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Category Archives: ETFs & Indexing
ETF Capital Gains 2011
IndexUniverse.com recently published a report with all the ETFs that pass though capital gains to its investors. Apparently in 2011 only 93 ETFs made this list. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged ETF Capital Gains 2011
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Wiser Research – Emerging Market ETFs
Emerging Markets should be a part of every portfolio. With many ETF choices this post dives into Emerging Market modeling. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged DGS, DWM, EEM, emerging market ETFs, frn, VWO
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Best Execution in ETFs, how much do you really pay?
***Originally published in the July 2011 edition of NAAIM’s “The Active Manager” By Scott Freeze.
Best Execution is a very difficult metric to measure since it is such a subjective benchmark. In a “thinner” ETF with a wide spread, such as MNA (IndexIQ Merger Arbitrage), you have a 20 cent …
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged ETF Best Execution, Trading ETFs
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Emerging Markets VWO vs DEM
The research staff here at Wiser Wealth recently analyzed all the broad based ETFs that track emerging market indices. The staple in Emerging Markets is currently Vanguards VWO and iShares’ EEM. The comparison articles on these funds are endless. One fund that filtered to the top of the Emerging Market ETF list that might be less known is Wisdom Tree’s DEM. We compared it in this article to Vanguards VWO. The following report helps compare the DEM and VWO Emerging Market strategies as well as the results of the last few years. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged DEM, DGS, EEM, elizabeth jones, emerging market ETFs, sonja gonzalez, VWO
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Wiser Wealth Interviewed by ETFs Asia
Casey Smith was recently interviewed by ETFs Asia. ETFs Asia is a conference in Hong Kong in late 2011 covering Exchange Traded Funds. Casey was unable to speak at the conference because of a conflict, but did this interview to talk about the development of ETFs in Asia and at home here in the US. Continue reading
Posted in ETFs & Indexing, Wiser News
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Why use Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)?
The University of Maryland has a study that shows only .06% of active fund managers from 1975 – 2007 beat their corresponding index. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, The Everyday Investor
Tagged etf, exchange traded funds, why etfs
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Where’s the Yield? Generating Income in Your Portfolio
Portfolio yields are under pressure due to the worldwide flight to safety over the last few years, making conservative and income growth portfolios more difficult to manage. While bond investments made a few years ago have done historically well, new investments have greater principal risk with low historic yields. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged Dividends for portfolio yield, DVY, DWM, DWX, IDV, PFF, PGF, PGX, PSK, SDY, VIG
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An ETN to replace the Variable Annuity?
A new exchange traded note (ETN) has come to market offering a well-known approach to investing found in active investment strategies, but new to the exchange traded products. The US RBS Trend Pilot ETN (ticker TRND) tracks the total return of the S&P 500 (actual return plus dividends), but provides safety in that if the S&P 500 drops below its 200 day moving average, then TRND will “sell” the S&P 500 and “purchase” short duration US treasury bonds. Looking back to 2008, TRND would have been in treasuries during the financial crisis, missing the worst decline in the S&P 500 in decades and benefiting from treasuries climbing to record prices. Continue reading
Posted in ETFs & Indexing, Personal Finance, Wiser Blog
Tagged Casey Smith, ETN, RBS US Large Cap Trend Pilot index, TRND, TRND ETN
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Casey Smith Interviewed by etfshub.com – Active ETFs
Casey Smith talked with Shishir Nigam of etfshub.com to discuss the future of Active ETFs and the hurdles that they will need to overcome. Continue reading
Posted in ETFs & Indexing, Wiser News
Tagged Active ETFs, ActiveETFs.com, Casey Smith
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Can An ETF Collapse? The Study that was proven false.
Can an ETF Fail? A study by two PHD’s makes one believe that ETFs are unsafe investments. Continue reading
Free ETF Trades at TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade offers 100 commission free ETFs. Continue reading
Vanguard Lowers the Cost of Investing… Again
Vanguard has lowered the floor on S&P ETF index investing. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Personal Finance, Wiser Blog
Tagged S&P ETFs, Vanguard ETFs, Vanguard Indexing, Vanguard S&P ETFs
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Active Management Comes To Emerging Market Bond ETFs
WisdomTree has introduced an addition to the ETF landscape with an active ETF in the emerging market bond category.
