April 2007

Weekend Reading: Mutual Funds, ETFs

Dueling Fools: Mutual Funds
In his newly published book, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, Bogle argues, "I can't help likening the ETF to the renowned Purdey shotgun,

Four new exchange-traded funds launched on Amex
Claymore Securities Inc. said on Thursday it launched an ETF investing in mid-cap growth stocks and another focused on small-cap value stocks.

Hedge Fund Replication: A Replay of the ETF- Mutual Fund Relationship?
But now that BGI manages ETFs based on each Morningstar style box, are we to conclude that mutual funds are toast? Or are we to simply conclude that mutual

Exchange Traded Funds Have Grown Both In Total Asset Size As Well As In The Number Of Total Instruments
At the same time, the products are slowly beginning to encroach on the qualified plan market previously dominated by mutual funds.

MarketBeat Blog - WSJ.com : Four at Four: ETF Rising
The Investment Company Institute reported today that assets in the nation’s exchange-traded funds are up to $444 billion from $422 billion in December, with strong growth across all types of equity-focused ETFs.

Think Twice Before Investing in Bond ETFs
the strengths of traditional bond mutual funds, we continue to think that they serve most investors very well

Morningstar Investor Returns: Another Reason Why Chasing Past Performance Is Bad
Now, don't think this performance chasing doesn't apply to index funds. It does. Check out the Investor Returns for the classic Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund, VFINX:. Not quite as bad, but the average owner still lagged the fund's

Recent Mutual Funds News

New Insights into Mutual Funds
'New Insights into Mutual Funds' is a bundle of four empirical studies on mutual funds. In his thesis, Joop Huij investigates persistence in risk-adjusted

Mutual funds, like a good team on court, must rebound well
In mutual funds, there are asset classes. Your search for a fund should start by deciding the type of assets you want to own. If you want a large-cap growth

Is Inverse ETF Activity a Contrarian Indicator?
Scott Rothbort submits: One sign that the market had gone too far was when the volume of chatter about inverse and leveraged inverse ETFs went up

Russian ETF Takes a Beating
Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Emerging markets ETFs had a rough week, but Russia seemed to be one of the hardest hit. The Russian RTS index ended down

Some Mutual Funds Are Worth Price of Sales Load
WE HERE AT THE SmartMoney fund screen are obsessed with cutting out fees. We don't need stacks of academic studies

Vanguard unveils mutual funds with ETF shares
There will be a 0.25% purchase fee on investments in the Investor and Institutional Shares and a 2% redemption fee applied to non-ETF shares redeemed within

Mutual Funds
Simple: Mutual Funds. People can buy stocks which are the average price of up to 10 players across sports. That way they're low risk stocks which can have

Investors want to consider index funds along with traditional mutual funds for their portfolios
However, like a stock you will pay a commission when you sell the ETF. Taylor says an important item to consider when weighing mutual funds and index funds

The Best of the Bond Mutual Funds - AAA Credit Quality Only Portfolio
Here are some of the best bond mutual funds in the business, all of which have a minimum initial investment of $3000 or less, and all of whom only invest in AAA-rated fixed income products. Criteria: - Portfolio manager has been there

Fixed-Income Bond ETFs Poised For Breakout
After trending modestly lower throughout the morning, stocks reversed into positive territory in the afternoon, but a sell-off during the final hour

How to use Yahoo finance to research mutual funds
Mutual funds are considered the best and safest investments by some financial experts. When it comes to investing in mutual funds, research is a vital part of successful investing. While every mutual fund has a manager who controls and

ETF industry sees birth of more rating services
The number of companies that rate exchange traded funds and the methods they use to rate them is growing.

Funds Maverick Talks 'Common Sense'
Do you think the growing popularity of exchange-traded funds presents risks to investors? Of course it does. ETF is a term that covers a multitude of

ETF Evolution Conference: A Look Behind the Indexes
Andrew Corn submits: I was invited to moderate the panel for the session: "Index Construction and How It Relates To "Real World" ETF Products."

WisdomTree: Betting On Single Factor ETF Indexes
Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: WisdomTree is betting that when it comes to fundamental indexing for ETFs, the simpler, the better.

Plenty of free sites popping up to help investors pick an ETF
In April, XTF plans to come out with mutual-funds built around ETFs. The firm's ETF ratings site is constructed for professional as well as amateur

XShares expands HealthShares ETF group
XShares Advisors LLC launched nine exchange-traded funds on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, expanding its HealthShares

Managers At AIM Set High Standards
When deciding whether to invest in a company, Rasplicka and his team of five analysts look for mid-cap stocks with earnings momentum.

