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 →
Earlier this week Josh Brown highlighted some fascinating data from Convergex, illustrating the apparent apathy among the general public towards the financial markets. Search volume for many generic terms, from "ETF" to "real estate" to "stockbroker," had actually declined over the past several months. Continue reading →
ETFs are popular for a number of reasons; among them is the relative ease with which a low-cost, diversified portfolio can be constructed. Several Global Stock ETFs offer exposure to the global equity market -- thousands of stocks from dozens of different countries -- through a single ticker. But defining and creating global stock market exposure can be a tricky task -- with results that might surprise some. Continue reading →
The normally quiet summer months of 2015 have been quite eventful on Wall Street; major stock indexes in the U.S. and abroad have experienced big movements in both directions. Continue reading →
Biotech ETFs have become a popular tool for investors looking to enhance return opportunities through a tactical allocation within their portfolio, thanks in large part to a blistering track record. Biotech ETFs can be found near the top of most performance leaderboards over both five-year and 10-year time horizons, having outperformed broad-based funds by a wide margin in recent years. Continue reading →
In addition being the most widely-recognized stock benchmark in the world, the S&P 500 is also one of the most replicated. Hundreds of billions of dollars are invested in products that are designed to match the performance of the index, including dozens of mutual funds. Continue reading →
ETF assets have grown to nearly $2 trillion for a number of reasons, but much of the growth can be attributed to the ability of the exchange-traded structure to provide cheap diversification across a variety of asset classes. The first part of that feature -- cheap -- tends to get most of the attention. But like their mutual fund predecessors, ETFs also deliver value by simplifying the process of portfolio diversification. Continue reading →
Among the oldest investing strategies out there are the basic segmentation of stocks into two categories -- value and growth. Value stocks tend to be more mature companies with higher dividend yields while growth stocks are younger companies trading at higher multiples but growing revenue more quickly. Continue reading →
