[gun]

I did not see a thread dedicated on this, and I think there should be one. I know I will greatly benefit. This is different than the individual shares thread for sure.
Which sectors is everyone investing? Is ETF investing in your strategy?

I do not have the risk appetite for individual stocks, neither I want to pay the high commissions that that are needed to spread the risk in your portfolio, as transactions are pretty costly in Australia. (zecco.com in the US offers forever free 10 monthly transactions with >25k account balance).

Let there be a thread on ETFs and please mention any Australian counterparts (that I can by with my commsec account) if you are to discuss foreign ETFs.

This post has been edited by gun: 07 May 2010 - 09:10 AM

[gun]

My limited search tells me that ETF investing has not picked up in Australia. The market here is too small for the often exotic, wide variety etfs that are available in the NYSE for example.
Or am I mistaken?

[Bernard L. Madoff]

I believe this is the ETF you go long in if you want to short Europe equities. I say that again, you buy this ETF to short Europe (with a 2 to 1 margin).

http://www.proshares.../funds/epv.html

Quote

ProShares UltraShort MSCI Europe seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to twice (200%) the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the MSCI Europe Index.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

In fact here are a whole swag of ETFs where you can long or short indices, sectors, energies, bonds, currencies etc etc.

http://www.proshares.com/funds/

[gun]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 12 May 2010 - 07:10 PM, said:

In fact here are a whole swag of ETFs where you can long or short indices, sectors, energies, bonds, currencies etc etc.

http://www.proshares.com/funds/

How many of those are available through exchanges in Australia?
There are many etf screening websites.

I can find very few etfs being traded in the ASX.

This post has been edited by gun: 14 May 2010 - 02:27 AM

[Bernard L. Madoff]

They are NYSE as far as I can tell. Here is the is the interesting one, you buy sat a Dow Ultra short, the Dow tanks 30%, being 2 to 1 you make 60%. However the AUD tanks 30% as well, you are looking at +120% now.

You should be able to access the NYSE via Commsec etc.

[gun]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 14 May 2010 - 03:51 AM, said:

You should be able to access the NYSE via Commsec etc.

Thats great news. How much do they charge for a NYSE trade?

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Quote

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Exchange-traded funds, which investors are increasingly using to express a view on entire markets and industries, saw their prices gyrate Thursday as stocks around the globe fell sharply.

The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX 34.45, +4.60, +15.41%) , an exchange-traded note tracking futures on the COBE Volatility Index (VIX 44.61, +9.29, +26.30%) , jumped about 10% as Europe's debt challenges and a rise in U.S. weekly jobless claims helped fuel that latest sell-off in stocks. The ETN, which tends to rise when fear grips markets, has rallied more than 50% so far in May.

The moves in the most actively traded ETFs and ETNs on Thursday reflected the bloodshed in global markets.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY 108.09, -3.67, -3.28%) , the largest ETF by assets, slipped more than 2%. The ETF dipped under $110 a share on Thursday -- the last time it traded below that level was in late February. The fund is in negative territory for the year-to-date period.

Emerging markets were falling harder than U.S. stocks on Thursday. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund / (EEM 36.18, -1.88, -4.94%) plunged more than 4% in recent action. Commodities ETFs were also drawn into the carnage. U.S. Oil Fund (USO 31.83, -1.68, -5.01%) , which invests in crude-oil futures, dropped 3%.

However, gold provided somewhat of a safe haven as SPDR Gold Shares (GLD 115.86, -0.77, -0.66%) managed to tread water. The gold ETF, which has a market capitalization of nearly $47 billion, managed to breach $120 a share earlier this month but failed to hold. The ETF is up about 8% so far this year.

The euro, the market's recent whipping boy, was relatively stable Thursday. The CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE 123.26, -0.24, -0.19%) was little changed at last check. Meanwhile, the PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund (UUP 25.28, +0.06, +0.24%) rose fractionally.

Some ETFs that bet against equity markets and sectors were profiting from Thursday's bedlam. For example, Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ 16.58, +1.64, +10.98%) , which is geared to rise 300% in the opposite direction of financial stocks on a daily basis, jumped nearly 8%. ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 (SDS 35.45, +2.20, +6.62%) added nearly 5% in recent trade.

Friends in North America with Bearish outlook buy FAZ.

Gun, Commsec is USD$71.50 or 0.825% a trade (whichever is greater) on New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ
American Stock Exchange Includes equities, foreign denominated bonds, managed funds and Options.


http://www.comsec.co...p?Page=HTrading

[gun]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 20 May 2010 - 05:17 PM, said:

Friends in North America with Bearish outlook buy FAZ.

Gun, Commsec is USD$71.50 or 0.825% a trade (whichever is greater) on New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ
American Stock Exchange Includes equities, foreign denominated bonds, managed funds and Options.


http://www.comsec.co...p?Page=HTrading

That's exorbitantly high, given I will invest 5-10 max at each trade. That will be 1%+ of my trade. And to liquidate my holdings another 1%.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

gun, on 23 May 2010 - 04:24 AM, said:

That's exorbitantly high, given I will invest 5-10 max at each trade. That will be 1%+ of my trade. And to liquidate my holdings another 1%.