Noteworthy News

Eye On The iShares Mexico ETF
Carl T. Delfeld submits: Latin America is a very hot region which has posted better than average returns in all three of the region's ETFs.

Investors flock to safety as utilities lead quarterly results
Even though stock mutual funds investing in utilities are on a four-year roll, they refuse to quit.

Small-Cap Fund's Models ID Leaders
"We use a quantitative strategy to guide our investing," said Mark Zavanelli, co-manager of the $5.3 billion portfolio.

Bear Stearns Files First Active ETF Prospectus: Issues of Disclosure Remain
Matt Hougan (IndexUniverse) submits: The era of actively managed exchange-traded funds is set to begin. Bear Stearns (BSC) this week became the first

Mutual-fund and ETF performance, analysis and more
... column taking aim at securities regulators for missing the mark on fund shareholder rights, all on MarketWatch's Mutual Funds/ETF page this week.

PowerShares acquires ETFs and index funds
In 2006, the ETF was one of the most actively traded in the world with an average of 107.4 million shares traded daily. BLDRS is a series of ETFs based on

Mutual Funds Rise at Slower Clip
During the first quarter of 2007, US equity mutual funds rose 2.7% - less than half the pace of the previous quarter. Funds that invest in the financial

ETF Explosion Too Much For Investors? Not Necessarily
We lived with over 11000 mutual funds at one point and most never performed in line with their benchmarks. Sure, with only 400+ ETFs we have more asset

Tracking the ETFs and Sector Indices
iShares Tr Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) - Under the 50-day SMA at $88.68 is risk to the 200-day SMA at $87.93.

Could your mutual funds catch the subprime flu?
Many investors are wondering just how vulnerable their mutual funds are to the contagion that could spread from the troubled

A Look at Mutual Funds Over the Last Three Months
The ETF, which invests in 37 steel companies across the globe, blew by most of its 9000 or so competitors with an 18.4% return, according to Lipper.

Schwab to launch fundamental index mutual funds
Up to now, fund products using fundamental indexes have been confined to exchange-traded funds and have not been available in the open-end mutual fund

ETF Fees Are Largely Irrelevant
As far as mutual funds are concerned thats probably true, since few active managers are able to consistently outperform their benchmarks anyway.

Last-Minute Tax Tactics For Investors
You will lose some of the benefit of low tax rates on qualified dividends and long-term capital gain distributions from mutual funds.

ETF Producers Get Aggressive As Competition Heats Up
Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: As competition for capturing the exchange traded fund marketplace heats up, producers are getting aggressive when pitching

JennisonDryden Mutual Funds Win Lipper Award
The award recognizes JennisonDrydens equity mutual funds for having the highest average Consistent Return scores for the three years ended December 31,

22 Mutual Funds That Scream 'Dump Me!'
Premium Members of Morningstar.com know to head right to our Fund Analyst Picks and Pans lists

NYSE Launches Arca Tech 100 ETF
An insider revealed that the ETF holds constituents ranging from semiconductors to health care companies and reflects companies implementing creative

Vanguard Fund Takes Myriad Paths
Primecap Management's investment philosophy stresses individual decision-making and shuns group or committee decisions.

Most Mutual Funds Have Avoided Subprime Lenders' Stocks: Holdings of subprime lenders
Although the market was hammered last week by subprime loans, individual mutual funds aren't likely to have much exposure to the volatile

Computer-Powered ETFs
Actively managed exchange-traded funds--the so-called holy grail of the ETF industry--thus far remain elusive. Several roadblocks have kept them from

Dealing With New Kiddie Tax Rules
That's good, because most stocks and stock mutual funds pay qualified dividends. Some dividends paid by real estate investment trusts, foreign stocks and

Investors lose when they choose mutual funds based on ads
A new study in Sweden found that mutual funds that advertise don't perform any better than their competitors. But, maybe as a result of their advertising

Bear Bet: An ETF That Loves Down Markets
If you want to take advantage of declines in the market, two options are to short a stock or buy an ETF. The fund can be the cheaper option and it's easy to

Judge an ETF by Its Fundamentals
Perhaps because ETFs have always been compared with mutual funds, analysts have started to evaluate them as if they were mutual funds.

Mutual funds Falloff is slight in first quarter
Returns from mutual funds concentrated in natural resources and utilities far outpaced those in other areas, but most fund classes showed gains for the

State Street Enhances Its ETF Offering With Six New Emerging Markets ETFs
With the launch of these ETFs, State Street's international ETF offering now spans developed and emerging economies. The six ETFs are based upon