Leveraged ETFs: A Seeking Alpha Expert Panel

Starting at 2pm ET on Thursday (11/12), we hosted here a live discussion on the topic of leveraged ETFs; scroll down to replay the entire discussion.

The panelists are three SA contributor portfolio managers who use ETFs in client portfolios and write actively on new developments in the field of exchange traded funds. Here are the panelists, their credentials and a preliminary writeup from each of them with their views on leveraged ETFs:

• Don Dion is the publisher of the Fidelity Independent Adviser family of newsletters, which provides to a broad range of investors Don’s commentary on the financial markets, with a specific emphasis on mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

Don is also president and founder of Dion Money Management, a fee-based investment advisory firm to affluent individuals, families and nonprofit organizations, where he is responsible for setting investment policy, creating custom portfolios and overseeing the performance of client accounts. Here's Don's personal overview of leveraged ETFs.

• David Fry has devoted over 35 years to the business of trading and portfolio management. He is registered as an arbitrator with both the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) / FINRA and the National Futures Association (NFA). Dave founded the ETF Digest in 2001 and was among the very first to see the need for a publication that provided individual investors with information and advice on ETF investing. Here's Dave's personal overview of leveraged ETFs.

• Roger Nusbaum is an Arizona-based financial advisor with Your Source Financial who builds and manages client portfolios using a mix of individual stocks and ETFs. Here's Roger's personal overview of leveraged ETFs.

This is the first of a series of live discussions from this panel on the topic of ETFs. We plan to convene monthly on different topics of interest in ETF portfolio building, while soliciting real-time comments and questions from our community. Set up an email reminder below to make sure you don't miss it.

Update: We invited the leveraged ETF providers to participate as well, via comments/questions during the discussion.

~ Mick Weinstein, SA Editor in Chief

Comments

[Jim Van Mee...:]

How do i participate???? I want to know if ETFs can be chosen on just technical analysis of their price action aolone

Nov 12 01:16 PM

[Mick Weinstein:]

Hi Jim - when we start at the top of the hour, you'll see a place above to leave a comment for the discussion. Those are moderated though, so it won't appear right away.

Nov 12 01:49 PM

[BigJake:]

What is the reasoning behind recent moves to ban leveraged ETFs besides the fact that people don't actually read the prospectus. Or is that the only reason?

Nov 12 03:11 PM

[Mayer Amsch...:]

Unfortunately I had to leave like two minutes into this thing. But this live meeting with a couple of professionals was a great concept! Very useful, I applaud it. I left it open so I could read it when I came back to my desk. If possible I think you guys should have one of these per week and post the transcript. Well moderated, Mick.

Nov 12 03:38 PM

[SA Editor M...:]

If anyone had difficulty attending this conference for technical reasons, please email us at contact-editorial @ seekingalpha.com; put 'Live' in the subject line.
Please identify your operating system and browser in the email.
Thanks!

Nov 12 04:42 PM

[anarchist:]

Can you post an audio transcript instead of the written transcript?

Nov 12 06:53 PM

[Chris Petrescu:]

I applaud this whole forum. I could not make it live, but of course read it over. I for one follow all of the participants (especially David and his Daily ETF chart analysis and much appreciated humor.)
Seeing you guys get together in one "room" to bounce ideas/opinions off of each other was (and will be) definitely rewarding.

Nov 12 09:49 PM

[SA Editor J...:]

Anarchist,

There is no audio transcript - this was a 'written' event only.

Nov 13 01:51 AM

[Alan Young:]

Okay, it was a text-messaged (or tweeted?) event. But the transcript is ridiculously difficult to follow. An editor could take a few minutes to make the statements of each participant continuous blocks (or even paragraphs), even when they were interrupted in real time. Frankly, I wouldn't bother trying to read something in this format again unless it had vital information I couldn't get elsewhere.

Nov 13 04:08 PM