ETN Holders: Do You Know To Whom You Are Lending?
Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”) and Exchange Traded Notes (“ETNs”) are similar in some ways but have major differences as well. When you buy an ETF, you receive an ownership stake in a pooled investment, structured as an independent entity. When you buy an ETN, you are essentially lending...
Fun with Dick (AGQ) and Jane (ZSL) and Spot (SLV)
Seventeen years ago we saw the first leveraged mutual fund with daily reset. Now we have dozens of them along with ETFs that work the same way. Yet after all this time, many investors still don’t understand what leveraged funds can and cannot do. Even professional investors ignorantly called...
To Invest in a Roth or Not?
While the title of this article could stir many a great rock ‘n roll debate about the front men of Van Halen, we’ll focus on investing for retirement. Americans are not saving for retirement as much as they once did. The frugality of “the Greatest Generation” has steadily given way to...
A Bi-Polar Market
The lucky few Americans who are finishing up a two-week vacation tomorrow may be surprised when they next check their brokerage account balances this weekend. Assume for a moment they packed up the station wagon, loaded the kids, and headed to the lake on Friday, July 10th. Maybe our nuclear couple...
The Soul of an ETF
What makes an ETF an ETF? What distinguishes an Exchange-Traded Fund from other investment securities? When the first US-listed ETF, the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), arrived on the scene in 1993 it had a number of features setting it apart from every other product that come before it. Yet in some ways...
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...
Free Investment Newsletter
“Invest with an Edge” is more than just a website, tag-line, or catch-phrase, it is also a weekly newsletter. Every Wednesday, our team of analysts and writers come together to produce a concise yet rich overview of the market. Our market commentary focuses in on the most important events...
ETF School: GSG Price Spike
Here is an example of why it is prudent to use limit orders on most ETFs and ETNs. The iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (GSG) was trading calmly at $26.15 around 9:25am (CDT) this morning. A minute later, a flurry of buy orders hit. Apparently, they were all “at the market”...
AAII Sentiment – Bearish Tilt At All Time High
Computerized Investing (a newsletter from the American Association of Individual Investors) released their March 5, 2009 sentiment survey results yesterday, just in time for a huge counter-trend rally! This week’s survey results saw bullish sentiment fall to 18.92%, below its long-term average of...
The Folly of My Inbox
Each and every day, I receive countless emails containing get rich-quick schemes, bogus trading systems, at-home business ideas, the latest and greatest investment opportunity, the next gold stock set to soar, etc etc. The list is endless, providing a good source of humor in an otherwise gloomy environment. Sometimes...
