The mutual fund as we know it today is almost 100 years old, and following important steps in 1934 and 1940 and then in 1974, mutual funds can be thanked for helping a large percentage of average working individuals save trillions of dollars for retirement in ways pre 20th century history might not have imagined. […]
As an updated reference list, here are the 100 Top UCITS ETFs, listed in London, domiciled in Ireland, and denominated in US dollars, with over US$100mio in assets as of this writing. Before I have mostly focused on posting lists of top UCITS ETFs by Blackrock’s iShares (which still has the best website IMHO), State […]
By assets, ETF investors largely seem to prefer to buy very broad market exposure at very low cost. When Vanguard launched their first China-only ETF earlier this year, I noted that US ETF investors have about 10x more allocated to Chinese stocks through the portion of broad emerging market ETFs allocated to China than through […]
I probably like the term “smart beta” even better than most other professional investment advisors, not to mention more than most average investors, but all “smart beta” really means is owning the profits of stocks in proportion to something other than the overall size / market value of those stocks. In other words, a smart […]
One of the most common misconceptions I hear about exchange traded funds (ETFs) is that they are all passively managed, market cap weighted index trackers. While that would describe many of the largest and most popular ETFs, especially the original low-cost trackers of the S&P 500 index, there are an increasing number of actively managed […]
For non-US ETF portfolios, I find it useful to keep handy short lists of ETFs listed on other top ETF exchanges in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Here is a short list of the top 55 London-listed ETFs I look at, mostly for my own reference when I need to look this up on […]
As a reference, I occasionally like to publish lists like the one below of 60 of the highest dividend paying stocks as of late November 2017. Note that these are ranked by total dollar amount of dividends paid by the companies, not by dividend yield, as the latter would favor many smaller, higher yielding stocks. […]
Investors looking to replace index ETFs or more expensive stock mutual funds or closed-end funds with direct positions in blue chip stocks may want to start by owning some of the largest companies in the world by market cap. Market cap is simply the total value of shares outstanding, and most index funds and ETFs […]
London listed ETFs and Frankfurt listed ETFs together form the world’s second largest and most diverse ETF market after the US. For non-US taxpayer investors, Frankfurt and London listed ETFs may provide tax advantages in accessing the US market, as well as access to asset classes even the US ETF market does not yet cover, […]
I find it important to look at exchange traded funds (“ETF”) as a benchmark for what investments in stocks, bonds, or real estate investment trusts (REITs) could be doing as a “fire and forget” trade to track a broad benchmark index with minimal transactional and ongoing costs. The US remains by far the largest, most […]