As exchange traded funds proliferate and come into prominence, investors are eagerly learning how best to utilize the investment vehicle. Some are even turning to college classrooms to up their game.
Nasdaq OMX Global Indexes director David Krein is teaching at the so-called first-of-its-kind MBA course focused exclusively on indexing and ETFs at Rutgers Business School, reports Ashley Lau for Reuters. He hopes to replicate the courses at other schools. [ETF Basics]
“I haven’t heard of anything like it,” Scott Kubie, chief investment strategist at Omaha-based CLS Investments, LLC., said in the article.
Kubie pointed out that most core university investment courses focus on securities analysis of individual stocks or derivatives, leaving only a lecture or two on ETFs.
“Universities are starting to see a need to train their students to function in a world where ETFs are a key part of the investment process,” Kubie added.
ETFs are a relatively new instrument in the fund investment world dominated by mutual funds. However, as ETFs continue to gain assets, with over $2.2 trillion in assets under management globally, more investors want to learn about indexing and the way ETFs work. [Five Differences Between Index Funds and ETFs]
“Whether you’re a wealth manager, a back office operations person, a technologist, a trader or a portfolio manager, your need to understand and use indexes and ETFs is greater than it has ever been,” Krein said in the article.
“Education really is an important part of indexing and ETFs because as successful as they’ve been, it really is still early in their life cycle,” Krein added.
For more information on ETFs, visit our ETF 101 category.