It is high. Though on a 10% fall in the Dow FAZ gets you +30%

IB can be $0.005 a share.

FAZ is 16.48 so thats chickenfeed.

Quote

*
US Products
Commission Schedule

* Stocks & ETFs (all-in):
$0.005 or less per share

* Options (plus exchange fees):
$0.15 to $0.70 per contract

* Futures (plus exchange, regulatory and carrying fees):
$0.25 to 0.85 per contract

* Bonds (all-in):
$1.00 per $1,000 face value (<=10,000)
$0.25 per $1,000 face value (>10,000)

* No extra ticket charges, $1.00 order minimum

http://www.interacti...com/en/main.php

[gun]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 23 May 2010 - 07:26 AM, said:

It is high. Though on a 10% fall in the Dow FAZ gets you +30%

IB can be $0.005 a share.

FAZ is 16.48 so thats chickenfeed.





http://www.interacti...com/en/main.php

Thats very good. Anyone use them? Or another question is: If their commission is so low, how are the other trade platforms competing against them?

[gun]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 23 May 2010 - 07:26 AM, said:

It is high. Though on a 10% fall in the Dow FAZ gets you +30%

IB can be $0.005 a share.

FAZ is 16.48 so thats chickenfeed.





http://www.interacti...com/en/main.php

BTW, another nice alternative of FAZ is SDS, only 2x ultra.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

gun, on 25 May 2010 - 11:36 AM, said:

Thats very good. Anyone use them? Or another question is: If their commission is so low, how are the other trade platforms competing against them?

Boz is an IP man. I will be as well in the new financial year at some stage. They are the pro's brokers.

[gun]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 25 May 2010 - 11:50 AM, said:

Boz is an IP man. I will be as well in the new financial year at some stage. They are the pro's brokers.

http://etfdailynews.com/

http://etfdailynews.com/blog/



Nice website for ETF news and hedges against for portfolio.

[sydney3000]

The markets are doomed.

Quote

ETF’s account for 30% of the dollar volume traded on US equity exchanges on any given day. We believe that they dominate short-selling to a significantly greater degree. In fact, my guess (and it’s only a guess) is that 80% of short positions are established with ETF’s. If a hedge fund wants to get shorter immediately, the easiest way to do it is to use an ETF, either by shorting a long ETF or going long a short ETF. All the better if you use a levered ETF, which are terrible for buy-and-hold strategies but very effective for trading exposure in a portfolio. There are no liquidity constraints with short ETFs. Let me repeat that, with emphasis.

There. Are. No. Liquidity. Constraints. With. Short. ETFs. Unlike shorting an individual stock, where you have to locate a borrow from your prime, I can go long as many shares of a leveraged short ETF as I please. The executing broker, Goldman Sachs for example, then turns around and shorts individual shares of the constituent stocks in the ETF (or buys puts on the constituent stocks if they are selling me a levered short ETF, which results in the options market maker shorting individual shares of the constituent stocks), and then “redeems” those short shares at the end of the day with the ETF administrator to create the ETF shares. The important point here is that market makers have an exemption from Reg SHO, which requires a good locate on borrowed shares. So regardless of whether a borrow actually exists, regardless of whether there is a real buyer for the shares being sold short, massive shorting can take place through ETFs even in the absence of market liquidity.

...which leads to naked short selling all the way down the precipice.

http://www.scribd.co...uarterly-Letter

This post has been edited by sydney3000: 28 August 2010 - 09:50 AM

[Plonk]

Hey there, gun. You may have seen this:

http://www.asx.com.a...sector_etfs.htm

And this:

http://www.asx.com.a...ralian_etfs.htm

The latter link has this:

Quote

The current issuers of broad based Australian index ETFs are Russell Investments, State Street Global Advisers and Vanguard Investments.

It may be worthwhile giving those mobs a call and ask them about cost, structure, etc.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Gun has left SS in a huff. Nice links tho, won't touch them myself.

Thanks Plonk and S3K

[savagegoose]

so i met someone online says they where on this at $60
http://finance.yahoo...om/q?s=AGQ&ql=0

The investment seeks to provide daily investment results (before fees and expenses) that correspond to twice (200%) the daily performance of silver bullion as measured by the U.S. Dollar fixing price for delivery in London. The fund invests in any one of or combinations of the financial instruments (swap agreement, futures contracts, forward contracts, option contracts) with respect to the applicable fund’s benchmark to the extent determined appropriate by the Sponsor.

now around $350

double your gains on silver, isnt this sh*t what destroyed the world econ in the 1st place?
still i wish i had had the balls, or even the link , and a trader i could have bought them . but still double the ups, wonder what the downs feel like.

[mattau]

ahh ETFs... i've read alot about them from US books, and I seriously considered investing in them.
I think the good thing about them is the very low management fees (unlike managed/mutual funds), but I think you do have to really consider whether you can pay the brokerage fees for ETFs