August wasn't a very good month for risky asset classes. Of the 58 key ETFs highlighted below, fixed income, gold, silver, the yen, utilities, and Hong Kong were the only ones in the green during the month. The S&P 500 tracking SPY ETF declined 4.50% in August, the Midcap 400 ETF (IJH) declined 4.89%, and the Smallcap 600 ETF (
The S&P 500 SPY ETF rallied 6.83% in the month of July. Below is a table highlighting the performance of key ETFs across all asset classes in July (as well as YTD and over the last week). Interestingly, largecaps here in the US outperformed smallcaps, which usually isn't the case during rallies. Growth and value both performed about the same, while Materials, Industrials, and Energy were the best performing sectors. Globally, Italy (MyPlanIQ submits:
ETFs have become increasingly popular as part of taxable or self-directed IRA portfolios, and a flurry of new commission-free ETFs will only accelerate their adoption. There is another less visible but significant move to make ETFs a staple in traditional company sponsored retirement plans such as the 2.7 trillion 401(k) sector.
iShares (recently acquired by BlackRock) established iShares401k.com to promote ETFs within the 401(k) industry. Two vendors -- AdvisorETF401k and Ascensus -- have signed up to provide iShares ETFs for 401(k) plans.
The latest Vanguard announcement on offering all the company's 46 ETF trades commission free marks a new era for ETFs. In our opinion, with trading costs removed, ETFs are now a viable alternative to index and actively managed mutual funds in portfolio building and asset allocation.
Three brokerage firms, Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab, have announced commission-free ETFs. Let's first compare them in the following table:
If you haven't seen enough red this week, take a look at the table of recent key ETF performance below. It wasn't long ago that this entire screen was green. Markets don't stay overbought forever, and they don't stay oversold forever either.
US market related ETFs are generally down 5% to 10% over the last week, while foreign market ETFs are down 10%-15%. Of the foreign ETFs highlighted, Russia (RSX) is...
Shrugging off some lingering reminders of the credit crisis and recession, investors last week marked the one-year anniversary of the bear market low by pushing many benchmark equity indices to cycle highs.
Wall Street scaled 17-month highs on the back of easing concerns of sovereign debt defaults and increased hopes for a global economic recovery as the U.S. dollar pulled back and the CBOE Volatility (VIX) Index approached 22-month lows. The Index...
Over the past few months, some trading platforms have explicitly lowered investors' ETF costs by waiving trading commissions on a select few products. Charles Schwab (SCHW) launched eight of its own low-cost ETFs that can be traded for free on their own platform, and Fidelity recently partnered with iShares to bring 25 widely held ETFs to its users without the burden of an $8 fee per position entry or exit.
Fidelity announced Tuesday that it will be offering a suite of 25 iShares ETFs commission-free. In our view, the 25 ETFs selected (see the full list below) are among the most relevant product offerings from the largest ETF provider and will allow investors to build high-quality, transparent, liquid, and tax-efficient portfolios without the single-largest cost burden they previously faced when comparing ETFs to indexed mutual funds--trading commissions.
Fidelity Investments announced today that it will offer its retail customers commission-free online trades for a suite of 25 iShares ETFs. The funds included in the commission-free platform include ETFs in all nine domestic equity style/size categories, as well as international equity and fixed income options. “Fidelity has partnered with the leading ETF provider in the market to bring investors the best brokerage offering in the industry today,” said Kathleen A. Murphy, president of Personal Investing at Fidelity Investments. “Simply put, we’re offering the broadest selection of commission-free ETFs from the undisputed ETF leader, and...
SPDR Barclays Cap Mortgage Backed Bond (MBG) [Chart - Analysis - News] established a new 52-week high yesterday at $28.25. Clearly investors are enthusiastic about the firm's prospects. The rally ...
By Chip Brian SmarTrend has detected shares of iShares S&P MidCap 400/BARRA Value Index Fund (NYSE:IJJ) have bullishly opened above the pivot of $68.09 today and have reached the first resistance ...
By Chip Brian SmarTrend has detected shares of iShares S&P MidCap 400/BARRA Value Index Fund (NYSE:IJJ) have bullishly opened above the pivot of $69.19 today and have reached the first resistance ...
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