The Major Flaw of Dividend Income Plans
There is a raging debate regarding the best way to live off your portfolio. Young adults are told, by those older and wiser, to save and invest for retirement. There is never a shortage of ideas and suggestions on how to build a nest egg. For those lucky enough to have accumulated a nest egg large...
RMB vs DSUM: Comparing the New Dim Sum Bond ETFs
Note: The original article contained facts and opinions based on asset data from the Guggenheim website dated 9/27/11. That data was in error, and this article was subsequently revised to reflect updated asset information dated 9/28/11. Last week Guggenheim and PowerShares both gave U.S. investors...
Northern Trust Launches FlexShares
Northern Trust rejoined the ETF provider list with its September 22 introduction of four new ETFs under the FlexShares brand. Northern Trust had closed and liquidated its 17-fund NETS lineup in February 2009. The prior brand consisted mainly of funds tracking major foreign market indexes. The...
CSMN: Market Neutral ETN from Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse launched a new exchange-traded note (“ETN”) on Wednesday (9/21/11) linked to the performance of an index designed to provide exposure to a market neutral investment strategy on North American, European, and Japanese stocks. The Credit Suisse Market Neutral Global Equity ETN (CSMN)...
Teurcium Launches Three Single Ag Product ETFs
Teucrium, the company that brought you the Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) last year, introduced three new single agricultural commodity exchange-traded products earlier this week. Teucrium Soybean Fund (SOYB), Teucrium Sugar Fund (CANE), and Teucrium Wheat Fund (WEAT) began trading on Monday (9/19/11). All...
IVO Terminates and IVOP Fills the Void
Another exchange-traded product met its demise this week. The iPath Inverse S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (IVO) triggered an early termination on September 12 when shares traded below $10. Barclays immediately called the notes for redemption at $11.8024 per share. They were then delisted...
UBS Attempts Solid State Drive ETN Offering
UBS released two exchange-traded notes (“ETNs”) on September 15 that intend to track the performance of the solid state drive industry. The underlying index was created on August 26, has no performance history or back test information, and is far from being a pure play on the industry. UBS ETRACS...
Timing Oil Futures With TWTI
The Royal Bank of Scotland (“RBS”) introduced the fourth member of its Trendpilot line of exchange-traded notes last week (9/15/11). The RBS Oil Trendpilot ETN (TWTI) is linked to the performance of an index utilizing a systematic trend-following strategy to track oil futures when they are above...
PowerShares Fundamental Investment Grade Bond ETF Launched
PowerShares Fundamental Investment Grade Corporate Bond Portfolio (PFIG) began trading September 15. Based on the RAFI Investment Grade Bond Index, the fund will weight holdings by the issuer’s ability to service debt instead of the usual market cap method. The Research Affiliates’ Fundamental...
New ETRACS VIX ETNs With 5.35% Annual Expenses
UBS on September 8 rolled out a dozen ETNs targeting long and short (inverse) exposure to VIX futures at six monthly maturity intervals. The new exchange-traded notes are anticipated to mature in 30 years. The inverse versions include an “Event Risk Weekly Hedge Cost” that saddles investors with...
