Category Archives: Research & Economic Commentary
The Low Volatility Effect
In any market, your portfolio should be constructed to meet your risk tolerance. But what does this really mean? Advisors should know the historical volatility of their portfolios; many on the selling side of this business don’t have a clue, they just want to sell you a product. For the individual investor there are tools to measure portfolio volatility. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged ACWV, EELV, EEMV, EFAV, IDLV, Low Volatility ETFs, Low Volatility Portfolio, SPLV, USMV
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Vanguard Changing Index Benchmarks
Vanguard shocked the investing world today by announcing that they are changing the benchmark of 22 of its funds from MSCI to FTSE indexes. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary
Tagged MSCI to FTSE switch, vanguard, Vanguard FTSE, VWO FTSE
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ETFs are Getting Cheaper
One of the many benefits of using Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) is cost. An investor today can build a complete portfolio using all ETFs for less than 25bps (0.25%). The low cost leaders in ETFs have been Vanguard, State Street and Blackrock’s iShares.
Recently Charles Schwab entered the ETF business …
Europe – ETF Investment Strategies
Buy and hold investors should always focus on long term healthy asset classes. In regards to investing in Europe, the key question is whether or not Europe will be a financially healthy asset class over the next ten years. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary
Tagged efa, HEDJ, IEV, Investing in Europe, VGK, VPL
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Global Real Estate in Your Portfolio
With the impact that the European debt crisis is having on portfolios, many people are looking for ways to diversify from this impact. Adding real estate to your portfolio is one way to do this. Continue reading
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary
Tagged Casey Smith, FFR, GRI, Real Estate, REIT, REIT Portfolio, RWO, wiser wealth management
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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
Posted in Articles, ETFs & Indexing, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged 401k, ETFs, ETFs in a 401k plan, Indexing in 401k plans
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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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Hedging a Falling Dollar
We often get questions about what can be done in a portfolio to protect from a falling dollar. Often many people refer to gold for this solution, especially with every other advertisement on Fox News from companies trying to sell you- guess what- gold! Continue reading
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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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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Egypt – A Better Understanding
“The problem with freedom and democracy in the Muslim world is that it is a figment of the imagination that only exists in the minds of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.” Continue reading
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
Mosque vs. Capitalism
It really comes down to symbolism. The World Trade Towers symbolized American Capitalism created from a free people. The Towers reminded us that Americans have the freedom to invest. The freedom the innovate. The freedom to take risks and earn great rewards. The freedom to learn. The freedom to live…. a free people.
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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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2nd Quarter Market Landscape
First-quarter gains have taken a huge hit against large declines in the second quarter. According to Morningstar’s ‘super sectors’ reports, Information is down 10.46%, Service 12.23%, and Manufacturing 10.92%. Some market data would suggest that an underlying cause of these losses is uncertainty in the market. Continue reading
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
American Debt
Debt, while once viewed as a negative for the average American, now seems to simply be a part of life. Using credit and having debt outstanding is normal now not only for the most people, but for the government as a whole. The US federal government deficit is currently over $13 trillion and is growing by about $4.09 billion each day. To put this amount into perspective, with a $13 trillion debt obligation, each person in the world owes almost $2,000. That is $2,000 for 6.7 billion people. Continue reading
Financial Reform Freedom?
The Senate sweats this week over the self imposed July 4th deadline for President Obama to sign the Financial Reform Overhaul Bill. The bill is reported to be over 2,000 pages, and reaches into every corner of the financial industry from credit card transactions to advisors.
The bill ventures into some places where legislation has previously left alone. In many ways, the financial system needs some changes, however, for the most part, the Independence Day bill is more confusing than freedom-promoting. 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
Efficient Market Theory and ETFs
One of the most popular ideas in the investing world, the Efficient Market Theory, argues, very simply, that a stock’s price equals its value. This would mean that a stock’s price reflects all publicly known data, including future expectations of the stock’s performance. 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.…
The Unemployment Report – 5/7/10
The amount of jobs added went up in April even well above what is expected, adding 290,000 jobs to the market. Up from 200,000 added in March. Continue reading
Goldman Sachs – Not the Real Problem
The government allows companies like Goldman and other brokers to act under suitability rules. This means that a client has to be suitable for the investment, but does not mean that the product is the best for the client. Continue reading
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
A Dollar Hedged ETF; How To Allocate Around The Falling Euro
The end of 2009 saw the entry of a new ETF in the already dense ETF landscape: a currency hedged ETF. This new feature is of interesting significance due to its packaging inside an ETF.…
Faith Based ETFs: Investing with Conviction
Faith Shares launches the first faith based ETFs. Continue reading
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.…
Indexing Inspiration + Gold
Irving Kristol, “an indexer is stock-picker who has been mugged by reality.” Continue reading
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.…
What Moves a Currency
We have been bombarded with spam emails claiming that the dollar is falling and that we must purchase their strategy to save our portfolios.…
Passive vs. Active: 1,3 and 5 Year Comparison
Morningstar has released their BoxScore Report covering actively managed mutual funds to Morningstar indexes.…
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. …
Correlations of the Crash
Correlation is generally defined as “the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two random variables.”…
The Currency Effect in Foreign Investing
This article was written for and also appears at ETF Market Pro.
Currencies are different than any other type of investment. …
Posted in Articles, Currency & Gold, Research & Economic Commentary, Wiser Blog
Tagged Casey Smith, currency and EFA, currency valuation, efa, fall in the dollar, Foriegn Currency, how currency is valued, International investing, MSCI, relative basis, what drives returns on currency, wiser wealth management
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Harvard Endowment Looks to Become More Liquid
The managers of the Harvard Endowment have long been hailed as innovators. Their alternative investments include commodities like timber (famously employing lumberjacks), private equity, and hedge funds.…
Georgia’s Failed Banks
Georgia’s banks made the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday (6/10/09). The article notes that Georgia is home to 4% of the banks in the United States, but is responsible for 20% of the US bank failures since August.…
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. …
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.…
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.…
Gold Revisited
In recent years, gold has seen spectacular price increases. Looking at some history may reveal where gold is heading in the future and why.…
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.…
Currency Must Be Considered When Investing Abroad
In a recent article submitted by us here at Wiser Wealth Management covers what we think is something investors should consider about their international investments and give a way to hedge the currency risk in general.…
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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Wiser Wealth’s 2013 Outlook – Interview by SeekingAlpha.com
Casey Smith is President of Wiser Wealth Management, a Marietta, Georgia-based fee-only fiduciary wealth management firm offering asset management, tax preparation, estate planning and financial planning services. Wiser’s unique investing techniques have earned Casey speaking engagements at top ETF conferences around the world. When not running Wiser Wealth, Casey doubles as a pilot for an Atlanta-based commercial airline. Continue reading →