New MacroShares Will Not Track Case-Shiller Index
MacroShares Major Metro Housing Up (UMM) and MacroShares Major Metro Housing Down (DMM) began trading today. Do not buy these products until you have read and understand the prospectus, especially the parts where it explains that they will not track the underlying Case-Shiller index. There is widespread...
ProShares Steps Up Leveraged ETF Disclosures
ProShares stepped up their leveraged ETF game last week with the introduction of their first pair of 3x ETFs. Many analysts covered this story. However, a significant part of the story was mostly overlooked – ProShares also stepped up the “disclosure” game. Many have criticized...
Dollar Up/Down ETFs
Foreign exchange, a.k.a. forex, has surged in popularity in recent years. Yet, many investors still don’t know a lot about this asset class, or how to properly integrate it into their portfolios. Trading forex can be a dizzying process. The market is open 24-hours a day starting with the...
5 Obstacles Facing Active ETFs
Actively managed ETFs have been touted as the ultimate ETF product. So far it has been all hype, or as they say “all show and no go”. With so much buzz, you would think at least one active product would have gained some traction. That is not the case. I haven’t looked at the...
More Leverage, Please: ProShares Goes 3x S&P 500
The appetite for risk is apparently healthy enough for ProShares that it launched its first 3x leveraged ETFs today. ProShares UltraPro S&P 500 (UPRO) and ProShares UltraPro Short S&P 500 (SPXU) will be the firm’s most aggressive products yet. UPRO and SPXU are clearly intended as a counter...
Bye-Bye MacroShares (DOY, UOY)
They are not ETFs. They are not ETNs. They are MacroShares, and after today, they are gone. Bye-bye MacroShares. Back on May 15, MacroMarkets announced that today, June 25, would be the last day of trading for MacroShares $100 Oil Up (UOY) and MacroShares $100 Oil Down (DOY). The final value...
Long-Term, Steady Earner: AGL
Sometimes investors forget about stodgy and consistent stocks, but these should be prized characteristics. Take AGL Resources (AGL), for example. The company would hardly be considered “sexy” by the Wall Street crowd. AGL is a natural gas utility serving customers in six US states. Not very...
Medical Devices: A Closer Look
With all the chatter about health care reform coming out of Washington, now may be a great time to consider health care-related investments. Most investors look to big pharmaceutical companies for health care exposure. That was the old way of profiting from the medical arena. While these stocks...
iShares Launches First Peru ETF (EPU)
The race to bring the first Peru ETF to market was won by iShares today with the introduction of iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index Fund (EPU). Most observers were expecting Global X to win this race, anticipating a mid-June launch according to a Bloomberg interview with Global X Management. A link...
Shareholders Left Hanging with BSR Delisting
JP Morgan Chase (JPM) is not making any friends in the ETF/ETN marketplace. Their moves have not been adequately announced or explained, leaving shareholders perplexed and angry. The latest example is the delisting of the BearLinx Alerian MLP ETN (former ticker BSR) after the end of trading on June...
