ETFs that close down have to follow a strict and orderly liquidation procedure. The liquidation of an ETF is similar to that of an investment company, except that the fund also notifies the exchange on which it trades that trading will cease.
Shareholders typically receive notification of the liquidation between a week and a month before it occurs, depending on the circumstances. The board of directors or trustees of the ETF will approve that each share is individually redeemable upon liquidation, since they are not redeemable while the ETF is still operating. They are redeemable in creation units. How To Stay Afloat Through Your ETF’s Liquidation
ETFs that close down have to follow a strict and orderly liquidation procedure. The liquidation of an ETF is similar to that of an investment company, except that the fund also notifies the exchange on which it trades that trading will cease.
Shareholders typically receive notification of the liquidation between a week and a month before it occurs, depending on the circumstances. The board of directors or trustees of the ETF will approve that each share is individually redeemable upon liquidation, since they are not redeemable while the ETF is still operating. They are redeemable in creation units. Fink Aspires to No. 1 Fund Manager With Barclays Unit
BlackRock Inc., the bond boutique co- founded in a one-room office by Laurence Fink in 1988, is a step closer to becoming the world’s biggest money manager after emerging as the leading bidder for Barclays Plc’s fund unit.
Fink has moved ahead of contenders for Barclays Global Investors including Bank of New York Mellon Corp., three people familiar with the talks said June 6. London-based Barclays, the U.K.’s third-largest bank, is seeking more than $12 billion for BGI, and may keep a 20 percent stake in the combined company, one of the people said. Will actively-managed ETFs kill traditional mutual funds?
ETF Billion Dollar Club: June 2009
The number of members in the ETF Billion Dollar Club held steady this month at 15, but there are changes in the roster. SPDR Select Sector Energy (XLE) is back in the club after a one-month absence, and iShares MSCI Brazil (EWZ) makes its first appearance of the year. The two funds losing their membership status since last month are iShares MSCI EAFE (EFA) and ProShares UltraShort Real Estate (SRS). The Case for Asian ETFs, expected to be worth up to $2 trillion globally by 2011
Myth Busting – Gold, Deflation and Hyperinflation (ETF: GLD)
There are a lot of myths and “old wives’ tales” out there about Gold and the frequently accompanying topics of inflation and deflation. In no particular order, I’d like to debunk three big ones with facts rather than universally accepted catch-phrases that prey on lazy investors and speculators.
1. “Dollar down, Gold up” or “Dollar up, Gold down”
Yes, this is often true, but it’s a far from perfect correlation. The US Dollar and Gold are two different currencies traded on exchanges around the world. Because the Gold price is denominated in US Dollars, it is generally assumed that when the US Dollar goes down in price that Gold must go up in price. There is certainly a correlation here, to be sure. But even recent history shows it’s a dangerous game to play if you’re a speculator or intermediate-term investor. ETFs’ Troubled Cousins Bid For New Investors
Backers of exchange-traded notes are hoping financial markets settle down enough for investors to see the investment's advantages rather than just its credit-related risks.
Before the credit crunch, ETNs were sometimes lumped with their more popular cousins, exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. Although structured differently, both generally follow indexes and trade on exchanges like stocks. What’s Killing The U.S. Dollar And It’s Impact On Income Investors And Markets (SDS, SKF, QID, SRS, TWM, DUG)
While recent news on the US economy, especially the non-farms payroll data, as been positive (OK, more like less negative than expected), in the past weeks, a number of powerful long term market trends have continued in currency and commodities markets and should continue over the coming months, albeit with the usual short term counter moves. In sum, these include:
- The weakening dollar against all major currencies.
- The ensuing up trend in commodity prices (commodities are priced in USD) and their related currencies, the CAD and AUD against other major currencies.
Bright Future Tipped For ETF Sector
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will come under the spotlight this year as investors eye the product for greater diversity and lower costs.
iShares, a unit of UK-based bank Barclays, which issued more than 31 ETFs over the past several years, said assets of mutual funds related to ETFs could go up to US$2 trillion (HK$15.6 trillion) globally by 2011, with Asia being the major growth area.
