Claymore Advisors, LLC, is pleased to announce that today the following Claymore Exchange-Traded Funds (“ETFs”) have declared monthly distributions. The table below summarizes the distribution schedule for each Fund declaring a distribution.
| Ticker | Fund Name | Ex-Date | Record | Payable | Total Rate |
| Date | Date | Per Share | |||
| UBD | Claymore U.S. Capital Markets Bond ETF | 4/24/2009 | 4/28/2009 | 4/30/2009 | 0.091 |
| ULQ | Claymore U.S. Capital Markets Micro-Term Fixed Income ETF | 4/24/2009 | 4/28/2009 | 4/30/2009 | 0.017 |
Gold investment demand in tonnage terms may outpace jewelry usage due to investor concerns about the global economy and desire to diversify portfolios, the World Gold Council said Thursday.
Shares of the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund rose 43 cents to $31.57 in afternoon trade. The exchange-traded fund holds an index of liquid, large-cap Chinese stocks. Its volume was active after a couple of large volume trades were observed in the January 2010 contract, said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group in a note. 'It appears that one investor sold some 30,000 puts at the January $23 strike price for $2.15 apiece' he said. 'The sale represents fresh interest at the strike and implies that this trader is now short 30,000 put options.' He will retain the premium as long as shares stay above $23 by expiration next year. Another investor took a bullish stance at the January 2010 $37 strike price by buying 2,700 calls for a premium of $2.73.
Full Story: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/04/23/afx6330593.html 
Astor Asset Management’s (aam123.com) Long Short Balanced Program was named the No. 4 Best Performing Program by Forbes.com, based on data compiled by Barclays Global Investors’ iShares.
Astor’s program began trading in 2001 and has averaged over 6.5% a year since inception with only one down year. Astor uses a fundamental model to determine the direction of the economic cycles for multiple non-correlating assets and uses Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) to construct diversified, non-correlating portfolios including: S&P 500 Trust (SPY), PowerShares QQQQ Trust (QQQQ), iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond (LQD), PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA), and SPDR Gold Shares (GLD). Additionally, Astor uses inverse ETFs, such as Short S&P 500 ProShares (SH), Direxion Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS), and UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ProShares (TBT) to hedge exposure during adverse market conditions.
“Although we do not like to highlight performance in any one year because we believe that is not productive or even relevant to our goals, we are honored to be among the top performing programs featured by Forbes.com,” stated Rob Stein, managing partner of Astor Asset Management and senior portfolio manager of the Long Short Balance Program.
Full Story: http://www.emailwire.com/release/21928-Astor-Asset-Management-named-No-4-Top-ETF-Manager-for-2008.html 
Stock exchange-traded funds have been lambasted for slicing the market too narrowly. But with bonds, more precision is what financial advisers need.
Investors turned to fixed-income holdings last year to offset plunging stock values. But while Treasurys held up, municipal and corporate bonds cratered alongside stocks.
This exposed a problem with many basic fixed-income mutual funds: These are often designed as catch-alls, holding all kinds of bonds and making it difficult for investors to gauge risk.
In fund researcher Morningstar Inc.'s "intermediate term" bond fund category, for instance, the 10 best performers had, on average, almost 40% of their holdings in Treasurys and returned about 8.6% in 2008. The 10 worst performers in same category, with only about 6% in Treasury holdings, were down about 30% on average.
ETF firms are aiming to capitalize on that kind of discrepancy, hoping financial advisers are ready to replace all-purpose bond funds they previously bought for clients with a mix of several narrow-focus bond ETFs, an approach that may allow them to calibrate risks more carefully.
"With iShares ETFs, there are no investment-style surprises," says Christine Hudacko, a spokeswoman for Barclays PLC's (BCS) recently sold iShares unit. "No one needs more surprises now."
Investors seem to be responding to the ETF companies' pitch, having poured about $23 billion into bond ETFs in 2008 and another $10.9 billion in the first quarter of 2009, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.
Full Story: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090423-715420.html 
WisdomTree (Pink Sheets: WSDT), an industry leading index developer and ETF sponsor, today announced that it plans to release its first quarter results on April 29, 2009 after the market closes. A conference call to discuss the firm’s results will be held on Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. ET.
Teleconference and Webcast Details
The call and accompanying presentation will be accessible as a webcast on the Investor Relations section of WisdomTree’s web site at www.wisdomtree.com. A replay will be available on our web site shortly after the call.
Those wishing to listen to the live conference via telephone should dial-in at least 10 minutes before the call begins at the following telephone numbers:
|
Live Dial-in Information: |
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United States: (888) 680-0878 |
|
International: (617) 213-4855 |
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Passcode: 98210740 |
The mutual fund industry is facing much criticism over their fee structure, and the debate just got heavier with The Supreme Court involved in possible consequences. This could set the stage for exchange traded funds (ETFs) to take off with the market share mutual funds are going to lose.
The latest development helping to bring the issue to the surface comes from the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and which ever way the ruling goes, it will have definite consequences. It decided to reopen a case against RiverSource which had been turned down by a lower court.
