All posts by MarketsMuse Staff Reporter

Top RIA’s 20 Top Twitter Feeds for Financial Advisers

Social Media + Financial Services is (so far) an oxymoron. After all, the odds are 10:1 that you’re compliance officer will call you a moron if you solicit approval to become socially-engaged in any digital venue.

All of that said, the tide always turns, until of course, it comes back to you hit in the back of the head like a boomerang. But..for the time being, if there’s any group that can figure out how to leverage assets, its you, or your peers.

Leading InvestmentNews.com to profile one Josh Brown, aka @thereformedbroker (his twitter handle). Your’s truly is almost afraid to learn why Josh labels himself “reformed”, but he apparently has all of his licenses in order, along with a round lot of 20,000 Twitter followers. Let’s not forget to mention that Josh shows up on CNBC every so often, as well as attributions in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal.

What’s striking about Josh is his humility; he’s published a list of his top 20 favorite financial adviser twits, twitterers.

Intrigued? You should be! Continue reading

Lyxor Launches New Commodities ETFs

Lyxor has launched a new range of ETFs offering investors four different strategies aimed at providing diversified exposure to commodities. The new ETFs are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Two of the new ETFs track indices of the issuer’s parent bank Societe Generale, the Optimix Total Return and Momentum Total Return indices. The former is designed to generate absolute returns from a universe of 24 commodities, while the latter uses a rule-based, enhanced beta strategy that aims to optimize roll yields across contracts and seasons, also across 24 commodities.

“Professional investors can gain intelligent access to a diverse basket of commodities, which look to take advantage of the shape of the forward curve and momentum trends,” said Lyxor in a press release announcing the launch.

Thanks to IndexUniverse Europe for the heads up! (click on the logo for the full story):

MSCI, S&P, FTSE Create Index Industry Trade Group

MSCI, S&P Indices and FTSE have created a global trade body for the index industry, called the Index Industry Association (IIA).

The IIA will form an official, representative body, with a remit that includes educating investors on the attributes and role of indices within the investment process and advocating the interests of index users and providers worldwide.

The IIA will function as an independent organization with dedicated resources, representing a global membership from its headquarters in New York. The IIA will be open to membership from index businesses worldwide.

The respective chief executives of MSCI, S&P Indices and FTSE; Henry Fernandez, Alexander Matturri and Mark Makepeace said the launch of the association signifies an important milestone for the index industry. “The IIA will promote the agenda of our industry and push for new, universal standards for best practice, independence and transparency,” a statement said.

For the full article, courtesy of  InvestmentEurope, click on the logo below:

Indexing Beats Hedge Fund Investing

A brief, but intriguing blog post over at SeekingAlpha–written a a self-proclaimed gear-head backed by compelling research suggests that returns using straight-forward indexing has trumped fast-money hedge fund investing for each of the past five years.

As illustrated by the table below (the full article can be accessed by clicking the image), blogger/private investor Jeff Gonion reached a pretty foregone conclusion when stating, “Overall, investors in equity-based hedge funds fared worse than investors that simply invested in index funds. Looking across the entire universe of hedge funds, the results are similar for non-equity focused hedge funds. The bottom-line is that most hedge funds don’t beat the market, especially after fees.”

We happily encourage any/all hedge fund managers to come forward (in full frontal or without fanfare i.e. anonymously, to rebut or to simply qualify the take-away. We could insert lots of caveats, but we’ll defer to an HF to defend itself.

 

Traders & Brokers Best Bets For MarchMadness: Destinations

Until your favorite broker has scored you Final Four tix in the Big Easy, you’ll either be in your own easy (chair), or stepping out your trade to a local venue to take in NCAA’s March Madness tourney. 

For those of you in Manhattan’s Melting Pot, these are best bets. You’ll have to keep reading to read about slam dunk destinations in  Boston, Philly, Chicago, Orlando, Dallas and Raleigh NC. We’ve even spotted a swoosh for expats over in the UK!

