Nine ETFs I'd Like To See

With the dozens and dozens of new products hitting the market seemingly daily, there are a number of "holes" that I would like to see launched as ETFs. The recent launch of the Rydex managed futures mutual fund is a good example of an alternative strategy that I have been waiting on for some time. (Quick interesting fact - Did you know that the S&P Diversified Trends Indicator that the fund is based on was developed by Market Wizard Vic Sperandeo?)

Below is a list of funds I would like to see as ETFs. Please comment below on other suggestions:

1. Foreign Small Cap
2. Foreign Bonds, Emerging Bonds
3. Municipal Bonds
4. Russia
5. Convertible Arbitrage
6. Value Hedge Fund of Funds (tracking the 13Fs)
7. Activist Fund of Funds (ditto)
8. Dogs of the Dow with Net Payout Yield (Wisdom Tree but with Payout Yield weighted instead of dividend yield)
9. U.S. Listed Hedge Funds and FOFs

Comments

[TJ Machado:]

I think the ETF industry needs to take a more systematic appraoch to product development that helps investors create a truly diversified portfolio with minimal overlap. Once your portfolio reaches goes past 7 figures and you have maxed out on regional diversification via the iShares like country specific ETFs, you need to be able to carve out your country investment in market capitalization buckets. So the first thing that needs to happen is that large cap/mid-cap/small-cap offerings need to be created for the larger economies like - Japan, China, India, UK, Germany, etc. Subsequent to this the large cap country offerings should be broken down into sector offerings. With this appraoch a small investor can systematically expand on the theme of global diversification without overlap. Here's how I see a portfolio evolving as the corpus gets larger:

Phase 1: Regional ETFs - North America, Europe, Asia ex-Japan, Japan, Latin America
Phase 2: Country Specific ETFs
Phase 3: Country Specific ETFs with holdings in the larger economies broken down by Market Cap
Phase 4: As per 3 above except the large cap country specific ETFs can be carved out into the 10 major sectors

2007 Mar 23 08:30 AM

[David Barsan:]

Addressing only number one, Wisdomtree has a few foreign small-cap ETFs, although all of them are dividend focused. I too, would love to see some more country/region specific ETFs by market-cap....hopefull... soon.

Wtree Europe Small Dividend - DFE
Wtree Japan Small Dividend - DFJ
Wtree International Small Dividend - DLS
Wtree International Mid Dividend - DIM

I'd like to add that I read the description of that Rydex Managed Futures fund, and it looks very interesting...and ETF version would be welcome.

2007 Mar 23 03:28 PM

[Panskeptic:]

I'd like to see the individual commodity ETFs that are trading in Europe - no sign of bringing that kind of focus here. And as long as diseases are being sliced and diced, where's the diabetes ETF?

2007 Mar 23 04:28 PM

[warptracker:]

I think a timber etf would be great too.

2007 Mar 24 02:55 PM

[ETF Wanderer:]

Levered versions of Bond ETFs on AGG, TLT etc + which also pay very little dividend (& reinvest the dividends for total returns etc).

2007 Mar 29 11:33 AM

[j'adoube:]

Volatility

2007 May 11 05:25 PM