Emerging market bonds are a unique asset class with extraordinary characteristics which many ETF investors have made part of their portfolios for many reasons. Emerging market bonds have high absolute returns with low correlation to other markets and are high yielding vehicles. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged actively managed emerging market ETF, ELD, EMB, EMLC, etf, exchange traded funds, How to invest in emerging markets, ishares, Market Vectors Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond ETF, PCY, PowerShares, US Dollar emerging market bonds, WisdomTree, WisdomTree Emerging Markets Local Debt Fund
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Lower Duration For Better Inflation Protection
TIP Securities have been around only since 1997, placing them a time period with only relatively tame levels of inflation. That being said, the need for inflation protection is very relevant, and investors now have access to five TIPS ETFs. They give investors a choice among broad based, intermediate, short-term, and long-term durations. Continue reading
International Corporate Bond ETFs Have Arrived
PowerShares listed the second-ever international corporate bond ETF for trading this week, behind State Street Global Advisor’s international corporate bond product, falling right in step with the unfolding of the debt crisis in Europe. The PowerShares ETF provides a broad exposure to international, investment-grade corporate bonds issued in developed countries. Continue reading
ETF Fixed Income Assets Climb in April
ETF cashflows have climbed despite worries about rising rates in fixed income ETFs. Investors also seem to be pouring money into global ETFs even though overseas markets continue to abound.…
ETFs in Europe – Amsterdam ETF Conference
ETFs in Europe are starting to get some interest. This is my journal from the ETF Conference in Amsterdam. Continue reading
Active vs. Passive – Morningstar’s Second Half 2009 Report
Morningstar has released their Box Score Report looking at active vs. passive investing strategies over the second half of 2009.…
Faith Based ETFs: Investing with Conviction
Faith Shares launches the first faith based ETFs. Continue reading
Should you put ETFs in your 401k?
ETFs are empowering individual and professional investors with the power of transparency, diversification, low fees, and, compared to many of active fund managers, better performance. …
My Boca Experience – Inside ETF Conference 2010
I was recently privileged to be on a panel at the Inside ETF Conference in Boca Raton, FL last week. The event was a great success with over 800 attendees, and was broadcasted live by CNBC.…
Closet Indexer
There is an old joke that financial news journalists write about the hot stock or mutual fund by day and privately invest in long term healthy index funds by night. Could this be true of active fund managers as well? Continue reading
Indexing Thought Brought to you by Today’s Mail
A look at look at 401k Maximizer, a active trading platform for airline employees and how this pie in the sky approach may leave some grounded in the long term. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Personal Finance, Wiser Blog
Tagged 401k maximizer, active management of active funds, active vs passive, american airlines 401k, ASA, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Casey Smith, delta airlines 401k, etf, mutual funds, northwest airlines 401k, southwest airlines 401k
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Unpacking Global Sectors
Recently, many have reasoned that sectors drive market returns. Using the complete lineup of global sector ETFs from iShares, an investor can utilize the power of sectors within the US while reaching into developed and emerging international markets for simple to complex asset allocation strategies.…
The Debt Problem in Bond ETFs
This article was written for www.etfmarketpro.com
International bond ETFs are an asset we can no longer ignore, but as some industry experts have brought up in the past, bond ETF construction has many inherent flaws.…
Passive vs. Active: 1,3 and 5 Year Comparison
Morningstar has released their BoxScore Report covering actively managed mutual funds to Morningstar indexes.…
Stock Picker to Indexer
Recently, Jason Zweig, in his Intelligent Investor column, discussed data mining and proprietary trading on Wall Street, and the unreliability most of these strategies have on predicting the future.…
ETF Index Optimization
The article was created for www.etfmarketpro.com.
