Latest news, trends and ideas for investing with exchange traded funds | ETF Commentary

How do you make money with exchange traded funds in a range bound market?

That’s the question raised by the WSJ’s Ben Levisohn in the column Strategies for a Sideways Market.

Levisohn reports that shorting the Direxion Large Cap Bull 3x (BGU) and Large Cap Bear 3x (BGZ) ETFs would have returned $1,100 on a $10,000 investment year to date.

Another idea for making money when the trend isn’t clear?  Selling covered calls.

A way to play covered calls with ETFs is the PowerShares NASDAQ-100 BuyWrite Portfolio (PQBW). The ETF normally invests at least 80% of its total assets in common stocks of the 100 companies included in the NASDAQ-100® Index and then writes call options on those stocks.

BlackRock has aggressively cut the annual expense ratio for the iShares Comex Gold Trust (IAU) in a bid to lure investors from the $56 billion SPDR Gold Shares (GLD).

According to the WSJ’s Ian Salisbury, the expense ratio for IAU was cut from  0.40% to 0.25%.  The expense ratio for GLD remains at 0.40%.

Salisbury warns GLD investors to think twice before switching to IAU.  A marginal tax rate of 28% and trading costs could offset any savings coming from the lower annual expense ratio.

Volatility is back, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is time to buy.

That’s according to the WSJ’s Jason Zweig in his column Hazardous Waters: Should Investors Bet on Rising Risk?.

Turns out that the iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures (VXZ) was one of the fastest growing exchange traded products in June.  However, Zweig warns that rising volatility is a poor forecaster of future returns.

He suggests that if you want to capitalize on volatility, wait until markets are calm, not stormy, and the prices of the various VIX products come down.

The $8 billion iShares FTSE-Xinhua China 25 Index Fund (FXI) is the lead exchange traded fund profiled in John Spence’s column Using ETFs to Invest in Asian Markets.

Other China ETFs mentioned by Spence include the PowerShares GoldenDragon Halter USX China Portfolio (PGJ), SPDR S&P China ETF (GXC) and Claymore-AlphaShares China Small Cap ETF (HAO).

Whether hedging U.S. dollar investments or speculating on global economic changes, exchange traded funds and notes provide an investors with a low-cost way to gain appropriate exposure.

That’s according to the article Other People’s Money which highlights several currency ETFs and ETNs.

For funds that directly hold currencies, the article suggests looking into the Rydex CurrencyShares ETFs including:

CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE)

British Pound Sterling Trust (FXB)

Japanese Yen Trust (FXY)

Swiss Franc Trust (FXF)

Swedish Krona Trust (FXS)

Canadian Dollar Trust (FXC)

Mexican Peso Trust (FXM)

Russian Ruble Trust (XRU)

Currency ETFs from WisdomTree include:

WisdomTree Dreyfus Chinese Yuan (CYB)

Brazilian Real (BZF)

South African Rand (SZR)

Indian Rupee (ICN) and

WisdomTree Dreyfus Emerging Currency(CEW)

An ETF that provides exposure to a long-short strategy is the PowerShares DB G10 Currency Harvest Fund (DBV).

Copper ETFs are Seeing Red in 2010 according to the WSJ’s John Spence.

Turns out that the strengthening US dollar is bringing down commodity prices.  Combine that with a more uncertain economic outlook and funds that specialize in economically sensitive commodities like copper take a hit.

Spence highlights two copper exchange traded products – the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper Subindex Total Return ETN (JJC) and First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund (CU).

Looking for an energy exchange traded fund without exposure to BP?

The WSJ’s Ian Salisbury may have the answer in his column Some Energy ETFs Sidestep BP Effect.  It turns out that, since BP is a UK company, the stock isn’t part of the indices tracked by some of the larger energy ETFs such as the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) and the Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE).

Global energy ETFs are more likely to include BP.  For example, Salisbury points out that the iShares S&P Global Energy Sector Index Fund (IXC) has BP as the fund’s third largest holding.

The WSJ recently profiled Colorado Springs financial adviser Allan Roth to get his view on how to construct a diversified, tax efficient and low cost portfolio with exchange traded funds.

The ETFs in Mr. Roth’s streamlined portfolio include:

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)

Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU)

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND)

iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (TIP)

Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF (BSV)

Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ)

The Journal’s Jonathan Burton takes a look at the pros and cons of incorporating leveraged ETFs in a portfolio.  The main point of the piece is that since leveraged ETFs are designed for daily performance, holding them for longer than a day can result in unexpected returns.

The leveraged ETFs highlighted in Burton’s column include:

ProShares UltraShort Russell2000 (TWM)

ProShares Ultra Russell2000 (UWM)

ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (TBT)

ProShares UltraShort S&P500 (SDS)

ProShares UltraShort Euro (EUO)

The market correction and the European debt crisis have renewed investors’ interest in gold, pushing the commodity’s price levels to new highs.

Is there a way to safely buy gold at these levels without exposing your portfolio to the risk of a sudden crash in gold prices?  That’s the question asked by the WSJ’s Brett Arends in the article Playing Gold Without Getting Killed.

Arends suggests that instead of buying the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) ETF, investors should consider buying call options on gold.  Options provide upside exposure while limiting downside losses.