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Under The Hood: Big Country Small-Caps
Thursday, September 27, 2012 - 12:59pm | 565The exponential growth of the exchange-traded products business has created more choices for investors. That is a good thing. One potential downside of that growth is that not every new ETF or ETN that comes to market can be completely original. The ETF industry has long been known for its "me...
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Under The Hood: New Frontiers
Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 1:17pm | 631Emerging markets have long stood as the primary avenue for investors willing to take on higher levels of risk in their international investments. The explosion of ETFs tracking emerging markets equities and debt has no doubt helped quench investors' thirst for riskier global fare. Investors...
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Under The Hood: Foreign Junk
Thursday, September 6, 2012 - 3:02pm | 599This much is clear: Investors love bond ETFs. Of the 15 largest U.S.-listed ETFs by assets under management at the end of June, five were bond funds. Two of this year's most successful new ETFs are bond funds, those being the PIMCO Total Return ETF (NYSE: BOND) and the WisdomTree Emerging Markets...
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Under The Hood: A Closer Look at Yield ETFs
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - 11:29am | 654Many investors know that turning to ETFs for solid dividends and strong yields is a legitimate alternative to individual stocks and bonds. Simply put, there is no dearth of places for income investors to turn in the exchange-traded products universe. Perhaps the biggest downside to the rapid...
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Under The Hood: Beyond BRIC
Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 1:22pm | 713The BRIC quartet of Brazil, Russia, India and China have held a dominant perch in the emerging markets investment landscape since Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) coined the catchy acronym more than a decade ago. Since BRIC became common nomenclature, the countries and many of the corresponding ETFs have...
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Under The Hood: Internally Focused
Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 6:35am | 559Not long after investing in emerging markets went mainstream, experts and pundits touted the virtues of tapping into consumers residing in those developing countries. There has been ample talk of the "rise of the middle class" in Brazil and the "newly rich" in China, just to name a couple of...
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Under The Hood: Tempting Technicals And a Dividend
Thursday, August 9, 2012 - 7:06am | 645Some investors have wondered if the dividend trade has become a crowded trade. After all, it seems that it is almost impossible to go a week without at least one expert reminding the investment community that dividends are important. It is also hard to go a substantial stretch of time without a...
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Under The Hood: A Slice of PIE
Thursday, August 2, 2012 - 1:16pm | 518One of the more noticeable trends in the exchange-traded products business over the past several years has been a growing number of developing nations now represented by ETFs. The emerging markets ETF game is not just about the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSE: VWO), the iShares MSCI...
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Under The Hood: Dividends Beyond Stocks
Thursday, July 26, 2012 - 7:01am | 570Actively managed ETFs still account for a percentage of overall exchange-traded products assets and the actively managed space is dominated by just a handful of funds. However, the number of new entrants to the arena continues to expand, giving investors ample opportunity to consider the merits of...
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Under the Hood: And There Was Three (EMCD, CEMB, EMCB)
Friday, July 13, 2012 - 8:21pm | 658One of the more noteworthy themes in ETF Land this year has been the rise of emerging markets bond funds. Scores of new emerging markets bond ETFs have come to market and previously existing funds have delivered impressive performances. The following illustrates just how impressive select emerging...
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Under The Hood: High-Yield, the Actively Managed Way
Thursday, July 5, 2012 - 7:42am | 559When it comes to actively managed ETFs, much ado has been made about the PIMCO Total Return ETF (NYSE: BOND). Colloquially known as the Bill Gross ETF, BOND has amassed almost $1.8 billion in assets under management in just three full months of trading, making it the largest actively managed ETF....
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Under The Hood: Doing it With Dividends (GYLD, PERM)
Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 3:19pm | 601The ETF industry has been quick to meet investor demand for income-generating products, helping dividend funds become one of the fastest-growing sub-sectors of the ETF universe. Not all dividend ETFs come courtesy of iShares, Vanguard or other major issuers, though. One new example of a dividend...
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Under The Hood: An Unheralded Mining Play (TSXV, GDX)
Thursday, June 7, 2012 - 7:29pm | 581Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke didn't do gold bugs any favors on Thursday when he refused to walk down Quantitative Easing Boulevard a third time. While the central bank chief did say the Fed stands ready to act, those comments cannot be taken to mean QE3 is imminent and that proved to be...
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Under The Hood: BONO, But Not U2 (BONO, ELD, EMCB)
Thursday, May 31, 2012 - 1:49pm | 690One of the more obvious trends in the exchange-traded products industry this year has been the introduction of scores of new emerging markets bond ETFs. Whether it's corporate issues or sovereigns, high-yield or investment-grade, investors now have more options than ever before when it comes to...
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Under The Hood: Actively Global
Thursday, May 24, 2012 - 12:01pm | 622If ETFs were states, traditional, passively managed long equity and bond ETFs would be Texas. Actively managed ETFs would be Rhode Island. ETF sponsors are trying to change that, a fact highlighted by State Street's (NYSE: STT) State Street Global Advisors bringing three new actively managed...