New iShares Poland ETF (EPOL) Inferior to Market Vectors Poland (PLND)
BlackRock launched iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund (EPOL) on Wednesday 5/26/10. This product arrives six months after Van Eck introduced US investors to Poland via Market Vectors Poland (PLND). Typically when a firm launches a new product into occupied space, they try to ensure the...
Play the Euro with ETFs (EUO or ULE)
Currency trading has surged among individual investors the last few years. We’ve come a long way since the US abandoned the gold standard in favor of a free-floating dollar back in 1971. This helped establish a foreign exchange market, or forex, where the world’s major currencies were traded between...
The Volatility of Volatility
The VIX index is one of the most widely followed market volatility gauges. Investors trying to capture volatility have had two ETNs at their disposal the past 15 months: iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) and iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN (VXZ). Anyone who has followed...
Risk Wise Investing: Another Portfolio Approach
Portfolio management is serious business. As in every profession, there are different ways to approach the job – some better than others. Last week we reviewed one such approach with Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). MPT showed how non-correlated asset classes can be used to mitigate risk while seeking...
And Then There Were 994
As previously announced, today (5/21/10) is the last day of trading for 12 Rydex ETFs. Rydex has provided ample time for shareholders to dispose of their holdings without having to go through the liquidation process. However, some of the funds are still seeing relatively heavy trading activity. Back...
IBND: The First International Corporate Bond ETF
Yesterday (5/20/10), State Street launched the first international corporate bond ETF for U.S. investors: SPDR Barclays Capital International Corporate Bond ETF (IBND). This is the fourth fund State Street targeting foreign fixed income markets. The underlying Barclays Capital Global Aggregate ex-USD...
TWON: Taiwan Small-Cap ETF From IndexIQ
IndexIQ is proceeding apace with its family of single-country small-cap ETFs. Australia (KROO) and Canada (CNDA) were first, South Korea (SKOR) came out last month, and as of 5/19/10 we have IQ Taiwan Small Cap ETF (TWON). Unfortunately TWON is being introduced at a weak time for Asian stocks, but...
A Small-Cap ETF – A Big Idea for Gold Bugs (GDXJ)
The fallout from plunging oil prices and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has given investors few places to hide. Two asset classes are on the upswing lately: the U.S. Dollar and Gold. Both are seen as safe havens. Yes, they’re bouncing around a lot and are due for a correction. The current...
New ETF Sponsor Offers Sustainable Shares
This week brought not only some new ETFs but a new family: ESG Shares. The sponsor is Pax World, one of the originators of the “socially responsible investing” niche and manager of several mutual funds. “ESG” stands for Environmental, Social and Governance – three of the...
Is Modern Portfolio Theory Out-of-Date?
The investment landscape has seen some major changes in the last two decades. Financial and technology companies came and went, stock market values soared, plummeted and rebounded, housing derivatives blew up, and other foundations were laid bare. Even the bedrock of investing theories related to...
