Comments on: A look at ETF Trading Volumes and Total Assets

By: This and That: Stock Market History, Emerging Markets, International Diversification and more… | Canadian Capitalist

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:29:53 +0000

[...] hat tips: David Berman, who writes the Globe Investor Market Blog, cited this post in The trouble with ETFs. Rob Carrick listed this blog among his favourites on BNN. Thanks [...]

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:09:38 +0000

@Gaby: To be fair, it is difficult for Canadian funds to match Vanguard’s scale. Vanguard’s ETFs are a class of their existing mutual funds and I’d be very surprised if any Canadian ETF is able to match Vanguard fees. Still, this shouldn’t matter to us retail investors — we’ll have to do what’s best for us.

@MoneyEnergy: I’m surprised at how much of a cash cow COW is for Claymore. I think the ones towards the bottom are likely to thrive. I can’t see XIU or even XSB being shut down.

@Charles: I hope so too. Like you say, XEN is hardly one of the questionable ETFs out there.

@Doug: The bid/ask spread analysis is how this project started out but got sidetracked. I’ll post on the spreads next week.

@Chris: No, it doesn’t include advisor class shares. However, for CWW the average volume of CWW.A is onlt 1,400. That’s why I think it qualifies for the “Deathwatch” but CJP doesn’t.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:58:34 +0000

I’m curious about the AUM for the Claymore ETFs. Does it include the adviser class shares? If it does, I wonder what proportion of the AUMs they account for.

It’s really too bad that the more specialized ETFs from both companies have been so neglected. XCV and XCS seem like great products to increase exposure to value and small cap stocks respectively. I’m surprised they didn’t get any interest from people hoping to beat the index over the long term.

I own XCV and despite what looks like a huge risk of liquidation, I just can’t see any better way to increase broad exposure to Canadian value stocks.

I’m equally surprised that some of the Claymore specialized ETFs like CLO (oilsands stocks) and CMW (mining stocks) don’t have greater assets. I would think they should have been easy to sell during the commodities frenzy last year.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:39:47 +0000

One of the attractive features of ETFs is their low cost. A part of the cost is the bid ask spread. On the larger, more liquid ETFs, my guess is that the spread is small. I wonder whether it’s like on the smaller, less frequently traded ETFs.

By: Charles in Vancouver

Charles in Vancouver — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:45:56 +0000

I own XEN myself. I’m quite aware of its small trading volume but I hope it will stay around anyway because it’s the cheapest socially-screened Canadian equity fund in town.

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:04:34 +0000

Thanks for the note on ETF closures in the U.S. I haven’t heard much about that, actually. So what’s your take on the most sustainable Canadian ETFs? Most of them, except the two you mentioned at the bottom? I own some XMA and COW… maybe one other one.

By: Gaby

Gaby — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:41:31 +0000

Thanks for the info. Will help me avoid certain ETF’s in building up my portfolio. Now if only Vanguard would open up some ETF’s here. How can the same ETF here be .60% MER while the same Vanguard one is only .15%? But at that low price, I may go all in with Vanguard.