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Thu, December 24, 2009
This past summer I wrote about the novel Macroshares trusts released this year that enable investors to speculate on the direction of housing prices. Earlier this week, MacroMarkets announced that instead of terminating in 2014, the trusts will terminate next week. Read the full article
Fri, September 25, 2009
Don Dion, writing in TheStreet.com, has included UMM and DMM on his list of the "10 Most Dangerous ETFs." Technically, they're not ETFs, but that's a minor quibble. Going beyond the criticisms I offered of MacroShares Major Metro Housing Up (UMM) and Major Metro Housing Down (DMM), Dion comments: Read the full article
Fri, August 21, 2009
Announcements of new exchange-traded funds arrive in my e-mailbox almost daily, but today’s seemed ironically timed: a new inverse ETF tied to the performance of twenty-year Treasuries. Read the full article
Wed, August 19, 2009
The SEC issued a joint warning with FINRA today about the risks of leveraged and inverse ETFs for retail investors. Read the full article
Tue, July 28, 2009
As I noted about a month ago, FINRA has drawn attention to the fact that leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds are often not appropriate for retail investors. In response, some prominent broker/dealer firms have announced that they are backing away from the sale of such ETFs Read the full article
Thu, July 16, 2009
As more attention is focused on to the risks of leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), regulators are starting to investigate how they’re being sold to retail investors. Read the full article
Wed, July 01, 2009
Last May I attended a talk by Yale economist Robert Shiller in which he indicated that his company, MacroMarkets, was seeking SEC approval for a derivative product tied to home prices. Finally, this week the new “housing ETFs” are available. What are they about, and who should buy them? Read the full article
Tue, June 30, 2009
I noted last week that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has warned brokers that inverse and leveraged ETFs are inappropriate for many retail investors. Having discussed the workings and problems of inverse ETFs, I’d like to continue by taking a look at leveraged exchange-traded funds. Read the full article
Fri, June 26, 2009
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently notified brokers who sell complex Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) that “inverse and leveraged ETFs typically are not suitable for retail investors who plan to hold them for more than one trading session.” The warning is long overdue, as leveraged ETFs were first introduced in 2006 after three years of SEC review. Read the full article
Wed, August 06, 2008
Today’s post continuues Part 1 with a further explanation of this rapidly-growing alternative to the mutual fund. In my initial post I explained that ETFs
Tue, July 29, 2008
In the last four years or so, there has been explosion of newly created exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the financial marketplace. What are these investment products, and how are they different from the more familiar mutual funds? Read the full article
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