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Money flows from today show 3 ETF’s topping the charts in selling on strength, The PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ), SPDRs (SPY), and The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) Read more…
ETF BASIC NEWS, FXI, QQQQ, SPY
CNBC hosted a somewhat maddening debate yesterday on tech and the economy. The panel included Jerry Bowyer, Bowyer Media; Eric Maronak, Victory Capital; Scott Richter, Fifth Third; Read more…
Here are four ETF’s that have enjoyed remarkable gains for last week. Most investors normally wouldn’t see yearly gains this big. This is what makes leveraged ETF’s so appealing to traders. The big gainers for last week were all 3X leveraged funds sponsored by Direxion.  Read more…
EDC, ERX, ETF BASIC NEWS, FAS, TYH
The CNBC Fast Money Traders debated the technology sector yesterday and touched on the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ). Katie Townshend Stockton a guest from MKM Partners notes that the Q’s were trading below the 50 day moving average which she states could trigger a test the 200 day Read more…
ETF BASIC NEWS, QQQ, QQQQ, XLK
Stocks have enjoyed 35%+ gains from the March lows, but the market has been trading sideways ever since. Volume has dried up and investors will be looking for a direction in the markets. Technology has seemed to hold up strong during these turbulent times and will try to emerge as leaders. Read more…
ETF BASIC NEWS, QQQQ, ROM, TYH
The shortened 4th of July holiday week begins with warnings from the World Bank, a consumer who would rather save than spend. In what will be a volatile low volume week, we have included some key technical market indicators to look at for your ETF trading. Read more…
With Steve Jobs back in the office after his liver transplant, Apple investors have something to cheer about again.   The PDA market continues to grow and the Apple iPhone continues to dominate and make headlines in that market. If you like Apple but don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, we have some tech heavy ETF’s that have great Apple exposure. Read more…
ETF BASIC NEWS, IYW, QLD, QQQQ
Louis Navellier from MoneyShow.com reports that “Buying specific sector ETFs will allow us to capitalize on [an] Advanced Sector Alert when an industry is just breaking out, helping us profit much earlier in the market cycle. Three years of back-testing clearly show that our Advanced Sector Alert identifies sectors coming into favor an average of four months in advance of individual stock winners. Read more…
David Serchuk, writing for Forbes, thinks tech might be worth a look right now. His starts by comparing the performance of the Nasdaq versus the S&P 500 finding “those who stayed long the Nasdaq over the past 10 years are down 26.1%, but they still beat the Standard & Poor’s 500, down 29.6%. The tech index also beat its much larger brother over shorter time periods. Over five years, it’s down 9.6%, versus 19.9% for the S&P. Over a year, it’s down 26.4%, versus 32.6%. Where it’s really shined, however, is 2009. Year to date, the Nasdaq is up 14.6%, while the larger index has risen but 1%.” Read more…
ETF BASIC NEWS, MTK, XLK, XSD
Tom Dyson from istockanalyst.com reports that “Since 1983, the biotech sector as a whole has seen four triple-digit rallies… and even one quadruple-digit rally. That’s just for the whole sector. Some individual stocks went much higher. You see, investors love the promise of cancer cures and miracle drugs… so it’s easy for them to justify piling onto a rally.” Read more…
In last week’s Money and Markets column, I told you about the advantages exchange-traded funds have over mutual funds. Today we’ll go a little deeper and look at the many exciting ways you can execute your investment ideas with ETFs. As you’ll see, practically all the new financial innovation is happening in the ETF niche. Mutual fund sponsors have all but given up on doing anything new and different.
The first thing I want you to understand is that an ETF is nothing more than a tool. And most of the time, ETFs do what they’re designed to do. The more important question is which ETF is a match for your goals and situation? The ETF that works for your neighbor might not be the same one that you need. Adding ETFs to your toolbox is a terrific way to implement your investment strategy.
So what are your goals? If you have a well-designed investment strategy, you’ll still need good tools to execute that strategy. And ETFs are a great way to fill up your toolbox. Just look at some of the ways ETFs allow you to invest …
Market Benchmarks: If you’re a broad-minded investor who wants to play the whole market, you can easily do it with ETFs. The iShares MSCI ACWI Index Fund (ACWI) tracks the MSCI All-Country World Index — which includes just about every stock market in the world: U.S., Europe, Asia, Emerging Markets, 46 countries in all. ACWI is one-stop shopping for equity investors.
