The trend of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) capturing narrower and narrower segments of the markets continues inexorably with Claymore announcing a brand-new China ETF that started trading on the TSX just the other day. The new ETF joins an already crowded space: iShares offers a competing product called the iShares China Index Fund (XCH) and for [...]
Horizon’s AlphaPro and BetaPro ETF products have hitherto had little appeal to the long-term, buy-and-hold passive investor crowd. But, the introduction of the Horizon AlphaPro S&P/TSX 60 Equal Weight Index ETF (TSX: HEW) that tracks the S&P/TSX 60 Equal Weight Index (EWI) may change that. Unlike the more widely-known S&P/TSX 60 Index, which weights the [...]
The Bank of Montreal is launching ETFs at a fast and furious pace. Eight new ETFs from BMO started trading on the TSX recently. In just over a year since it launched its first ETFs, BMO has 30 ETFs in its lineup. The new ETFs that started trading last week are: BMO Equal Weight REITs [...]
The media is calling last week’s freak 1,000 point plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average a “flash crash”. The crash was especially deadly for ETFs. Media reports indicate that as much as one fourth of ETFs suffered suspicious declines. More than two-thirds of the names on the list of canceled trades involve ETFs. ETFs [...]
BlackRock Asset Management is sending a notice to unitholders of iShares exchange traded funds that, effective July 1, 2010, the management expense ratio of a long list of iShares Funds are increasing by 0.01% to 0.03%: An iShares Fund’s management fee is the fee paid by the fund to BlackRock Canada for acting as the [...]
Vendors are cranking out ETFs faster than you can keep up with them. iShares Canada has added the following six ETFs to its existing line up: The iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund (TSX:XBZ) holds the US-listed ETF of the same name (NYSE Arca: EWZ) and tracks the Brazilian stock market. The MER is 0.75%. The [...]
Last Fall, BMO expanded its lineup of ETFs by 9 new funds. Recently, BMO has once again added nine new ETFs to its lineup. They are: BMO Mid Corporate Bond Index ETF (ZCM). MER: 0.30% BMO Long Corporate Bond Index ETF (ZLC). MER: 0.30% BMO Aggregate Bond Index ETF (ZAG). MER: 0.28% BMO Global Infrastructure [...]
I’ve looked at the tracking error of S&P 500 currency-neutral funds in past years but the tracking errors in the iShares CDN MSCI EAFE 100% Hedged to CAD Dollars Index (TSX: XIN) remained a mystery because I didn’t have the annual return data for the MSCI EAFE Index* in local currency. XIN holds the iShares [...]
Unlike Mackenzie, which opted for a strategy of attacking the enemy, Invesco Trimark is adopting a strategy that can only be described as “if you can’t beat them, join them”. As Jon Chevreau reported yesterday, Invesco Trimark has launched mutual funds that hold US-listed PowerShares ETFs and pay a trailer fee, which would make it [...]
It turns out Mackenzie Financial has been “fighting back” against index funds for years. Check out this column titled “Exploding fund myths” in the Financial Post dated August 10, 2004. It features two tables listing the top-10 funds in the Global Equity and Canadian Equity category and shows 10 out 10 Global funds outperforming the [...]
