Go Platinum (PGM)
With the dollar plunging and the prospect of inflation in the next few years, investors are looking more closely at precious metals. Today we’ll take a look at the third precious metal: not gold, not silver, but platinum. This “white gold” is 16 times more rare than gold (30X by some...
Coming Soon: Religious ETFs
A new company from Oklahoma called FaithShares Advisors has filed with the SEC to offer a family of ETFs designed to attract religious investors. The funds are not yet available and, in the current environment, may never see the light of day. The idea is still quite interesting, though. “Socially-responsible”...
ETF Billion Dollar Club – April 2009
The month of March saw slightly more than $2 trillion worth of ETFs and ETNs change hands. That equates to nearly $91 billion per day of what is called the Average Daily Value Traded (ADVT). Although we could divide that number by the quantity of ETFs to determine how much the average ETF traded,...
Bear Market Earnings
“Historically, losing money is a bad thing. But now, if you’re losing less money, it’s a good thing.” Kris Niswander, Associate Director of Financial Institutions at SNL Financial The market delivered a helpful reprieve before the Good Friday holiday. Climbing on Wednesday and...
How To Avoid Black Swans
Nassim Taleb, author of the eerily prescient books Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, has a very interesting column in the Financial Times. We have referenced Taleb before here at Invest With An Edge, and with good reason. He sees things most people miss. Black swans are the rare, almost unknown...
Load Up On Coins (and DVDs) with Coinstar (CSTR)
Only a few stocks are worth a smart investor’s attention. In this market, where weekly swings instill weekly fears, it’s more important than ever to be selective. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been careful about recommending equities. With ETFs, at least your risk is usually...
The 3x Impact
Much has been written about the math behind leveraged ETFs and mutual funds, yet most investors fail to realize the true impact. As a result, many of these products have been ridiculed for failing to meet user expectations. Contrary to popular belief, leveraged and inverse products that reset their...
Vanguard Launches International Small Cap ETF: VSS
Vanguard’s latest entry into the ETF world, the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF (VSS), began trading yesterday (April 6, 2009). The new ETF seeks to track a benchmark index of international small-cap companies in both developed and emerging markets. According to the press release: “VSS...
ETF Deathwatch – April 2009
The number of exchange-traded products on Deathwatch fell to 162 from the record high of 171 a month ago. This is the first decline since we began keeping count last August. The current list consists of 121 ETFs and 41 ETNs that are at least six months old and failed to have an Average Daily Value...
More Trouble for Elements ETNs
Swedish Export Credit Corp., also known as “SEK”, announced it will not issue new shares of any ELEMENTS ETNs until after the filing of its 20-F (annual report), which is expected to occur in late April. On March 25, 2009, SEK filed notice with the SEC that it will be restating earnings...
