How Greenspan Spins High Unemployment
Last Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their September jobs Report. The unemployment rate rose to 9.8%, up 0.1% from August and the U.S. economy shed 263,000 jobs for the month. While these numbers were higher than expected, the general trend is well established. Job losses are still...
New Eastern Europe ETF: ESR
Friday, October 2 was launch day for iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index Fund (ESR). The fund tracks, not surprisingly, the MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index. Emphasis should be on “Eastern” since Russia dominates ESR just as it once dominated the Warsaw Pact. ETF...
Grail Tries Again With Four New Active ETFs
Despite the flop of their first actively managed ETF, Grail Advisors launched four more today (October 2, 2009). The June 9 press release heralded these new ETFs as “the industry’s first traditional actively-managed ETFs using a single manager approach.” RiverPark Advisors (RP) will be the primary...
ETF Stats for September 2009
September brought 13 new ETFs while one ETN was delisted, a net change of +12 in the number of listed funds. The official count at the end of the month stood at 868, consisting of 785 ETFs and 83 ETNs. ETF volume averaged 1.48 billion shares per day. The total dollar value traded for the entire month was...
Direxion Changes Mutual Funds to Monthly Leverage
All the leveraged mutual funds offered by Direxion have changed their investment objectives as of the end of September. Previously, Direxion offered a daily leverage factor of 2.5X, or -2.5X in the case of inverse mutual funds. Now it will be 2X or -2X. More important, the basis for the leverage...
