Research Magazine April 2008
Cover Story
Caveat Vendor
It began with nothing but the best intentions: Financial advisors wanting to reap higher yields for their retail clients -- and in the process also...
Features
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More than Just Clearing
Financial advisors are quick to call theirs a people-to-people business; and since they're out on the front lines, that's completely correct. But now some traditionally backstage...
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The Go-Go Sixties
For a decade that would be remembered as Wall Street's "go-go years," the 1960s began in an unpromising way. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which...
News
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Advisors Changing Product Mix
Mutual funds have long been the investment vehicle of choice for many investors and financial advisors, but changing times may be on the way. A...
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Greenhaven Tracks Reuters
As the interest in commodity investments grows, ETF providers are trying to meet that demand. The Greenhaven Continuous Commodity Index Fund (GCC) is the latest...
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ETF Assets Rise by $36 Billion
According to the Investment Company Institute, or ICI, the combined assets of U.S. ETFs increased by $36.30 billion to $608.42 billion in December. The latest asset...
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Claymore Revamps Product Line
One week after announcing 11 ETF closures, Claymore Securities introduced three new funds. The new products are designed to follow broad markets representing the value...
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Learning the ABCs of ETFs
Few could have predicted that the rise of exchange-traded funds as mainstream investment products would happen so swiftly. As index funds that trade like stocks,...
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Getting Hands-On
Over the past several years the exchange-traded funds industry has attempted to bring actively managed funds to market without much success. But a reversal of...
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State Street Seeks Foreign Dividends
State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation, has launched the SPDR S&P International Dividend ETF (DWX). The fund will track...
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A Test of Trust
It seems that each passing day brings more bad economic news: a softening job market; weak retail sales; deepening bank troubles; record foreclosures; a shaky...
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Specialized Gold Notes Launched
Deutsche Bank has issued three specialized exchange-traded notes (ETNs) linked to gold. The DB Gold Double Long ETN (DGP) aims to provide double monthly upside...
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Bear Stearns Debuts Active ETF (Really!)
Bear Stearns was planning to make a splash by offering the world's first actively managed ETF on March 18th, but instead the company got hit...
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Fund Focus: Financial/Banking Products
Despite the stunning fall of Bear Stearns, banking and financial ETFs rebounded a bit from their earlier-in-the-year market lows. They are, however, still lagging way...
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Optimism on Gold-ETF Options
It appears the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have agreed to resolve jurisdictional authority with regard to...
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Munibond ETFs Are Screaming Opportunity
When was the last time municipal bond yields were higher than those of U.S. Treasury bonds? As of March 5, the SPDR Lehman Municipal Bond ETF...
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Commodities Shine in Current Market
The bull market that left the stock market has rediscovered itself in commodities. One of the latest commodity funds to hit the ETF market is the...
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Substituting Stocks with ETFs
For investors sitting on big-time stock losses, now might be a good time for a spring cleaning. In the past year, Washington Mutual (WM) has lost...
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India ETF Debuts on NYSE Arca
The PowerShares India Portfolio (PIN) began trading March 5 on the NYSE Arca. The new fund follows the Indus India Index which provides coverage to industry...
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The Other Half of the Indexing Debate
Over the past few years, investors have been entertained by the mudslinging between two distinct camps of index investing: traditional indexers vs. fundamental indexers. The first...
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McNabb to Replace Brennan as Vanguard CEO in '08-'09
Vanguard Group's board of directors has elected F. William McNabb III as president and director of Vanguard effective March 1. McNabb, 50, is set to...
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Bonds Rise in Stature, as Cash Becomes King
In the first month of 2008, stock and bond funds tracked by Financial Research Corporation had net outflows of nearly $23 billion. Government funds, however,...
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Fidelity Shares Survey Results, Settles with SEC
Fidelity Investments and National Financial have released new research on Individual Retirement Account ownership. The research shows that, despite 2007 being a year of financial...
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Industry Groups Support SEC Summary Proposal
The fund industry's Investment Company Institute says it agrees with federal regulators over the practice of supplying fund investors with short, simple summary prospectuses. The...
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Merrill Outlines Growth, Names CAO and Explains $60 Million Charge
Merrill Lynch President and COO Greg Fleming has made quite a bullish case for the company's global wealth management operations. In a presentation during the...
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For Wachovia, 'With' Is the Magic Word
Wachovia Securities, now based in St. Louis, has a new national advertising campaign that aims to convey "the power created by its union with A.G....
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LPL Financial Taps Feeney as CIO
LPL Financial has named Chris Feeney as chief information officer. He reports to Esther Stearns, president and COO, and is responsible for overseeing the firm's...
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NAVA Confab Showcases Growth and '08 Direction
NAVA, the association for insured retirement solutions, is upbeat about the state of the industry's main initiatives in public relations and regulatory affairs, according to...
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Well Positioned
Strong domestic and international usage in 2008 should benefit the coal sector, analysts say. --- David M. Khani, CFAFriedman, Billings & Ramseydkhani@fbr.com Outlook: Though utility inventory is still...
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Generating Growth
Diversified electric utilities are proving their ability to grow earnings in a challenging environment, analysts say. --- Vikas DwivediMorgan StanleyVikas.Dwivedi@morganstanley.com Sector Outlook: We continue to view our sector...
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Wealth2K's David Macchia Speaks with DWS Scudder's Phillip Hensler
David Macchia: Philipp, I know my readers will be very much interested in knowing about you on a personal level, and perhaps about things that...
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Keeping Up with Connelly
Some take shelter in the safe and familiar. Others seek the scary and unknown. That's Elizabeth Connelly. She's driven by the rush of risk-taking. It's because...
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Wealth of Data
America's fascination with the uber-rich has been fed by TV shows, movies, magazines. Now, a new book, Get Rich, Stay Rich, Pass It On, reveals...
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Combo Products
Retirement income is in the news and several companies have responded to the increasingly visible shift from investment accumulation to income distribution by announcing new...
Voices/Columnists
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Excellent Presentation
I have known many outstanding investors who have not survived as financial advisors. Perhaps in a subsequent business life, they will be reincarnated as quants...
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Swami Marketing
Just the other day, I visited a friend of mine at his office. While I was waiting in the lobby, I happened to pick up...
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Seeking Simplicity
Do you remember when Microsoft first introduced PowerPoint in the early 1990s? We all thought it was so great. Now our presentations could easily include...
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Talking Turbulence
What did you do to communicate with your clients during the market downturn earlier this year? If you answered "nothing," or had to stop and...
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Finding (and Keeping) Wealthier Clients
Financial advisors understand that with increasing competition, downward pressure on fees and commissions, and rising expenses and compliance costs, finding and satisfying wealthy clients has...
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Going the Extra Mile
I catch up with Joe Calloway in the hotel lobby during OneVoice, the 2008 Broker-Dealer Conference organized by the Financial Services Institute. A busy man...
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Stagflation Nation
About a year ago, I was interviewing the head of a New York City-based broker-dealer for my Research column. The conversation turned to inflation --...
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