Investable indexes are designed to be realistic representations of actual market spaces (the S&P 500 index represents the securities in the S&P500); however, in some asset classes, indexes are too idealistic to be managed as ETFs in a cost effective and efficient manner.…
Why Commodities are Different
This ariticle was also posted at ETFMarketPro.com
Commodity ETFs are different than traditional, plain vanilla ETFs and investors need to be made aware of the risks.…
Commodity ETFs Having Problems
Recently, some commodity ETFs have been forced to stop the creation process of ETF creation units, meaning that the funds and trusts are being forced to act like closed in funds. …
Run..Run.. from the Salesman with the Annuity!! UPDATED
I had a email conservation today with an old friend who just purchased an annuity.…
Leverage ETFs in the News…Again
Leveraged ETFs Under Investigation
The Massachusetts Secretary of State, William Galvin, is looking into the marketing of leveraged ETFs and has reportedly written letters to the three biggest players in this market, ProShares, Direxion and Rydex.…
Another Advocate for Indexing
Yesterday, I met with a Captain from Atlantic Southeast Airline (Delta Connection). As soon as he walked in the door, he handed me an article from USA Today about a new book by Justin Fox. Justin Fox was unknown to me but the title of his book, “The Myth of …
John Bogle Endorses Wiser Wealth, Well…Sort of
Our friends at indexuniverse recently interviewed John Bogle. Mr. Bogle is the mutual fund indexing pioneer that started Vanguard.…
Trading ETFs
Trading ETFs
When investing in mutual funds, the investor is handing his money over to a mutual fund manager, giving him or her full discretion in trading the asset as he or she sees fit. …
Mutual Fund Lending of Your Money!
A Wall Street Journal article caught my eye today. Jason Zweig’s article “Is your Fund Pawning Shares at Your Expense?” covers a unknown regular occurrence that Mutual Fund Managers often loan out shares of the fund’s stocks to other institutions. …
Switching to ETFs
In an environment where the stock market recovers and the credit crisis is in the rearview mirror, will your investments recover with the stock market, lag behind or remain at today’s levels? The investment tool you are using will make the difference.…
President Obama: An Index Investor
In a recent report, President Obama disclosed a large holding in Vanguard Index Funds. Continue reading
PowerShares Set to Close 19 ETFs
PowerShares, a company who has lead the way for fundamental ETFs, closes 19 of these funds. Are more closings in other ETFs to follow? Continue reading
Hedge Fund ETFs: They’re Here
Click Here to view PDF With Charts inserted.
IndexIQ, on March 25, 2009, launched its first hedge fund ETF. This is following in the wake of 2008 where many hedge funds were affected by mass withdrawals and highly leveraged bets went bad, causing many to shut down.…
Forbes Best & Worst ETFs List
Something I’ve been big on lately is ETF tracking error. An ETF’s ability to track an index can be a bigger cost (implicit cost) to an ETF, and investors should be very concerned with this. …
Hedge Fund ETF
Index IQ came out with their first Hedge Fund ETF last week. A lot of press has been surrounding this ETF in the industry. The ETF, the IQ Hedge Fund Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF, ticker symbol QAI, has an expense ratio of .75%. Below is the fund’s strategy.…
Barclays Selling iShares
Barclays Global Capital announced Monday that recent rumors were true and they plan to sell iShares.…
ETFs Vs. ETNs; You Better be Careful
I recently returned from Singapore, where I participated in the Asia Indexing Conference. My Day 1 role was presenting to my Asian peers the difference between an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and an Exchange Traded Note (ETN).…
VIX ETNs
The VIX Index tracks the amount of defensive options being purchased on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE). This represents the amount of insurance investors are seeking to protect their portfolios against downside risk. As volitity and downside fear increases these indexes increase in value.…
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged defensive options, VIX index
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Insights From the Inside ETF Conference
Last Weekend I was able to attend the Inside ETF Conference in Boca Raton Florida put on by Index Publications, LLC. While we were there, Wiser Wealth Management’s president, Casey Smith was a moderator on a panel covering advisors using ETFs.…
