ETFs and Funds - Articles & White Papers

This report explores alternative index approaches, minimum variance, low volatility factors, defensive multi-factor strategies and target exposure factors.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) revolutionized asset markets by using an innovative structure to make investing in a wide variety of asset classes simpler and cheaper. When first introduced, ETFs were viewed as a sideshow in the market, but their spectacular growth, combined with recent episodes of market instability, raises…

New survey reveals how and why advisors use ETFs, including the potential implications for asset management product development and advisor engagement.

This comprehensive report from PwC/ALFI investigates global pension fund asset allocations, looking specifically at key trends within the industry and noting the increasing desire to invest abroad and in alternative investments.

How do index innovations and advisor strategies in the U.S. help shape strategies in markets around the globe? S&P DJI’s Stuart Magrath sits down with CCA Financial Planner’s Christopher Cachia to discuss key takeaways from S&P DJI’s latest FA study tour.

The 200-day moving average is a well-known tool for gauging U.S. equity markets, but could this signal of market momentum provide insight on which way the international market trade winds are blowing? Explore a new custom tool for navigating international markets with Pacer ETFs Sean O’Hara and S&P DJI’s Michael Mell.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the accounting and corporate regulatory authority publicly launched the VCC framework on 15th January 2020.

FTSE Russell shares the Q&A session from its slot at the Inside ETFs conference.

This paper examines how the growth of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has affected the sensitivity of international capital flows to global financial conditions. Using data on individual emerging market funds worldwide, we employ a novel identification strategy that controls for unobservable time-varying economic conditions at…

Despite widely publicized fee reductions, average expense ratios of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) remained relatively steady between 2004 and 2018. Even though thousands of new funds entered the market during this period, the arrival of most ETF sponsors into a narrowly defined area has not generally led to lower fees for…

This paper discusses the valuation framework applicable to equity and debt securities as well as important concepts related to performing and overseeing the valuation process as it pertains to these investments.

Fund families sometimes use closed-end funds to provide liquidity to distressed open-end funds in order to improve their performance.

This paper examines the performance of no-load equity mutual funds in the United States.

U.S. asset managers are now able to structure semi-transparent ETF products, where 50-95% of a manager's holdings are visible.

Fears about the liquidity of ETFs have accompanied their incredible popularity, but the recent bear market has demonstrated that they have remained tradeable.

Holding a diversified portfolio of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been shown to improve performance1, but there are also more intangible benefits. Vanguard research has shown how investors who transition from concentrated investments in a few directly held shares to more broadly diversified portfolios can…

Could infrastructure offer yield at a reasonable price in a low-rate environment? S&P DJI’s Shaun Wurzbach sits down with ProShares’ Simeon Hyman for a closer look at an index-based approach to capturing yield through infrastructure projects around the globe.

We document economically large momentum profits when sorting ETFs on returns over the past two to four years. A value-weighted, long-short strategy based on ETF momentum delivers Carhart (1997) four-factor alphas of up to 1.20% per month. Neither cross-sectional stock momentum nor co-variation with macroeconomic and…

The increased adoption of ETFs was one of the most striking of all the investment revolutions that characterized the 2010s. A decade ago, many retail investors still considered ETFs to be novel, exotic, and somewhat complicated. And institutions weren’t rushing to embrace ETFs either, as many were already reaping low cost…

Recently, several academic theories have expressed concern over the growth of index funds. Some have argued that the growth of index funds will afford the asset managers who provide them too much influence over the public companies they invest in, through increased voting power and engagement activities. This, they assert,…