ETF Rankings and Signals July 20th, 2008
Note: ETF rankings and signals are for educational purposes only and should not interpreted as an investment advice.
| Exchange Traded Fund Rankings |
Archive for the ‘General’
Linked List July 8, 2008
Big Oil, National Interest and Renewable Energy @ InquisitiveMind.
Blossoming ETF assets @ EtfGuide.
Gold ETF Call option most actively traded @ FinancialTimes.
Fed Bernanke requests more power @ Forbes.
Focus on dynamic correlation between various asset classes @ CapitalSpectator.
Looking to invest in Persian Gulf @ IndexUniverse.
Talking about a housing rebound @ CNNMoney.
The precarious state of the Fannies and Freddies @ AlephBlog.
“There’s gold in them thar hills” @ oldprof.
The great inflation divide @ CanadianBusiness.
“Headwinds Index: Financials vs. Oil” @ VixAndMore.
Swapping From TIPS to Swaps @ BullBearTrader.
Updated ETF Rankings and Signals
I have started publishing ETF performance rankings and signals. This will normally be a weekly feature unless there is interest to have this updated daily. There is a lot of information in these links below and I would appreciate some feedback as to how to best present it. I don’t have all ETF classes covered yet but it’s just a matter of time. If you happen to have any specific preferences, I may be able to accommodate them. Also, if you see any ETF missing from a list and you’d like it to be added, please drop me a line.
ETF rankings are for educational purposes only and should not interpreted as an investment advice.
| US Market Cap/Style | International Stock | Developed Markets Stock | Emerging Markets Stock |
| Sector Funds | Pacific Developed Markets | Emerging Asia | Latin America |
| US Bonds | European Stock | Middle East and Africa | |
Friday Outlook: Out of Options?
David Fry (ETF Digest) submits: Day after day investors continue to look for excuses to
bottom pick financials and pick tops in energy and commodity markets.
With some spectacular short-term exceptions, most
have failed.
Someday these players will
be proven right but for now it’s all just pure speculation and a game for
institutions only.
Volume was heavy but breadth was mixed.
Note the heavy upside volume in the NASDAQ
while the A/D line was unremarkable.
This
reflects the heavy focus on big tech names and can be attributed to impending
quad witching on Friday.
Let’s look at the “Four Horsemen” which were the previous
market leaders and still enjoy most of the attention.
A nice young woman approached me at the TradersExpo here in Ontario, CA
and wanted to know who Chucky was that I keep referring to and I replied, “Well,
that’s Chucky from the movies you know.
The character you can’t kill.
I use him as a metaphor for the American consumer who keeps shopping, etc.”
And she replies, “Well, that’s such a guy
thing!”
I don’t know about that since I’ve
never watched a Chucky movie.
But, I
guess I need some sort of slang glossary since another readers asked me last week what
a “stick save” was.
Go to page 2 - Commodities, Emerging Markets >>
Comment on this article >>
Complete Story »
House Price/Sales Are Affected By Wall Street [Housing Tracker]
Link of the Day
The U.S. Census Bureau explains here the relationship between building permits, housing starts, and housing completions. This demonstrates that government data is subject to many more variables than we think. Thanks to Builder Online’s Tumblr feed for the tip.
Complete Story »
Gas and Home Prices: What a Difference Two Years Can Make
Tim Iacono submits:
It was only four years ago that home prices were rising at the rate of 20 percent per year and gasoline cost less than two dollars a gallon, yet it seems like a distant memory.
When you think about the Hummer in its heyday back in 2004 and early 2005, this chart just about tells the whole story - home equity burning a hole in the pockets of millions of homeowners and being able to fill up a 33 gallon tank for about $50 or so.Once the hurricanes struck in 2005 … well, we all know what Hummer lots looked like after Katrina and Rita swept through the Gulf Coast.
Complete Story »
Intense Inflation Pressure: Fed, Bank of England Have Their Hands Tied
Grace Cheng submits:
US industrial production fell for the second consecutive month in May, falling 0.2%, following an unrevised 0.7% decline in April. This was worse than the 0.2% gain expected as utilities posted a sharp decline in output. Overall, industrial production is down 1.1% compared to a year ago. No one can deny that industrial output is contracting, but at least it hasn’t been a rapid drop.
Meanwhile, inflation data released today showed that US producer prices in May rose at their fastest rate in six months (1.4%), although core prices excluding food and energy, gained just 0.2%. Both figures are in line with expectations. Inflation is again becoming a threat to the US economy, which recently prompted anti-inflation rhetoric from Fed officials.
Solar ETFs Face Off: Claymore vs. Van Eck
Jason Neault submits:
By Jason Neault
With global energy demand on the rise, nations, businesses and individuals are looking more than ever for new, and more importantly, renewable sources of energy. This new surge of interest in the renewable space has many looking to the mother of all renewable resources, the sun. Now that the world is starting to take solar power seriously, investors are taking a second look at now profitable solar companies and the ETFs that track them.
Intel Creating a New Solar Play
Eric Savitz (Barron’s) submits:
Intel (INTC) has announced plans to spin-off some assets from its New Business Initiatives group into a new company to make and supply photovoltaic cells called SpectraWatt.
Intel Capital is leading a $50 million investment round in the new company, along with the Cogentrix Energy unit of Goldman Sachs, PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund and Solon AG. The deal expected to close in the second quarter.
A New Housing ETF from Robert Shiller
Felix Salmon submits:
Up until now, Robert Shiller has been spectacularly unsuccessful in (a) finding ways for investors to short the housing market, and (b) designing ETFs. So, naturally, he’s now trying to do both at once!
Matthew Hougan explains the idea - as is usual for Shiller, it all makes sense in theory. But before you try to use these new contracts to "trade the housing market like stocks", I’d give them a good year to see whether they really behave as they’re meant to behave. And I certainly wouldn’t try to use them to hedge a possible decline in the value of your house.
