Since its birth in 1993, the ETF industry has grown to encompass hundreds of investment strategies and nearly $2 trillion in assets. While the product lineup has become quite diversified in many ways, several major concentrations still exist. Continue reading →
The idea of creating a stock index may seem relatively straightforward: come up with a few rules, set a few filters, and crank out the basket of stocks that matches a particular investment thesis. In reality, it isn't always that simple. As companies expand their businesses into new countries and industries, achieving pure play exposure can become a bit tricky. Continue reading →
In addition to hundreds of options for accessing U.S. stock markets, the ETF universe includes funds targeting dozens of individual countries around the world. Continue reading →
In March of 1996 iShares launched some of the first country-specific stock ETFs, rolling out 17 funds targeting much of Western Europe as well as Mexico and a handful of both developed and emerging Asian economies. Continue reading →
Though many working on Wall Street have backgrounds in finance or economics, there is certainly a love of history as well. Comparisons to past environments are commonplace, as are predictions based on historical patterns. Continue reading →
State Street debuted its suite of sector ETFs in 1998, meaning that the nine "sector SPDRs" will soon complete their 17th full year. That stretch has seen bull and bear markets, dramatic reversals, and repeated reshuffling of leadership. Continue reading →
By most indications, the U.S. economy is quite strong. But that hasn't stopped a number of "experts" from predicting a future full of doom-and-gloom. The most aggressive of these bearish predictions call for a repeat of the 1929 crash that started the Great Depression. In early 2014, investors passed around a chart that seemed to predict imminent disaster. Continue reading →
The climb past 1,800 exchange-traded products has been driven by a fair amount of innovation -- and seemingly quite a bit of duplication. Many of the newer products seem to compete directly with established funds, with very few differences. Continue reading →
