ETFs

Growth in exchange-traded funds fell to 5.1% in 2011, from 27.5% in 2010 and 46.7% in 2009, according to figures released by the Exchange Traded Fund Association. The category with the biggest gains: fixed-income funds.

If you had the foresight to invest heavily for your clients in Pimco's 25-year zero coupon U.S. Treasury exchange-traded bond fund last year, they would have realized a 51.9% return on their investment. The fund was the best-performing exchange-traded fund in 2011.

Examining the wisdom of using exchange-traded funds to weather macroeconomic headwinds.

Knight Capital Group has launched two actively managed exchange-traded funds run by subsidiary Astor Asset Management. The funds are the Astor Active Income ETF Fund and the Astor SP Growth ETF Fund.

There are plenty of ETF choices out there for investors. Some might make more sense than others, according to S&P Capital IQ.

The funds might include both domestic and U.S.-listed foreign companies, a feature that allows for a more global representation.

Global X Funds is liquidating eight of its exchange-traded funds, including a fund focused on emerging markets and another on waste management.

Commodity and currency-based ETFs are gaining popularity as investors disappointed with poor returns on traditional investments like stocks and bonds look to diversify their holdings.

U.S. Bancorp has launched a new exchange-traded funds service, ETF-Fusion, which helps existing or start-up ETFs with product development, administration and trade support, proprietary technology and regulation and compliance.

For the first time since the end of April, investors pulled more money out of exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes than they put in, resulting in a net outflow of $238 million for the month, according to the National Stock Exchange.

Fidelity Investments has filed with the SEC to offer a broad range of domestic and international equity and fixed-income exchange-traded funds – putting to rest longtime speculations as to when, not if, Fidelity would enter the ETF market.

ProShares has created a new post, head of capital markets and named Stephen Sachs to the position.

Assets of the nation’s exchange-traded funds rose 10.9% in October to slightly more than $1 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute’s latest report on ETFs. That’s up $131.4 billion, or 14.2%, from a year ago.

Investors seeking diversity, liquidity and competitive yields when compared to other fixed-income products are trying a relatively new alternative: municipal bond exchange-traded funds.

And you thought the U.S. stocks were out of favor. Then came October. While $20.4 billion got pulled out of mutual funds that invest long-term in U.S. stocks, money was flooding into exchange-traded funds that invested in U.S. stocks.

The operator of an all-electronic options exchange and licenser of financial indexes said it was beginning to fund the creation of exchange-traded funds by other parties.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Social Media Index ETF (SOCL), which it says is the first ETF that will globally focus on social media companies. The fund will cover companies that provide social networking, file sharing and other web-based media applications.

Investors may be fleeing from mutual funds that invest in U.S. stocks for the long haul. But that does not mean they’re fleeing U.S. stock funds.

Eileen Rominger, director of the SEC's division of investment management, testified last month before the U.S. Senate that the commission is reviewing whether the widespread use of exchange-traded funds is contributing to market volatility.

Russell Investments has launched three international equity “factor” exchange-traded funds designed to provide investors with focused exposure to fundamental risk factors -- namely low beta, low volatility and high momentum. The funds complement Russell’s existing 10 domestic factor ETFs.