Here’s the NYC best shots:

Village Pourhouse (Duke, Kansas, Syracuse): You’re guaranteed not to miss a minute of the game at Village Pourhouse, where there’s a TV everywhere you turn. Along with their huge beer selections, their kitchen is open late night and has a massive menu. They’re happy to host anyone, but definitely stop by if you’re keen on Duke, Kansas or Syracuse, in which case, you’ll be in store for a warm welcome.
64 3rd Ave.; 212-979-2337

Blondie’s (Ohio State): Hungry for famous wings … and a Buckeyes win? Then get on the horn to reserve a space at Blondie’s. The March Madness games fill the bar till it spills onto the street, so be sure to get there a few minutes before your reservation. In fact, you may want to get there extra early to enjoy their two-for-one happy hour, weekdays until 7pm.
212 W. 79th St.; 212-362-4360

Did we forget to add: KEEP READING : Continue reading

ETFs for #MarchMadness

Someone with the handle “ETF Professor” is said to have studiously researched specific ETFs (and a few single stocks) that might bounce higher thanks to the billions that will be spent promoting, viewing, betting, and let’s not forget dining and imbibing, in the course of this week’s NCAA March Madness.

At the risk of diluting the institutional flavor of this blog by completely plagiarizing the aforementioned research, we take the high road with the new “Curator’s Code”  and invite you to find out why the Professor is pointing to the following symbols for a free throw:

BJK, GLD, PBS, PEJ, SLV, VT, CBS, CMG, MCD, YUM, GLTR

Click on this logo for the full tip sheet:

Fidelity Snags State Street ETF Czar: Rumors Abound

In a “if you can’t beat ’em, poach ’em” moment, mutual fund monster Fidelity Investments has apparently thrown in the towel and will finally focus on running their own actively-managed sector-specific ETFs. At least that’s the obvious conclusion being drawn by industry watchers after news of Fidelity, which still only offers one house-branded ETF, announced the hiring of former employee Tony Rochte, who left Fidelity after four years in 2000 to seek his fortunes in the wild west days of ETF pioneering.

The widely-respected Rochte spent his next six years at BlackRock’s bootcamp carrying the iShares flag, and the most recent six years as Senior MD over at State Street Global, where he helped the second largest ETF issuer become, well, the second largest ETF issuer.

Anthony Rochte

According to InvestmentNews:With Mr. Rochte’s background in ETFs and his new role running a division focused on sector investments, it seems like a no-brainer to some that Fidelity would re-launch those strategies as active ETFs.

“It would be a logical next step,” said Robert Goldsborough, an ETF analyst at Morningstar Inc. “Given that the sector funds already exist and they’re popular with advisers, it would make a tremendous amount of sense to move that competency over to ETFs.”  Duh!

WisdomTree Gets Wise With Corporate Bond ETF

WisdomTree, the publicly traded New York-based ETF sponsor, today rolled out the market’s first broad-based emerging market corporate bond ETF, beating iShares and State Street Global Advisors to the punch.

The WisdomTree Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund (NasdaqGM: EMCB) is an actively managed portfolio consisting of dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds from issuers in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. the fund, which is listed on the Nasdaq exchange, has an annual expense ratio of 0.60 percent.

EMCB is an active fund that grants Legg Mason’s subsidiary Western Asset Management broad discretion in choosing credits. That process is crucial to keeping investors out of highly volatile countries and away from illiquid securities, Matthew Duda, EMCB’s portfolio manager, told IndexUniverse in a telephone interview.

See the full article here:

Fixed Income ETF Fans Tune In Here

It’s a big bowl of alphabet soup when it comes to quenching your appetite for fixed income ETFs. On today’s menu you’ll find that a small smorgasborg of just these alone will get you through the first of several courses: EUO, UUP, ELD, XLU, IDU.

Ron Quigley

There’s not enough room right here to go into further discussing which of the above fixed-income-flavored ETF(s) will work best, it all depends on which US or geopolitical scenarios you’re trying to feed into. That said, what Ron Quigley says –he’s Mischler Financial Group MD & Head of Fixed Income Syndicate– pretty much sums up what every primary market players’ perspective is this week: “Its good to be selling bonds!!”

Multi-Currency, Sovereign..Utilities..You name it, and the new issuance market says “they’re buying it!”

Reprinted without permission, here’s a 2 paragraph excerpt from tonight’s missive from Quigley to his institutional fixed income patrons:

“..With Consumer Confidence reaching a four-year high coupled with the Greek PSI close to achieving a 85% to 90% participation rate, issuers rode market momentum into what was another prolific day for primary markets.  In total, 11 issuers tapped the dollar markets pricing 16 tranches totaling $8.17 billion.  Thus far the weekly total is $48.55 billion, already placing it as the 3rdbusiest week in history!  With two days left to go, the record of $52.5Bil record may fall.  Among today’s diversified group of issuers were two regulated utilities for Southern California Edison and Consolidated Edison….”

