ETF Showdown

The low beta and low volatility themes with ETFs has taken off in a big way with ETF issuers. No doubt it, the "low vol" lifestyle has found its way to the emerging markets universe as well. The EGShares Low Volatility EM Dividend ETF (NYSE: HILO) was one of the first entrants to the low...

So many growth ETFs, so little time. These days, many growth ETFs are delivering solid returns to investors and with this corner of the ETF universe so densely populated, it might just be easier for investors to focus on two simple factors before making a decision: The fund's expense ratio and its...

Quiet as it may be kept, the number of U.S.-listed exchange traded funds offering exposure to Canada is proliferating at a decent pace these days. Part of the increasing number of ETFs with northern exposure comes from soaring production of unconventional energy resources, such as the oil sands of...

It's no secret that iShares, the world's largest ETF issuer, has been issuing new funds at warp speed this year. And it's no secret that some of those funds look a lot like other ETFs that have been around a while. What is interesting about some of the recently introduced iShares ETFs isn't so...

Despite a strong January jobs report, the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV), the largest ETF backed by physical holdings of the white metal, is trading lower by almost 2%. That may just a minor blip on the radar and healthy pullback because to say SLV has been on fire this year is an understatement...

Considering it is the 25th largest economy in the world and considering that the iShares Sweden Index Fund (NYSE: EWD) has been around since 1996, it took a while for Norway to get its own ETF. Until late 2010 in fact. That's when the Global X Norway ETF (NYSE: NORW) debuted. Well, it didn't take...

It's no secret that the defense theme worked in 2011 as ETFs tracking pharmaceuticals, staples and utilities stocks produced nice returns. And as we recently noted there are still some potential winners for 2012 in those groups. With 2011 in the books, it should be noted that among sector ETFs,...

In case you didn't already know, master limited partnerships (MLPs) have been simply en fuego as an asset class in recent years. And what's not to like? As we recently noted, stellar performance, robust yields and tax advantages make it impossible to ignore MLPs. The rising popularity of MLPs has...

As the ETF industry has evolved, so have the number of emerging markets sector funds available to investors. Once upon a time, it was all about single-country funds or multi-country offerings like the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE: VWO). But EM sector funds have proliferated in a big...

A lot of things are up for debate in the ETF world. One that is not is the dominance of the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSE: MOO). This is oldest and largest ETF play on the rise of the farm that uses equities, not futures. Now well past its fourth birthday, the Market Vectors Agribusiness...

Oh Europe. What are we going to do with you? So many problems, so many dominoes left to fall and so little room to adequately address the situation in one article. By now, we can safely say 99.9% of the world's investors know about Europe's sovereign debt woes because that is the primary issue...

If for some reason you've been living in a cave, you might not know that one of the hottest growth areas of the ETF universe is international bond funds. Investors have had access to international bond funds before, but the number is rising and with that comes some more unique options beyond...

When an investor decides to channel his inner Michael Milken and play the world of high yield bonds, affectionately known as junk bonds, two ETFs dominate the conversation. That pair is the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (NYSE: HYG) and the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF...

Film buffs may remember the 1985 flick “Out of Africa” directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. That movie had nothing to do with ETFs and we couldn't get a hold of any famous movie stars for this piece, but this this week's ETF Showdown will be Benzinga's own...

It has been noted countless times that when it comes to emerging markets ETFs offering multi-country exposure there are two dominant players: The Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE: VWO) and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSE: EEM). For a while, this was an intense rivalry,...