ETF Fear Mongering
ETFs have existed for 26+ years. That’s longer than a third of the U.S. population has been alive. Through the Dotcom crash, the Global Financial Crisis, taper tantrums and more recently, a 20% market swoon in the back half of last year. ETFs have aged well through...
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Can Non-Transparent ETFs Lead Active Management to the Light?
“If you’re a mutual fund warehouse, you’re trying to figure out how to grow your business without giving away your secret sauce.” - Nichole Kramer, Manager of ETFs at Alps Inc. Most investors know the story by now. Actively managed stock mutual funds have bled...
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ETFs in the Empire State
It was back to the City of Dreams this week… Ben Carlson, who I actually met on the trip, summed-up my visit rather well: My tally after a quick 36 hours in NYC: -3.5 pieces of pizza -2 bagels -2 Chipotle bowls (not even ashamed) -1 clogged artery -7 lbs gained -1...
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ETFs in Pictures: Fee Wars & the Future
A coffee table book on ETFs? I’m considering. Until then, here are some of my favorite ETF charts so far in 2019. Enjoy! Previous "ETFs in Pictures": ETF in Pictures I ETF in Pictures II ETFs – Year in Pictures 2018 Accelerating ETF Growth As always, we start...
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Investment Costs Matter, But Don’t Stop There
You can't control the markets, but you can control investment costs... Source: Vanguard Learn more about the role of investment costs and several...
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The Financial Literacy Riddle
The majority of Americans cannot pass a basic financial literacy quiz featuring questions like: A 15-year mortgage typically requires higher monthly payments than a 30-year mortgage but the total interest over the life of the loan will be less. True or False? Go ahead...
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20 of the Best Quotes on ETFs
Source: ETF.com Low Cost “There shall be an ETF for every asset class, and it shall be virtually free to own.” - Matt Hougan & Dave Nadig via ETF.com “One of the most attractive elements of ETFs is their cost structure. Because ETFs are based on indexes, there’s no...
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Negative ETF Fees = Negative for Investors???
I recently chronicled the latest flare-up in the savage ETF fee war. In the span of two weeks, we saw filings for the first “free” ETFs, the launch of the cheapest (for now) ETF, and meaningful fee moves from four of the top five ETF providers. Then it happened. ...
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ETF Fee War Reignites
“If you lower it, they will come.” -Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas I recently declared the ETF fee war officially over: “My sense is the majority of companies offering plain-vanilla ETFs simply don’t have much room to drop fees any further. Sure, some will still jockey...
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The ETF Echo Chamber
ETFs have democratized investing, but they haven’t democratized financial and ETF literacy. Several years ago, I was meeting a friend at a packed coffee shop when the conversation veered into a slightly heated debate over whether the average person knew what an ETF...
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