Archive for April, 2008

ETNs… the New Kid on the Block

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
The proliferation and popularity of exchange traded funds (ETFs) is not going to top out anytime soon. The advantages (for many at least) over selecting individual common shares or commodities is far too great.

But there is a new kid on the block - exchange traded notes (ETNs). First introduced by Barclays Bank PLC of London in 2006, ETNs are debt instruments linked to an index (,unlike ETFs, which are generally equity investments linked to an index).

Barclays Global Investors of San Francisco now offers 16 iPath ETNs, and other investment banks are following suite. UBS Investment Bank introduced 8 ETNs earlier this month.

While some see ETNs as a threat to to ETFs and mutual funds, we see them as complementary. As we restructure this site to include more coverage of global opportunities in ETFs, we’ll no doubt include ETNs as well. To date our pool of ETFs in Canada is fairly small, and the number of ETNs is nil. For that reason we hope to discuss other opportunities here for those who opt for ETFs and ETNs as their investment vehicle of choice.

More info on ETNs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_Traded_Notes

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