Style Investing: Do you think small-caps will outperform? Consider iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (IWM), which lets you buy all 2,000 stocks in this popular index with one, quick transaction. Or if you’re looking to tilt your portfolio toward value stocks, or growth stocks, or dividend-paying stocks, you have plenty of ETFs to choose from.
Sector ETFs: These are some of my favorites. You know that different industries tend to rotate in and out of favor: Technology, health care, retailers, utilities, and more. ETFs let you own the hot sectors and also give you a way to zero in on the best sub-sectors. Within the technology sector, for instance, there are ETFs that cover semiconductors, computer hardware, software, information services, networking, telecommunications and more.
International: For years investors had to use mutual funds in order to invest outside the U.S. Fund sponsors covered broad regions, but to get any more precise you had to buy individual stocks. Not any longer. ETFs now cover not only the major regions of the world — Europe, Asia/Pacific, Latin America and so on — but also many individual countries. Whether you want to buy Singapore, Switzerland, or South Africa … ETFs let you do it. Try that with a mutual fund!
Full Story:Â http://marketoracle.co.uk/Article10659.html
In our last post we looked at non-leveraged ETFs, and below we highlight the best and worst performing leveraged ETFs so far in 2009. Even though the market is trading close to flat year to date, only 27 of the 110 leveraged ETFs that we track are up for the year. The double long technology ETF (ROM) is up the most at 36.37%, followed by the double long semiconductor ETF (USD), the double long QQQs (QLD), and the double short long-term Treasury ETF (TBT). The second best performing double short ETF is the Japanese Yen (YCS). click chart below to enlarge
Full Story:Â http://seekingalpha.com/article/135816-year-to-date-performance-of-leveraged-etfs
“A lot has changed since the go-go days of the late nineties, when tech stocks soared to amazing heights and then crashed and burned when reality set in. To learn about this paradigm shift, click here. Today, the reality is that tech stocks are here to stay.” Writes Sean Hyman
“The market is showing signs of relief as the major indices have experienced some great up days despite a lack of positive news regarding our economy. As an investor, you maybe wondering what your options are to return to the equity market with as much prudence as possible. The first thing to note is that the IT S&P 500 Component has done extremely well, up 11.80% YTD. A great way to re-enter IT is through the purchase of well constructed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs are a great way to capture the upside potential of various companies while maintaining diversity within your IT portfolio (or any portfolio). The key to ETF evaluation is to select low cost and well constructed ETFs making it important to conduct due diligence on the major underlying securities of the vehicle. ETFs can be a great short to medium term security to enter during volatile environments to maintain exposure to certain companies. I have been looking at a few technology ETFs and have compiled a list of the best three and provided some analysis regarding their holdings and future outlook. ”
Full Story:Â http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3214279
Why? Because due to the QQQ’s unusual weighting methodology, Apple accounts for 12.6% of the fund’s assets. For comparison, Microsoft makes up only 4.8% of the ETF, despite having a significantly larger market cap than Apple: $166 billion vs. $108 billion.
The market-cap oddities don’t end there. Google counts for just 4.7% of the fund, despite having a market cap of $120 billion, almost identical to Apple. And Google’s weight is just a shade above Gilead Sciences, a biotech company that accounts for 3.5% of the fund, despite having one-third of the market-cap of Google.
Confused?
The oddities trace back to the Nasdaq-100’s methodology. The index is officially a “modified market-cap-weighted index.” New companies entering the index are weighted essentially based on their market cap. But once they’re in the index, the weight of companies rises and falls based on that company’s stock price, with no real rebalancing as other components are added and subtracted from the index.
Apple was added to the index long ago, and the stock has been one of the better-performing equities over the past decade. As a result, its weight in the index has grown and grown and grown.
It’s a potential weak point for the fund. If Apple stumbles, the QQQs will suffer.
Full Story: http://www.indexuniverse.com/component/content/article/31/5744.html?Itemid=19
| DJIA | 9908.39 | |||||||
| NASDAQ | 2126.05 | |||||||
| S&P 500 | 1056.74 | |||||||
| SPY | 105.89 | |||||||
| XLF | 13.66 | |||||||
| QQQQ | 42.67 | |||||||
| GLD | 104.04 | |||||||
| UNG | 9.81 | |||||||
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