February 4, 2012

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United States ETF Inflows Fell Sharply in August

September 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

United States ETF inflows fell sharply in August as stock market volatility rose to its highest levels since the worst days of the global financial crisis in 2008. What does this mean?

Most investors pulled money from equity during the month of August, choosing commodity and real estate ETFs and headed for the relative safety of bonds. Fixed income ETFs gathered inflows of $4.7bn in August, compared with $2.6bn in July. According to Financial Times, a short maturity bond ETF was the second most popular choice for ETF investors in August with the SPDR BarCap 1-3 month bill ETF, known as BIL, attracting inflows of $2.1bn.

While United States inflows did fall, the sharp swings during the month have also served to re-ignite the debate over whether the growing popularity of ETFs could be contributing to an increase in stock market volatility.

Pundits, investors, academics and analysts have all suggested that the growth of ETFs and index funds has resulted in an “increased commonality of trading” where the simultaneously buying or selling of all of the constituents of an index forces them to move together during the trading day.

We will see what develops in September, but either way, ETFs remain a great way to build a very diversified portfolio, especially if you get invested in the right ones.

Filed Under: ETF Hound News Tagged With: , ,

Get Your ETF Quotes and Info on the Go

August 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you one of those investors who are constantly checking your ETFs? Well, now you can get real time information on the go with The Street’s ne iPad 2 App that includes Stock Market News, Charts & Technical Analysis. Perfect for anyone who is looking for up to the minute information on the go.

With the newest app update you are able to Swipe an article, expand a chart, tap a quote and get the details on any company’s financial condition. All very valuable tools for the on the go investor. The app is also easy to manage and easy to understand, which is great for people who don’t understand the technical side of the app.

Here are some of the other features that “The Street’s new app provides:

  • Company and Technical Analysis at the Touch of a Button
  • Quote Pages With Everything
  • Trend Lines Available at a Swipe
  • Up to the Minute News From The Street
  • Award Winning Multimedia Interface
  • Ability to Track Multiple Portfolios

The Street for iPad

Again, if you are someone who needs up to the minute news, quotes and analysis, the this app is the way to go. Your ETFs are important, why not use a great interface like this to keep track of everything at a moments notice.

Filed Under: ETF Resources Tagged With: , , , ,

SPY Down Almost 50% On The Year

October 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The ETF SPY is down almost 50% on the year from it’s 52 week high of 155 and change. The dividend, which will most likely be reduced due to component securities reducing and or eliminating their dividend stands at just over 3% right now.

This all coming as a global downturn in all markets seems inevitable. The S&P 500, which SPY follows by buying in the same mix and percentage of securities may be the only ETF you’d want to tackle right now. All others, sectors, shorts, longs, options, bonds, etc have been so erratic it’s making retirees and those looking to retire soon run for the door.

If there is a return, which looks like it may take a few years, buying all the way down during these times seems like a good idea to us, although others may suggest you get out and stay out for a while, if you don’t need the money for a few years (think 10 years) you may want to buy all the way down.

This is a good way of dollar cost averaging and allowing yourself to not worry about all the ups and downs in the market. Those ups and downs can drive you crazy. Buy the SPY and forget about it might be the only ETF investing strategy that can work.

Filed Under: SPDR Tagged With: , , ,

Short ETFs Explained By Seeking Alpha

June 9, 2008 By 1 Comment

Short ETFs are great new way to enable the average investor to get in on short selling stocks without all the hassle of knowing what the heck they’re doing. For some that can be bad, but for most it’s finally an easy way to get in on the action of making money even if the market as a whole is going down.

Exchange-traded funds are all the rage right now and for good reason. They trade on the open market just like shares of a company, but give you diversity like a mutual fund. The latest product in this ever expanding investment craze is the offer of “Short ETFs.”

Short ETFs are called such because they try to give the investor the opposite of the index or sector that they’re shorting. Seeking Alpha has an explanation of short and long funds straight from the CEO of ProFunds.

