Guide to market sentiment - ETF flows provide guide to financial trends OMFIF Bulletin - September 2012
"With more than $1.5tn in assets under management in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), flows in and out of ETFs are a good proxy for overall risk appetite in financial
markets. If we look at the chief changes affecting the so-called ETF Titans – ETFs with AUM above $1bn – in the first seven months of the year, a number of different themes emerge."
Instruments of diversification - Titans of ETF market offer choice and liquidity OMFIF Bulletin - August 2012
"Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are progressively becoming the investment of choice of many investors because these instruments are low cost, transparent, liquid, and offer
diversification within and across asset classes. The number of ETPs now exceeds 4,500 and the market itself is over $1.6tn. An advantage that ETFs have over hedge funds
and other investment funds is that the cost of investing is in many instances significantly lower. Moreover, a portfolio of ETFs can be managed on an active basis with the aim of
outperforming a given benchmark."
Riding the cycle with ETFs - Holistic approach for world economy OMFIF Bulletin - May 2012
"In an unpropitious environment for asset management strategies, it is well worth pondering the reality that different asset classes react in different ways to the overall
economic background. The historical performance of different asset classes in different economic phases can be used to guide investment decisions. Linking up these clearly
discernible patterns with Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) as implementation instruments provides a holistic asset management strategy that has a high chance of success across the economic cycle."
Sectors via ETFs - Which Funds Should I Buy? IndexUniverse Webinar - April 2012
"Sector-based index strategies have become increasingly popular as investors move away from benchmarks based on countries or regional geographies. We examine how best to use sector ETFs and how to evaluate the different indices and funds on offer. "
Navigating the economic cycle with ETFs OMFIF Workshop - March 2012
It is a well known truism that at a global and regional level the economy displays a cyclic behaviour, but after two of the most turbulent economic crisis since the 1920s, can an investor ride out these cycles to good effect?
With the aim of using ETFs as building bricks for our investments we study the returns of a range of asset classes to see whether there are any discernible patterns that one can detect and if so how could we benefit from that insight.
ETFs 2012 – Ready, Fire, Aim OMFIF Workshop - March 2012
What The Economist said
"Invented in the late 1980s by the Toronto Stock Exchange, the ETF is in essence a cheap mutual fund: a basket of securities that tracks an index, is wrapped in a fund structure and is listed on an exchange so that investors can trade in and out whenever they want.
They are cheap and tax-efficient, and they allow retail investors access to diversified portfolios of assets that had previously been the sole preserve of institutional investors."
A long look at the short view* - Stress testing the alphas Markit Magazine - Q4 2011
"When it comes to getting the attention of an active manager, nothing is more pertinent than the month-on-month outperformance of the strategy
compared with its benchmark. Trading costs and the tracking errors of the underlying assets must be much smaller than the alpha of the tactical allocation
for this strategy to be a winner"
The Markit Magazine - Issue 14
*The paper referenced here is included with the kind permission of Markit