Investments

The current investing enviornment is the “Rodney Dangerfield” of bull markets, because even after five years of bullish returns it is still not getting the respect it deserves, according to Liz Ann Sonders, Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist.

Here are a handful of tips and general trends for advisors to keep in mind this week.

A bias toward domestic investment is understandable, but the U.S., big as it is, is not the world. We exist in a global economy and for advisors and their clients to restrict their thinking to within our borders means missing out on some tremendous companies and potentially lucrative investments.

First Trust Advisors L.P. will launch the First Trust Senior Loan Fund (FTSL), its fourth actively managed ETF, on May 2. The fund will bring the firm’s total number of ETFs to 76.

Fixed-income exchange-traded funds have made big strides in asset gathering over the past five years, rising from $53.7 billion in 2008 to $229.1 billion by March of 2013, according to Lipper.

BMO Global Asset Management has named John Boritzke, managing director, as head of fixed income.

Multistrategy alternative mutual funds experienced strong asset growth of 37.4% in 2012 compared to single strategy at 17%, according to Cerulli’s latest U.S. Monthly Product Trends.

Henderson Global Investors has added a new fund to its repertoire utilizing the credit portfolio team it lifted out from Delaware Investments in February.

Now that the S&P 500 is back in the news for hitting a new high, investors appear to be ready to start putting money back into stocks again. Still, Gary Stroik wonders if the timing of this new-found enthusiasm isn’t a bit instructive.

Vanguard said Monday that it cut the expense ratios on several of its bond mutual funds and ETFs in April. These include three of its popular bond ETFs: the Long-Term Bond Index Fund (BLV), the Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund (BIV) and the Short Term Bond Index Fund (BSV). Each fund saw its price tag change from 11 bps to 10 bps.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's new leader, Mary Jo White, will bring her years of experience as a federal litigator before the fund industry this week as its members try to judge whether she will propose reforms that could cripple the marketplace.

With tax season having passed, muni industry watchers anticipate the outflows to fade soon and interest beyond the front end of the yield curve to rise.

Even when the long-term market trend is defined by falling inflation-adjusted prices, despite short-term ups and downs, there may be opportunities to root out profits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's new leader, Mary Jo White, will bring her years of experience as a federal litigator before the fund industry this week as its members try to judge whether she will propose reforms that could cripple the marketplace.

Oppenheimer Funds is set to roll out a new look on May 1. The new imaging reveals a modernized retail brand, which will continue to be known as OppenheimerFunds, and a new institutional brand, OFI Global Asset Management.

iShares has registered a U.S. equities factor-based ETF called the MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF. The fund will add to the company’s lineup of factor-based ETFs that track MSCI Indexes rolled out earlier this month.

46% of investors chose the U.S. as the country they believed offered the best potential for asset price growth over the next 12 months. Only 42% chose China.

Invesco has made some changes to the portfolio management teams of Invesco Dynamic Credit Opportunities Fund (VTA) and Invesco Senior Income Trust (VVR).

Nasdaq OMX Group said it expects the re-launch of its PSX exchange as an exchange-traded fund marketplace to take place in May.

BNY-Mellon won a top ETF industry honor, for the seventh consecutive time. The firm took home the award for 2012 “Best Service Provider – The Americas” at the ninth annual Global ETF Awards.