Basically, he says that having a fund of short sells on equities is a very risky practice. Instead, shorted funds through ProFunds tries to get the same effect by shorting futures contracts and swap agreements. Now I’m not exactly sure how that works, but it also sounds risky.

However, these funds seem to trend just as they should so who am I to think it sounds so difficult. One interesting shorted ETF is through ProShares and is the Ultrashort QQQ (QID). Now ultrashorts try to provide the investor with double the opposite of whatever it may be tracking, in this case, the NASDAQ 100. These can be a bit riskier and bit more erratic with huge moves from day to day depending on how the markets are trading.

Overall, these exchange-traded funds give the investor just another option to make money in any type of market, up or down.

Filed Under: ProShares, Short ETFs Tagged With: , , , ,

Fidelity Investments Provides Over 600 ETFs

June 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Exchange-traded funds are huge right now. They’re easy to purchase, you can buy them just as you would buy any other share in a company. You don’t have to buy huge amounts, like with mutual funds where most companies, including Fidelity, make you sometimes spend a lot of money on these funds at one time to get in.

ETFs are easy and another company offering them, is Fidelity. Fidelity Investments offers over 600 ETFs for you to choose from. Across sectors, across indexes, across pretty much anything you can think of, even shorted ETFs, Fidelity has them.

A great tool they have for you to choose ETFs can be found at their choosing ETF page. This tool allows you to look in various sectors, countries, style, and capitalization. Just like you would choose a mutual fund based on how much risk you want to go after, or what sector, you can now choose your ETF that way.

The best part, you don’t have to plunk down the $1000 to get a few shares. You can buy a single share, using your online discount broker and sell them just the same. All that applies are your fees for your trade, whatever your broker charges.

ETFs are taking off. Fidelity Investments is in the game. Are you?

Filed Under: ETF Companies Tagged With: , , , ,

iShares, Tons of ETFs in One Spot

June 4, 2008 By 2 Comments

If you’re looking for a one stop shop of exchange-traded funds, then you don’t have to look much further than one company. That company is iShares. This company is one of leading ETF providers out there and has funds in all types of funds in all types of sectors.

iShares has silver ETFs and gold ETFs which have been helping push the precious metals to all time highs. That and all the turmoil in the stock market and us economy.

They also have leading market and sector exchange traded funds that will allow you to choose a whole sector at once without the need to buy many many equities. This can be great and enable you to diversify easily without having to sink a lot of money in things like mutual funds. The biggest challenge you’ll have is choosing which sector is hot right now and which isn’t.

A quick note on choosing a sector. A lot of times, by the time you here of a hot sector. It’s too late, and you miss out on the run up. Getting into an ETF allows you have less exposure to that one company you would normally have to choose in that sector. This can make any losses after a sell off have less of an impact on your bottom line.

More on this later…

Filed Under: ETF Companies, iShares Tagged With: , , , , , ,

ETF Hound Helps You Choose the Right Fund

April 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment

There are literally thousands of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) out there for the individual investor to get lost in. Just a few years ago the only really known ETF was a Spider that traded the S & P 500, or at least that was all I knew of. But now they’re everywhere.

Much like mutual funds, choosing the right one can be difficult. But unlike mutual funds you don’t have to spend big money to buy them or buy them through an investment company. Exchange-traded funds can be bought on most stock market exchanges.

You can buy short fund that short a whole index or sector. You can buy international ETFs that focus on a specific country or ones that are widespread all over the world. Commodity ETFs, sector ETFs, and random ETFs. They’re all there.

ETF Hound is here to help you sift through all the choices and find the ETF that is right for you during the current market conditions. Unlike mutual funds, buying and holding exchage traded funds isn’t always the way to go. You can buy a fund easy like a stock so you should think about them that way.

Let ETF Hound help you choose the right one.

Filed Under: ETF Hound News Tagged With: , , ,