Content provided by Joe Smith, CFA, CLS Senior Market Strategist Over the last 20+ years, exchange traded funds (ETFs) have captured the hearts and minds of investors. These investment vehicles have empowered everyday investors to build portfolios that help them reach their financial goals – with greater transparency, lower costs, and more precision. ETFs have… Continue reading What Do ETF Strategists Stand For?
Category: Investment Methodology
Fixed Income ETFs: A Don’t Buy?
Content provided by Marc Pfeffer, CLS Senior Portfolio Manager One of the newest trends in the densely populated world of ETFs now includes fixed income. As investors turn to the safety of bonds in anticipation of higher interest rates, fund companies are launching new, and increasingly complex, fixed income ETFs. But as I recently told… Continue reading Fixed Income ETFs: A Don’t Buy?
A Smart Idea
Content provided by Rusty Vanneman, CFA, CLS Chief Investment Officer Smart beta ETFs, sometimes known as strategic beta ETFs, represent the fastest-growing segment of the booming ETF landscape – and for good reasons. In 2014, smart beta accounted for $170 billion in assets, according to a report for Institutional Investor by Howard Moore. The concept… Continue reading A Smart Idea
What You Need to Know About Closed-End Funds
Content provided by Marc Pfeffer, CLS Portfolio Manager At the annual NorthStar Summit in Nashville last month, there was a lot of interest from financial advisors about CLS’s new active income strategies. Some of that conversation focused on closed-end funds (CEFs), which we’ve begun to use within active income strategies. Many advisors may be unfamiliar… Continue reading What You Need to Know About Closed-End Funds
Market Horror Picture Show
By Kostya Etus, CLS Associate Portfolio Manager I love watching movies. It is one of my favorite things to do in my spare time. I really enjoy all types of movies, and I will give almost any film a chance except for one genre: horror. I find horror films typically do not have well-developed plots,… Continue reading Market Horror Picture Show
Emerging Market Divergence
Content provided by Sierra Morris-Fuchs, CLS Investment Research Analyst Emerging markets have shown favorable valuations and stronger global growth prospects recently, which have presented intriguing opportunities. But lumping these markets together as a single country or region can be quite deceiving. Instead, the emerging markets should be analyzed individually because their characteristics vary widely —… Continue reading Emerging Market Divergence
The Other 40 Act Fund
Content provided by Joshua Jenkins, CLS Associate Portfolio Manager The ETF industry spends a substantial amount of time educating investors on the relative merits of the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) structure. In doing so, a comparison is typically made to a close relative, the open-end mutual fund. There is, however, another investment vehicle defined by… Continue reading The Other 40 Act Fund
Are You Loss Averse?
Content provided by Paula Wieck, CLS Manager of Investment Research/Portfolio Manager Ever go to a movie only to realize pretty quickly that it’s not going to be any good, but yet you stay and watch it anyway? In retrospect, you wish you would have left the theatre. Wasn’t it bad enough you wasted your money, but… Continue reading Are You Loss Averse?
First Take on Fed’s June Meeting
Content provided by Marc Pfeffer, CLS Senior Portfolio Manager Round one of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) communication delivered mixed messages to markets, as expected. The FOMC statement was upgraded to acknowledge better data, while movements in the “dots” (assessments of appropriate monetary policy) implied a slightly more accommodative fed funds rate path. The communication released… Continue reading First Take on Fed’s June Meeting
Time Investments
Content provided by Sierra Morris-Fuchs, CLS Investment Research Analyst Figuring out how to spend your money can be difficult. If you are like me, even a decision as simple as where to go for dinner can turn into a lengthy quest of nearby restaurants, researching menus for plates and prices, and making a persuasive argument… Continue reading Time Investments