"2008 was the fastest growing year for the ETF market," Jane Leung, senior director of product, iShares Asia ex- Japan, told The Standard. Financial Markets React to Growing Signs of Economic Recovery (PIN, TAN, KOL, USL, RWM, QQQ, DOG)
Ups and downs on financial markets were plentiful during the past week, but investor sentiment, on balance, brightened on the back of constructive financial and economic data - capped by a better-than-expected US non-farm payrolls report on Friday. “It appears that the global economy has finally found the ripcord,” said Rebecca Wilder (News N Economics) in her weekly review of global economic reports.
“The global economic reports are becoming saturated with signs of forming a bottom. Auto sales in Japan and the US are improving somewhat; exports are dangling in the double-digit loss rates; and GDP really couldn’t get much worse (the inventory cycle alone will create some growth). Finally, money growth rates are slowing, perhaps an indication that policymakers feel that the worst is behind us,” she commented. Why Gold & Silver ETFs Are Illusory
This article focuses on the reality of ETF gold and silver with no bone to pick. That makes it required reading for all of us involved in the metals markets. Further, it is published by a Financial Times sponsored entity, which is another positive.
Will a ‘Silver Bullet’ Finally Kill the Metal Manipulators?
In my previous commentary, “Silver market fundamentals DISTORTED by bullion-ETFs", I pointed out how (so-called) “bullion-ETFs" were (with rare exceptions) merely a tool of the manipulators – with two primary purposes. ETFs Signal Economy Bottom (TYO, TMV)
The proliferation of ETFs has long been talked about and now there is basically an ETF for just about any investing situation you can think of. The rise in popularity for managed ETFs has now opened the door for managers to make the ridiculous now possible. Need to find an ETF that tracks Uzbekistan goat-herding clean bio-fuel companies? No problem, we’ll slap one together for you! But the arms race in ETFs has seemed to have taken a new turn—anti-American sentiment.
There is no shortage of bad news surrounding the US economy and foreign governments have made no secret of the fact that they would LOVE to see the US lose its place at the head of the table and fall back to “equal footing” with their own economies. The call for a new world currency is just the beginning of this sentiment. Playing Renewable Energy With ETF’S (FAN, KWT, NLR, GEX)
China, second only to the United States in terms of power consumption, announced this week that it will spend about 100 billion yuan ($14..6 billion) to more than double its wind power capacity by 2010 over last year. More than 200 billion yuan was allocated to energy saving and carbon reducing projects under China’s stimulus plans.
That investment will take the country’s wind power capacity to 30,000 megawatts from the current 12,000 megawatts, according to the country’s deputy director of renewable energy. Further, China expects its investment in alternative and renewable energy sources to exceed 2 trillion yuan by 2020. BlackRock Wins BGI Bidding War?
Money management giant BlackRock is close to announcing that it has won the bidding war for Barclays Global Investors, according to a report on the Web site of Pensions & Investments magazine......
......Sources also told P&I that CVC Capital Partners, which originally agreed to pay $4.5 billion for BGI's iShares exchange-traded funds business, would get an opportunity to raise its original bid.
The CVC deal had a window for BGI to shop itself unti June 18. A P&I source thought it was unlikely that CVC would be willing to top BlackRock's $10-billion plus offer for the combined BGI franchise.
Full Story: http://www.indexuniverse.com/component/content/article/10-news-in-focus/5958.html?Itemid=19 It’s Finally Time to Buy Small-Cap Value Index ETF’s
......it's still not time to start buying small-cap banks.
It may, however, be time to start looking hard at something a little off the beaten path: small-cap value.
What's the difference?
Small-cap value and small-cap banks often get conflated -- and for good reason. As Brian noted last year, the Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR), like most small-cap value indexes, has substantial exposure to small banks. For the quarter ending March 31, small financial services companies accounted for 34% of VBR's holdings. 
