Global ETF News Older than One Year
Almost All of Wall Street Got 2012 Market Calls Wrong
January 4, 2013--From John Paulson's call for a collapse in Europe to Morgan Stanley (MS)'s warning that U.S. stocks would decline, Wall Street got little right in its prognosis for the year just ended.
Paulson, who manages $19 billion in hedge funds, said the euro would fall apart and bet against the region’s debt. Morgan Stanley predicted the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index would lose 7 percent and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) foresaw wider swings in equity prices. All of them proved wrong last year and investors would have done better listening to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, who said the real risk was being too pessimistic.
Source: Bloomberg
Financial advisers drop 'independent' tag
January 4, 2013--Financial advisers' trade bodies are being forced to rebrand themselves and drop the word "independent" as a growing number of their members will be able to advise only on a "restricted" range of products under new regulations introduced on December 31 2012.
Sifa, the body for financial advisers working with solicitors, has announced that its acronym will no longer stand for Solicitors Independent Financial Advice, which will change to Supporting Impartial Financial Advice.
Source: FT.com
BlackRock in landmark move to boost ETF protection
January 3, 2013--BlackRock has started issuing letters to investors to bolster the degree of protection they have from the firm's practice of securities lending in iShares, its exchange traded funds (ETF) arm.
The asset manager last year moved to indemnify its iShares range from the risk of borrower default, meaning that if a company borrows stock from the fund and goes bust, BlackRock compensates the fund and ensures there is no financial loss for investors.
Source: CityWire
The Options Industry Council Announces December Options Volume Down 2% With 2012 Volume Surpassing 4 Billion Contracts
January 2, 2013--The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 312,528,471 total options contracts were traded in December, which is a 2.43 percent decrease compared to the previous December when 320,324,954 contracts were traded.
Total options trading volume for the year stood at 4,003,871,308 contracts, off last year's record year by 12.25 percent with 4,562,748,194 total options contracts exchanged. This marks the second time annual volume was over 4 billion contracts and 2012 as the second highest volume year on record. Equity options volume came in at 3,681,820,659 contracts, 12.85 percent less than the 4,224,604,529 contracts traded the year prior.
Last year also saw $1.36 trillion in options premium change hands, the sixth consecutive year above $1 trillion and the third highest amount after 2008's $1.9 trillion.
Source: The Options Industry Council (OIC)
Index providers look to apply minimum volatility success story to other asset classes
January 2, 2013--Minimum volatility strategies have been a huge hit in the equity space. Index providers are now planning to apply them to fixed income and commodities
Index and exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers are looking to apply minimum volatility and risk-control strategies to other asset classes aside from equities, according to industry participants.
Source: Risk.net
Total trading volume at Eurex Group at 2.3 billion contracts in 2012
Average daily volume in 2012 approximately 9.0 million contracts/ Eurex KOSPI Product, dividend and volatility derivatives with significant growth
January 2, 2013-- The international derivatives markets of Eurex Group ended 2012 with a turnover of approximately 2.3 billion contracts, compared with 2.8 billion in 2011.
The total volume for 2012 splits into 1.7 billion contracts traded at Eurex Exchange (2011: 2.0 billion) and 631.8 million contracts traded at the International Securities Exchange (ISE) (2011: 778.1 million). This corresponds to a daily average trading volume of 9.0 million contracts (2011: 11.1 million), thereof 6.5 million contracts at Eurex Exchange and 2.5 million contracts at ISE.
At Eurex Exchange, the equity index derivatives segment was the largest in 2012 with a total yearly volume of 765.6 million contracts (2011: 954.7 million). Derivatives on the EURO STOXX 50® index were the largest single product with 315.2 million futures and 280.6 million options. The equity derivatives segment (options and single stock futures) saw 411.0 million contracts (2011: 449.6 million). In 2012, the interest rate derivatives segment reached a total of 470.4 million contracts (2011: 630.4 million).
Source: Eurex
EPFR Global Fund Data News Release-Banner year for bond funds ends with a whimper
January 2, 2013--With the so-called fiscal cliff ahead and a year that saw many of the world's equity markets post double digit gains behind, investors hunkered down during the final days of 2012 with only Emerging Markets Equity Funds seeing significant amounts of new money.
EPFR Global-tracked Bond Funds, which averaged net inflows of $9 billion a week on their way to a new full year inflow record, took in only $981 million during the week ending December 26. Equity Funds absorbed $3.98 billion as retail investors again refused to chase gains, especially in developed markets.
Provisional full year totals, based on combined monthly, weekly and daily data, show a slew of bond fund groups setting new inflow records. They include US, High Yield, Emerging Markets, Mortgage Backed, Canada and Australia Bond Funds. Outside the fixed income universe, Mexico, Colombia and Philippines Equity, Long/Short, Derivatives, Real Estate and Healthcare/Biotechnology Sector and Dividend Equity Funds also posted record inflows while Canada, UK, France, Germany and Taiwan Equity Funds set new outflow marks.
As a quarter that saw fresh rounds of monetary stimulus from all of the world’s major central banks wound down, flows into several of the year’s hotter fund groups -- among them High Yield and Municipal Bond Funds -- were stumbling while commitments to fund groups associated with Developed Europe, emerging markets, real estate and China gained momentum.
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Source: EPFR
Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds
December 31, 2012--On December 10, 2012 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released the National Intelligence Council's (NIC) latest Global Trends report, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds.
The Global Trends project engages expertise from outside government on factors of such as globalization, demography and the environment, producing a forward-looking document to aid policymakers in their long term planning on key issues of worldwide importance.
view the Global Trends 2030: Alternative-the National Intelligence Council
Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence
STOXX Preliminary Index Report -2012 In Review
December 28, 2012--As of December 27, 2012 stock market indices in Europe, Asia, the U.S. and globally were up in 2012, according to preliminary data for the past year from global index provider STOXX Limited.
For the past year, the European, Asian, U.S. and global markets were up 14.75%, 10.19%, 10.02% and 11.35%, respectively. The full performance report is below.
Source: STOXX
NASDAQ Announces Mid-Month Open Short Interest Positions in NASDAQ Stocks as of Settlement Date December 14, 2012
December 28, 2012--At the end of the settlement date December 14, 2012, short interest in 2,156 NASDAQ Global MarketSM securities totaled 7,226,471,989 shares compared with 7,417,693,054 shares in 2,157 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of November 30, 2012.
The mid-December short interest represents 4.32 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 4.53 days for the prior reporting period.
Short interest in 505 securities on The NASDAQ Capital MarketSM totaled 366,335,563 shares at the end of the settlement date of December 14, 2012 compared with 361,818,680 shares in 498 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents 5.47 days average daily volume, compared with the previous reporting period's figure of 5.74.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
