Smart beta ETFs

Small-cap stocks and exchange-traded funds have been in the news quite a bit recently and for all the wrong reasons. With the widely followed Russell 2000 Index and the S&P SmallCap 600 Index up an average of 2.2 percent year-to-date, or about a third of the gain posted by the S&P 500, some...

The proliferation of and assets flowing to smart beta exchange-traded funds are themes ETF industry observers widely expect to continue and data support those notions. At the end of January, there were 600 smart beta ETFs with a combined assets under management tally of nearly $480 billion....

It has been a good year for the technology sector, the largest sector allocation in the S&P 500. The tech-heavy NASDAQ-100 Index is up 8.7 percent while the Technology SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLK), the largest technology exchange-traded fund, is higher by 16.5 percent. PSI, Ahead Of The Rest...

BlackRock,Inc. (NYSE: BLK), the world's largest asset manager, delivered an early holiday present to investors by unveiling another round of fee reductions on some of its exchange-traded funds. The most recent batch of fee cuts pertain to some iShares smart beta ETFs. iShares Smart Beta ETF...

Count 2016 as another year of impressive growth and expectations of more of the same for smart beta exchange-traded funds. BlackRock data indicate 2016 is proving to be a banner year for smart beta funds. As of November 20, smart beta ETFs around the world attracted $45 billion in new assets...

The Consumer Staples Select Sect. SPDR (ETF) (NYSE: XLP) is up about 1.8 percent this week. Perhaps that is the beginning of a comeback for a once hot sector exchange-traded fund that now resides about 7.5 percent below its July highs. Low Beta Sectors' Recent Performance Earlier this year, low...

An increasingly popular niche within the expansive universe of smart beta exchange-traded funds is the low volatility/high dividend concept. SPHD And 2 New ETFs The PowerShares S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility Portfolio (PowerShares Exchange-Traded Fund Trust II (NYSE: SPHD)) pioneered the...

As the smart or strategic beta landscape has evolved in recent years, there have been plenty of estimates, forecasts and studies calling for exponential growth for those exchange traded funds that follow fundamentally-weighted indexes or adhere to index methodologies beyond weighting by market...

As is the case with other investments, knowing exactly when low volatility is going to be in style amounts to an effort aimed at factor timing and can be a tricky endeavor. Likewise, knowing when higher beta stocks will be favored is a taxing endeavor. Welcome To The Market, LVHB The Elkhorn Lunt...

Smart beta remains one of the fastest-growing corners of the exchange-traded funds market. Within this rapidly growing space, multi-factor ETFs are taking hold, perhaps offering investors a smarter interpretation of smart beta. The Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF (NYSE: GSLC) is...

With approximately 300 exchange-traded funds offering exposure to China in some form or fashion, it can pay for investors to consider different approaches to the world's second-largest economy. Enter the KraneShares Zacks New China ETF (KraneShares Trust (NYSE: KFYP)). Counting On China KFYP...

John Hancock added five of its smart beta sector exchange-traded funds to Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE: SCHW)'s Schwab ETF OneSource platform, the largest commission-free platform for ETFs in the brokerage industry. The move, announced in a statement issued Wednesday by Boston-based John Hancock and...

First Trust, the seventh-largest U.S. issuer of exchange-traded funds, is already one of the largest purveyors of smart beta ETFs, including sector funds, added to its lineup of smart beta offerings last week with the addition of seven industry funds. The new ETFs from Illinois-based First Trust...

Elkhorn Investments added to its growing lineup of exchange-traded funds Wednesday with the addition of two smart beta commodities funds. DWA The Elkhorn Commodity Rotation Strategy ETF (NASDAQ: DWAC) is the latest ETF to follow Dorsey, Wright & Associates (DWA)'s popular momentum-based...

Leveraging its research capabilities and perch as a dominant issuer of actively managed mutual funds, Fidelity entered the smart beta arena Thursday with the debuts of six exchange-traded funds. Smart or strategic funds are one of the fastest-growing segments of the ETF industry and for several...