Wiser Wealth Quarterly Review – 2008 Out, 2009 In
In December of 2007 I looked to articles in the Wall Street Journal and Barrons Weekly Newspaper to see what the analysts were expecting for 2008.…
Commodities ETF: The Tax Difference
Commodity ETFs and ETNs have come a long way in recent years allowing investors to gain exposure to many commodity indexes ranging from very broad to very narrow. …
Risk Based ETFs
So what do we do when we come to the conclusion that we can not effectively time the stock market and that constantly buying and selling stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds is not an effective strategy? …
Posted in ETFs & Indexing, Wiser Blog
Tagged AOA, AOK, AOM, AOR, etf, investing, passive index portfolios, Retirement Investing, Risk-Based ETFs, target risk ETFs
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Diversification, Cost, and the Long Term: Part 1 Diversification
The title of this series is what we here at Wiser Wealth Management keep in mind when investing. I wanted to explain this and show how these simple words can lead to great investment results.…
SPY or IVV; The S&P 500 Index Decision
After making a decision to invest in the ever popular S&P 500 index, investors have two options within the ETF universe for a pure S&P 500 play. The choices are IShares’ IVV and State Street’s SPDR SPY. According to MorningStar on 11/30/2008, SPY had over 70 Billion in assets compared to …
New iShares ETFs
The following is an article featured on Indexuniverse.com recent ally as part of my column, Efficient Investor.
IShares has just issued a dozen new unique ETFs which track the S&P Target Date Index Series and the Target Risk Index Series. Below is a breakdown of the two categories with the …
While I Was Gone: Target Funds
While I was out of town last week with my wife, several very interesting issues came into the ETF world; Target Date Funds.…
Uncovering The Uncorrelated Asset Class
2008 will be the first full year there has been ETFs tracking emerging market bond indexes. This is a very unique asset class.…
The Most Defensive Small Cap ETF
The small cap asset class has performed well over the last decade and has done relatively well during this current bear market. …
The Stock Market Fear Number
Since 1990, the CBOE has issued the volatility index, VIX. VIX is commonly called the ‘Fear Index’ because it tracks the amount of defensive options being bought at the CBOE. …
Hedge Funds, Index Funds, and Buffet’s $1,000,000 Bet
Warren Buffet has bet with one million dollars going to charity that the S&P 500 will beat the top five hedge funds (picked by Protege, a hedge fund to fund) net of fees over a ten year period. …
The Last 52 Weeks in Review
As we are nearly one year from the peak of the S&P 500 this October, I want to take a look at how Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) did compared to their mutual fund counterparts.…
Posted in ETFs & Indexing, Wiser Blog
Tagged ETFs v. Mutual Funds, Indexing, investing, Long term investing
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What Happens to an ETF tracking a Lehman Brothers Index
As you may know an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) must track a registered index (you can read my post on ETFs and ETNs for more information). Many exchange traded funds follow a Lehman Brothers Index.…
Posted in ETFs & Indexing, Wiser Blog
Tagged Barclays, etf, ETF tracking a Lehman Brothers index, investing, lehman brother index
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A Picture of a Loser’s Game
In the below video Jim Cramer gets upset about the mess of obvious insider trading that has occurred with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. …
ETFs v. ETNs: Part II, The ETN
ETNs (exchange traded notes) are only a couple years old but the idea has been around since the early 90s. They are “Structured Notes,” a debt vehicle, usually with time to maturity of over ten years, where the issuer promises to pay the return of a set investment determined by …
ETFs v. ETNs: Part 1: A focus on The ETF
Both ETFs (exchange traded funds) and ETNs (exchange traded notes have been making a lot of noise lately. Morningstar Inc. now tracks 89 ETNs with $7.3 billion in assets and 732 ETFs with $586 billion in assets. …
ETFs in a 401k: The Wave is Building
There has been a lot of discussion concerning the use of exchange traded funds (ETFs) as the primary investment vehicle within 401k plans. The barriers that once stood in the way are being removed by innovative record keeping and the growing use of ETFs in private and institutional accounts. Continue reading →