Hannah Glover for Ignites explains that the case centers on complaints from shareholders in 11 RiverSource funds who claim that Ameriprise breached its fiduciary duty by charging more for mutual funds than for similar institutional accounts.
Full Story: http://www.etftrends.com/2009/04/why-mutual-fund-fee-debate-is-heating-up.html 
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 
Many options traders on Wednesday appeared to be taking a protective stance and employed bearish strategies in several exchange-traded funds on concerns the stock market's recent gains are overdone.
The bearish activity comes on a day of choppy trade in the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI and the Standard & Poor's 500 index .SPX finished the session lower after disappointing results at Morgan Stanley reignited worries about the banking sector.
The market has been sensitive to the outlook for banks before the release of the federal government's "stress test," expected as early as Friday.
Option trading was heavy in the Direxion 3X Financial Bear Fund FAZ.P, or FAZ, a leveraged exchange-traded fund designed to move inversely to the financial sector. Its shares hit a low of $8.58, but bounced back as financials lagged late in the session. It closed at $9.90, up 7.73 percent.
The ETF's option volume rose to double the normal levels, with 92,000 calls and 17,000 puts traded, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert.
Full Story: http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN2218972320090422 
In a move that is raising eyebrows across the ETF industry, ProShares recently filed for approval of 94 different 3x ETFs with the SEC. The move follows competitor Rydex's filing of approval for its own line of 3x leveraged and inverse ETFs.
Though it's unclear when the funds will actually launch, ProShares hopes to ultimately bring to market bullish and bearish 3x ETFs breaking down as follows:
LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - Gold-backed exchange-traded funds saw inflows of 456 tonnes worldwide in the first quarter of 2009, against a total 321 tonnes for the whole of the previous year, the World Gold Council said on Thursday.
Marcus Grubb, managing director of investment research and marketing at the WGC, said he expected investment as a proportion of total demand to reach a new high in the quarter.
"You are seeing a shift in the dynamic of the gold market," he said.
"ETF investment is in its infancy, and so is gold investment," he said. "Most allocations of gold are zero."
"You would only need a small shift in allocations to gold in segments of private and institutional wealth where they're not currently invested to have a major impact, when mining supply is only 2,400 tonnes a year."
He said gold supply was likely to be supported by scrap inflows, which he said will probably head above 1,500 tonnes this year, offsetting flat or slightly declining mine supply.
"The growth in investment is extremely strong," he said. "It is being led to some extent by ETFs."
Full Story: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLN67868120090423 
As many developed countries are stagnating, and may remain so for the time being, exchange traded fund (ETF) investors are looking overseas for new opportunities. Take the denizens of the United Kingdom, for example.
It is likely that the United Kingdom’s growth may come to a crawl in the coming couple of years as a result of large debt and high taxes, writes Stephen Womack for Mail Online. Investors are becoming increasingly worried about a long-term decline. That’s why at a recent trade meeting, investors and savers wanted to know how to structure their savings for a changing world.
The International Monetary Fund projects Britain’s recession will continue into 2010, longer than any other developed nation. It is also estimated that the government borrowings will increase to 11% of GDP by 2010, or two times the average of G20 nations.
The sterling pound is down around 25 cents against the dollar and 12 cents against the euro. The long-term aspects don’t look all that appealing either with exports down and the country’s North Sea oil drying up.
Full Story: http://www.nasdaq.com/newscontent/20090422/how-a-changing-global-economy-affects-etf-investing.aspx?storyid=8893 
Gold is selling at a historic premium to black gold. Sell the former and buy the latter to ride the likely correction to come.
There is a lot of skepticism about the plans of the Federal Government and the FED to defrost the credit markets through its many stimulus plans. One of the biggest fears for some investors is that pumping too much money in the system would lead to hyperinflation and a complete devaluation of the US dollar against hard assets such as gold, oil, land and others, which would eventually lead to everyone living in caves hunting for food. There are even several ETF tracking Gold (GLD, IAU) and Crude Oil (USO, OIL).
I disagree with those fears. First of all I do expect average inflation of 3% annually for the next 3-4 decades to continue. The best way to hedge against that is to buy common stocks, which are not just pieces of paper, but rights to ownership of real businesses which would be able to pass any price increases on to their consumers. At the same time these businesses would share a portion of their profits with shareholders, by paying out dividends. Over the past 80 years dividend growth in the Dow Jones Industrials Index has more than compensated for the eroding forces of inflation. Dividend Growth for the 1920-2005 period was 4.9%, which was almost 2% higher than the 3% average inflation rate. The best ETF to track Dow Jones Index is Dow Jones Diamonds (DIA).
Over the past few decades the wealth of US households has been primarily comprised of Real Estate, stocks and fixed income. The real estate has been the primary residence of families; stock ownership was through owning mutual funds or owning stocks directly, while the fixed income portion consisted of deposits, bonds and cash on hand. As the value of stocks and real estate rose steadily, consumers felt richer and spent more, which in turn stimulated the economy. The past 2 years however have brought low stock prices, and declining real estate values.
Full Story: http://caps.fool.com/blogs/viewpost.aspxbpid=184210&t=01002863924178546020 
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