ETFs have really made headway into the financial markets, as they track U.S. equity indexes, but, a recent report by The Wall Street Journal states that experts in the industry say the bigger focus in 2006 will be starting nontraditional, specialty products that will track fixed income, currencies and commodities, and some that will inverse the index they track.
"I think there will be a fair amount of product growth," states Jim Ross, co-head of adviser strategies at State Street Global Advisors. "I think you will see new entrants and existing folks expanding their product lines," he added.
People have really been contributing to the growth of the ETF business and investors have become more accepting of them, according to Valerie Corradini, senior strategist for iShares at Barclays Global Investors.
Products that track nontraditional areas technically are not ETFs, since the structure is not the same, however, because they function the same way, they are considered ETFs.
BGI has recently filed for a silver ETF, which would hold actual silver and would price shares daily according to the daily price of silver.
Deutsche Bank recently announced its plan to create an ETF that tracks light, sweet crude oil, heating oil, aluminum, gold, corn and wheat by taking positions in future contracts.
The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.