You’ll want to contact Ron directly to see his complete market updates..And, you’ll want to dig into the latest market data behind the above-noted tickers to get the fix you’re looking for.

Preferencing Preferred’s: PFF a BFF For Financials’ Fans?

For those following flows, and in particular, fans of financials, a stand-out seems to be iShares’ U.S. Preferred Stock Index fund (NYSE ARCA:PFF), which is currently trading to yield 7%.

Preferred stocks, which are historically considered to be second-class citizens by those seeking “oomph” and predominantly issued by financial firms (75% of Pfd’s are courtesy of financial service companies), do offer the benefit of a dividend cushion. Unless the equities markets will continue their north-bound trajectory, there are plenty of people that appreciate the benefit of clipping coupons.

Harris Private Bank’s Chief Investment Officer Jack Ablin, recently spotlighted by SmartMoney for being a fan of select ETFs populated by Preferred’s says, “There’s more of an incentive to spread out the risk by way of an ETF. If things go sideways, you’ve still got a nice dividend.”

We won’t steal WSJ’s thunder, and even if SmartMoney’s audience includes sophisticated retail investors, the article is a good read for pros.

 

New NASDAQ Fees Targets HFTs

Whether in effort to placate regulators who have put high-frequency traders in their cross-hairs, or simply in effort to increase revenue via new fees, or maybe even in effort to keep competitive, NASDAQ OMX announced that effective June 1, traders on its three exchanges will be charged a fee for posting an excessive number of orders away from the inside market quoted.

Market participants will be permitted to post up to 100 orders for every traded executed at no charge; beyond the 100 orders, participants will pay 1/10 of one cent (or more) per order.

Nasdaq announced its new policy on its website last night, [coincidentally] hours after a similar policy was announced by competitor Direct Edge. Both exchanges have come under pressure by their members and regulators to curb the message traffic on their trading platforms. Nasdaq is only targeting orders posted outside the national best bid or offer. Direct Edge is cutting rebates. Nasdaq is levying a fee.

Importantly, both exchange operators are exempting registered market makers from their new rules. Nasdaq spokesman Todd Golub says that market makers rarely post quotes outside the NBBO anyway. In fact, Nasdaq has a policy limiting the widths of dealer quotes. “The electronic market makers are not the ones putting in excessive messages away from the inside,” the exec said.

According to one Street-side market maker (who is not authorized to speak for his firm), “It will be interesting to see whether the new fee structure curtails the type of noise HFTs pollute the market with..”

Is It Time To Bet on Consumers? Why #XLY?

Optimists are opining that consumers are on the verge of waking up from a spending slumber that, for the better part of the past 3+ years, has impeded the shift from recession to rejuvenation and kept a cap on discretionary debits to their credit card.

What with gas pump prices percolating and interest on fixed rate investments still waning however, its hard to imagine the wives of the world are getting ready to Occupy Malls of America.

All of that said, ETF Universe Analyst Paul Britt sees a silver lining in the almost $1Billion in net new money that’s recently flowed into the top 4 consumer cyclical ETFs. (XLY, FXD, IYC, VCR).  His fav? XLY. Why? Click on the logo below to find out.

Your Girl’s Best Friend is Now an ETF..

How can you not keep reading after that shining headline?..courtesy of Jason Kephart over at InvestmentNews..

In the category of “what will they think of next?” IndexIQ has apparently scratched a new surface–IN reports that IQ has filed to offer the first physically-backed diamond ETF.

The IQ Physical Diamond Shares ETF will work along the same line as other physically backed precious metal ETFs, such as the $69 billion SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD). Rather than tracking an index, the ETF will be backed by a vault of actual diamonds in Antwerp, Belgium.

As the fund receives new money it will purchase more diamonds and as it loses money it will sell off the gems to pay for the redemption. One of the ‘ho-hums” in the filing is that this product isn’t going to attract Liz Taylor wanna-bees; IndexIQ intends to invest only in one-carat, industry-standard diamonds that are readily available and “in common use among diamond dealers,” according to its prospectus.

Read the entirety of the story by clicking on the logo below:

Thomson Reuters Adds Social Media Sentiment Tool

Courtesy of James Armstrong at Traders Mag..

Thomson Reuters announced today it is adding a new social media sentiment analysis feed to its machine-readable news product. The service, which already gives users access to news from Reuters and about 50 third-party services, will now provide information from up to 50,000 news sites and four million social media sites.

