New-fangled ETFs? Investors say, “no, thanks.”

Of course, not everything new is “new-fangled,” and some of these new ETFs probably deserve more attention than they will ever receive. Yet, there’s no denying that the boom in fundamental ETFs set off a race to cash-in on their popularity by marketing new gimmicky and trendy versions.
One good thing about this Bear market is [...]

Two new liquid, transparent, low-cost iShares to help manage risk

The mother of all ETF sponsors, Barclay’s Global, just trotted out two attractive bond iShares — at expense ratios of .20 and .25%. Last week, we noticed that PowerShares just slashed expense ratios on a group of its ETFs.
As long as investors keep caring about expense ratios, it looks like the creators of ETFs will [...]

Saying no to “the losing proposition” with ETFs

We’ve posted on the re-emergence of the losing proposition of mutal funds here and here.
Today we provide a forecast and an altervative:
Ways to Beat the Tax Bite of Mutual Funds
A bad year for mutual fund investors is about to get worse. That’s because buy-and-hold investors with funds held in taxable accounts are about to get [...]

ETF price wars: A good thing for smart investors

As I’ve noted in recent posts, ETFs’ popularity can jeopardize their integrity. Marketers with a pre-meltdown mentality have raised fees and added money managers — who try to select securites and time the market — in an effort to leverage the brand to gather assets from uninformed investors.
PowerShares stays serious by lowering the expense [...]

What no stock picker wants right now: name recognition

An ETF advocate takes the gloves off and reminds us how rediculous stock pickers can look.
Bear Market Burns Stock Pickers
SAN DIEGO – If you’re one of the unfortunate souls whose investment portfolio is taking a beating this year, then there’s a good chance it’s because you’ve overdosed on underperforming individual stocks.
Some of the best known [...]

S&P to develop indexes for Korea, ETFs to follow

S&P to develop indices for Korea Exchange
Standard & Poor’s inks deal to develop set of indices for Korea Exchange
NEW YORK (AP) — Standard & Poor’s on Thursday signed an agreement with the Korea Exchange to develop a new set of indices for Asian investors.
The deal was reached in Korea in May and signed by representatives [...]

The first actively traded ETF just died; that was quick

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the campaign for active ETFs was still waiting to take off. We know also that John Bogle thinks they are absurd, while IMG wants to bring in a whole new family of them. Well, last week JPMorgan’s recently concocted active ETF was pronounced dead
JPMorgan Shutters [...]

Mutual funds’ costs and underperformance frustrate financial advisers

As you may know, MFSW has been tracking the transfer of wealth from mutual funds to ETFs for the past quarter. It appears that it will be the largest transfer of individually invested assets in history.
ETF-only model proves an attractive option
Financial advisers who have been won over by exchange-traded funds because of their tax efficiency [...]

The 3 reasons for the current surge in ETFs

Data coming in from several sources confirms it. There is a great deal of switching from mutual funds to ETFs in the portfolio management industry. And it’s happening right now.
Here is an analysis of the thinking behind the move that boils down to 3 points: actively traded mutual funds cost too much, under-perform, and [...]

More data confirms ETF surge

Seven of 10 best-selling funds in July were ETFs
Previously at MFSW: Growth of indexed investments astonishing