There are over 2800 ETFs right now, with more in registration. This explosion of alternatives is great for driving down fees and giving investors choices. However once we figure out what we want to buy, we often discover the fund we chose is lightly traded—perhaps only hundreds of shares are traded on any given day. With a lightly traded fund, the bid/ask spread is usually …
Covered calls are an example of positions that are short volatility. I hadn’t thought of it that way until Sheldon Natenburg, the author of Option Volatility & Pricing pointed that out in a fascinating interview in Expiring Monthly. A covered call position is profitable if the underlying equity stays the same or goes up, but in a big market downswing, when volatility spikes up, the modest …
The vibe of the IndexUniverse’s InsideETFs Conference in Hollywood Florida I attended in 2012 was one that I have felt before—a group that knows they’re changing the very structure of their industry. It’s not just about being new, creative, or disruptive—it’s the sense of knowing you have won. The mutual fund industry is still almost 10 times the size of ETFs/ETNs with $7.9 trillion in assets vs …
Apparently, Vanguard likes to keep their ETF ex-dividend and distribution dates a secret until just a couple of 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 …
One of my primary goals is to invest where I have an objective edge. There are many ways to try to get an edge, the two most common being: Value investing—where you try to find companies that are currently undervalued, or likely to grow their profits faster than expected Technical analysis—where you use patterns or indicators to determine what a security will do next …
