JT

Macro View: Taper is On, Get Positioned

August 11, 2013

The Fed’s bond buying spree is the largest central bank action ever. Its reversal, and eventual exit, will be even bigger. Recent data point to the fact that the Fed can and should slow or cease its purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities. America’s shrinking deficit Believe it or not, the monstrous American deficit of […]

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Play This ETF for Great Rotation Into Food and Drink Stocks

August 4, 2013

The great rotation was anything but great. Data reflects only modest differences in fund flow data, but where the funds are flowing, there’s serious concentration. The PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage ETF (PBJ) suggests that investors who want a lower risk profile are turning to consumer staples equities. The fund tracks 30 different food and […]

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A Market-beating Portfolio of Strategy ETFs

July 28, 2013

The rise of the strategy ETFs and tactical asset allocation has some worried that exchange-traded funds are losing their ties to traditional indexing. John Bogle of Vanguard says that ETF trading is no way to invest. Barron’s recently penned a piece on how ETFs have become a proxy through which financial advisors can deploy speculative […]

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Bet on the Best Ideas of Bill Gross

July 24, 2013

Here are ETF Base we’ve covered everything about interest rates, to which dividend ETF is best positioned for rising rates, or how to protect use target maturity bond funds. We’ve even uncovered some rockstar junk bond managers. But what we haven’t discussed is whether or not it makes sense to align with Bill Gross in […]

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Market Cap Weighting Weakness: Tesla Joins QQQ

July 21, 2013

Tesla (TSLA), an American automobile manufacturer, will join the NASDAQ 100 Index (QQQ). It will replace Oracle (ORCL), which is moving to the NYSE. Becoming part of an index is a relatively normal happening for an up and coming company, but for ETF investors, it puts market cap weighting back in focus. Market cap weighting […]

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Bitcoin ETF: Get Ready for Bubble Mania

July 14, 2013

The Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame intend to launch a new ETF to track the price of Bitcoins, an online cryptocurrency that enjoyed a meteoric rise during bank crises in Europe. Bitcoin is an anonymous, peer-to-peer currency that is used for everything from purchasing electronics to money laundering and drug purchases. One of the biggest […]

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Insurance Stock ETFs for Higher Interest Rates

July 7, 2013

The market has its eyes on Bernanke’s “tapering” of quantitative easing. Should the Fed taper its bond buying, rates will inevitably head higher as the supply of dollars chasing fixed-income investments will dwindle, forcing rates higher to lure more loanable funds. Insurance companies are some of the few beneficiaries of higher interest rates. Insurance companies […]

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Meredith Whitney: Finally Right, but for All the Wrong Reasons

July 2, 2013

The rout in municipal bonds couldn’t be more sudden. As rates headed higher, investors sold off municipal bonds, pushing the largest municipal bond fund, iShares National AMT-Free Muni Bond ETF (MUB), to its biggest discount in history. The bond market is much less liquid than the stock market. Bond ETFs often drive the fixed-income market, […]

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Why Your Target Date Fund is Leaving You Behind

June 23, 2013

The U.S. Equity markets are rocking this year. Up 15.04% after dividends the S&P 500 index (SPY) is on track for one of its best years since 2009. Not all investors are taking part in the upside, however. Traditional asset allocation leaves some target date funds out of the running for excellent market performance. Are […]

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