2010, up from $487.1 billion in June... Continue Reading »

ETFs and Tactical Asset Allocation
August 23, 2006 – Tom Leswing of Ignites reports that tactical asset allocation funds that use exchange traded funds are having a hard time.  There are very few of these funds that focus on ETFs and the two... Continue Reading »

Utility ETF (UTH) Can Electrify Your Portfolio
August 22, 2006 – With the economy slowing down, an increasing number of investors are putting their money into utility stocks due to their stable earnings & high dividend yields. Click here to see the strength in utility... Continue Reading »

Silver ETF (SLV) The Other Precious Metal
August 22, 2006 – Carl Delfeld writes about silver and how it has been the neglected orphan of the precious metals markets.  However, now might be the time to look at silver as a viable investment option. Demand for... Continue Reading »

ETFs Versus Mutual Funds
August 21, 2006 – The Wall Street Journal reports on last week’s television debate between John Bogle founder of Vanguard Group and Jeremy Siegel a professor at Wharton and affiliate of WisdomTree.  The two debated about exchange traded... Continue Reading »

Japan ETF (EWJ) Benefits from Strength in Japan
August 19, 2006 – With Japan’s economic rebound halfway into its fourth year and driven by domestic demand, the IMF sad the medium-term outlook for Japan’s economy is favorable.  The forecast GDP growth could reach 2.9% this year,... Continue Reading »

ETF Volume May Affect Trends
August 18, 2006 – Brett Steenbarger writes on his site, TraderFeed, about how tradable indexes can kill a trending market.  He points out that with more indexes comes more volume and less volatility.  Exchange traded funds continue to... Continue Reading »

ETF Investing With Morningstar
August 18, 2006 – Morningstar’s approach to exchange traded fund investing is to be long-term, cost conscious and safe.  Maybe too safe.  Although their advice is sage for textbook long-term investing, you wouldn’t buy sector or global ETFs... Continue Reading »

ETFs in Retirement Accounts
August 17, 2006 – ShareBuilder is an online brokerage firm and that offers 401(k) plans to self-employed workers and employees of small businesses.  Their plans are built exclusively around exchange traded funds.  On July 1st, ShareBuilder launched the... Continue Reading »

Time For A Dog ETF?
August 16, 2006 – No, I am not referring to the recently launched exchange traded fund that has the ticker symbol DOG and allows you to short the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I am talking about an ETF... Continue Reading »

New Oil ETN Launching from Barclays
August 16, 2006 – Barclays announced a new exchange traded note added to their growing list.  iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil Total Return Index (OIL) is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange on August 16th. ... Continue Reading »

ETF Provider Hires Former SEC Chairman
August 15, 2006 – WisdomTree Investments hired former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt as a senior adviser.  His role has yet to be formally defined.  Levitt’s hiring is another high-powered name added to the exchange traded... Continue Reading »

ETFs - What’s in a Ticker?
August 15, 2006 – Exchange traded fund providers have been using the ticker symbols they choose to market their ETFs.  John Spence of MarketWatch takes a look at some of the providers and the ticker symbols used to... Continue Reading »

ETFs - Preferred Shares Next to be Tracked
August 14, 2006 – It looks like the next exchange traded funds will track preferred shares, according to Joe Morris of Ignites.  Barclays has filed with the SEC to offer an ETF based on the S&P U.S. Preferred... Continue Reading »

Diamonds (DIA) Are Forever
August 11, 2006 – There has been a recent shift in investor sentiment from small cap and international stocks to defensive large cap stocks. A drop in the GDP growth rate from 5.6% in the first quarter of... Continue Reading »

Metal ETFs Suffer on Terrorism
August 11, 2006 – With today’s news of a foiled terrorist plot on airlines, metal prices fell and brought the exchange traded funds with them.  Since mid-June the metals have been quite the performers.  iShares Silver Trust (SLV)... Continue Reading »

Using ETFs for Bond Exposure
August 10, 2006 – Economic growth has been moderating from its strong pace earlier this year due to: Slowdown in the housing market, which has resulted in increasing unemployment and reduction of homeline credit, Rising energy prices, Seventeen interest rate hikes. With... Continue Reading »

Homebuilding ETFs Hit By Oversupply Slump
August 10, 2006 – The current slump in residential construction is hitting homebuilding exchange traded funds.  The housing and homebuilding markets have helped drive the national economy during the past few years and this is the first slowdown... Continue Reading »

ETF Trends - Indexes and Benchmarks
August 9, 2006 – Investors are turning to exchange traded funds as they offer an inexpensive way to get returns on indexes - which tend to perform better than actively managed mutual funds.  The ETF market has been... Continue Reading »

Taiwan ETF (EWT) Today’s Top Performer
August 9, 2006 – News that the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and worries that this was only a temporary "break" in rate hikes, sent the U.S. markets lower today.  Asian markets did better and iShares MSCI... Continue Reading »

Closed End Funds Switch to ETFs
August 8, 2006 – According to Ignites, two closed end funds are about to be switched to exchange traded funds.  First Trust Advisors’ Value Line Dividend Fund (XFVDX) and Value Line & Ibbotson Equity Allocation Fund (XFVIX) are... Continue Reading »

ETF Fundamental Indexing (PRF)
August 8, 2006 – Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates is known as the father of fundamental indexing.  His strategies capture returns with less risk.  Recent success can be seen in the PowerShares FTSE RAFI U.S. 1000 (PRF) exchange... Continue Reading »

International ETFs Growing in Popularity
August 7, 2006 – As more advisors say a portion of a portfolio should be invested in foreign companies, investors are looking for ways to do just that.  International exchange traded funds are one way of offering global... Continue Reading »

Commodity ETFs Available
August 4, 2006 – Rob Brown with Investment News looks at commodities and how they are in a bull cycle.  Commodities go through very long-term cycles with extreme outperformance or underperformance.  Brown concludes the current bull cycle is... Continue Reading »

Homebuilder ETFs Perform
August 3, 2006 – Homebuilding exchange traded funds were the top performers for today’s trading.  The top three ETF slots were filled by iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction (ITB) up 4.4%, SPDR Homebuilders (XHB) gained 4.2% and... Continue Reading »

ETFs Better Than Mutual Funds?
August 2, 2006 – Charles Jaffe from the Baltimore Sun raises the question, are exchange traded funds better than mutual funds?  Many people may be wondering the same thing, but Jaffe finds that individual circumstances answer that question. He... Continue Reading »

ETF Growth After Market Slowdown
August 2, 2006 – Katie Benner of TheStreet.com looks at exchange traded funds and how they may grow with an economic downturn.  Reasons why ETFs would do better after a market slowdown: Investors tend to find new ways to... Continue Reading »

July ETF Performance
August 1, 2006 – July was an up and down month, as the markets went above and below their trend lines.  Because of this volatility there is not enough evidence that a new positive uptrend is in place. The... Continue Reading »

Latin American ETFs on the Comeback
August 1, 2006 – In the last month, Latin American markets have come back from their drop in May.  Exchange traded funds representing the region are the top performers over the last month.  iShares MSCI Mexico (EWW) is... Continue Reading »