Known as Thomson Reuters News Analytics, the company’s newsfeed service has long provided information to quantitative trading firms and other financial companies. The data can be plugged directly into computers for analysis of short-term and medium-term trades.The new capability will mine social media and blog content to deliver digestible analytics on selected companies and market segments. Click TM’s logo to read the full story:

ETN Focus: Risk On, Risk Off..For HF Traders Only?

Market wisdom:markets go up and prices go down. When it comes to selecting an ETF or ETN that might make you a sage when managing money for risk-sensitive,sophisticated investors, UBS ETRACS launched a twin-set product back in the dull days of December, one of which might whet your hedge-fund like appetite for risk management in the face of headwinds.

Mark Fisher, co-creator of ETRACS ETNs "OFF" and "ONN"

Developed by commodity trading King Dennis Gartman and “He-Who-Knows-All-About-Risk” Mark (“The Fish”) Fisher, (among other titles, Fisher is also the author of the trading bible titled “The Logical Trader”), the UBS ETNs are aptly labeled “ONN” (for those wanting to put on risk) and “OFF”, which is designed for those seeking to mitigate multi-asset class risk exposure.

As both of these products are starting to gain traction in terms of increasing daily volumes, its the “OFF” that is worth spotlighting right now. If you’re a chartist, you might spot an intriguing trend.

Caveat1: read the prospectus; Caveat 2: Don’t be distracted by the limited transparency displayed by screen-based bid/offer markets for these products; read the prospectus and make a call to a liquidity aggregator that can capture improved quotes.

Hearing is Believing: ETF Best Ex Expert Says…

As US equity indexes search for a trading session bottom from which to bounce today, traders are slamming their phones in frustration when discovering the screen markets are as clear as a very cloudy day. Nothing new on that front..as ETF market experts will repeatedly repeat “don’t expect to find deep liquidity on the screens, expect to find it courtesy of connectivity..”

To hear it from the horse’s mouth, this BloombergLP-inspired podcast with Chris Hempstead, head of ETF execution for WallachBeth Capital is a good listen. Click this link: ETF Liquidity Interview

Risk OFF! And, What Top Hedge Funds Say (or Won’t Say) About ETFs

This morning’s precipitous decline in major equity indexes comes as no surprise to anyone, even if its the first Triple-Digit Decline in the Dow in 3 months.

Synonymous with big market moves, we think about what hedge funds are doing right now, and whether or not they’re exploiting ETFs as part of their hedging strategies. How prescient on the part of Pensions & Investments to issue a report yesterday “Hedge Funds mum about ETF use” in their effort to peel back the onion layers on hedge fund managers’ use of ETF products.

P&I reporter Christine Williamson delivers some good insight when writing:

Hedge fund managers are the 3rd biggest institutional users of exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products; but they’re reluctant to talk about it.

Why? “Investors in hedge funds are paying big fees for active management equity selection. If a long/short manager goes long individual equities and only shorts ETFs and (indexes), it is a terrible deal for investors (because) fees should be a lot lower,” Jim Vos, CEO, head of research and principal at hedge fund consultant Aksia LLC, New York, said in an e-mail.

That said, In aggregate, about 17% of hedge fund short positions and 4% of long positions were made through ETFs, estimated Goldman Sachs researchers from the company’s global economics, commodities and strategy research unit. The data is from the company’s Feb. 21 edition of “Hedge Fund Trend Monitor” report.

Aside from warming up to the two UBS ETRACS, hedge-fund tailored ETNs launched late last year by Mark Fisher and Dennis Gartman (OFF) and (ONN), what are the most common uses of ETFs by hedge fund managers? Read the full story:

Betting on Benchmarks : MDY + IJR Out-Performs SPY

Private investor and SeekingAlpha contributor Richard Bloch makes a noteworthy observation when suggesting that “MDY + IJR > SPY”. Bloch’s thesis is that investing in the S&P 1500, but without the top 500 would have produced noticeably better returns.

In fact, Bloch’s analysis includes not only a 10-yr look-back on comparing a $5000 investment in both MDY and IJR vs a $10,000 investment in SPY, but the cumulative profits if each month one would have shorted the same notional dollar of SPY against the combined notional long positions in MDY and IJR (accounting for both long dividends paid and short dividends owed). Click on the image for the full commentary: