In terms of assets Barclays’ “S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures” ETN is among the leaders in volatility ETFs with around 500 million dollars under management. I suspect it’s also one of the leaders in investor confusion. Although VIX is in its formal name VXXB doesn’t actually track the CBOE’s VIX index with any degree of precision. In fact, it’s not unusual for VXXB and VIX to …
The market recoveries from the Tech Crash and the Financial Crash were remarkably similar. As I blogged in February 2012, the S&P 500 index closed out the 2009 to 2012 period within 4 percent of the index 6 years before. The 2012 year market, just like 2011, started out fast but the spring correction brought it back to the old path. In …
With no government in place its hard to see how the Greeks can do anything, much less exit the Euro, but at least the Eurozone leaders appear to be moving past denial, shifting into anger. A few links: Head of European Central Bank says: “…unsustainable unless further steps are undertaken“ Goldman Prepares for Worst-Case Outcome in Europe “…examining all euro-denominated contracts“ One idea floating around, …
Originally posted May 28, 2012 Consistent long term growth rates are one of the tenets of buy and hold investing. In the case of the S&P 500 this annual growth rate has averaged 5.9% since 1950 (dividends excluded, compounded monthly). All you need to do is invest early, be patient, and wait for the inevitable payoff. The last 12 years have not been kind to …
Apparently, Vanguard likes to keep their ETF ex-dividend and distribution dates a secret until just a couple days before the event. It has that old mutual fund feel to it—”we’ll give you a quote after-market and allow you to buy or sell our stuff at the end of the day, otherwise go away…” As a result, the dates below are just guesses, based on previous year’s …
