Big Week for ETFs

ETFs might have finally reached the big time.

Matthew Hougan for Index Universe points out that not only was last Monday a big day for ETFs, as they were the three top traded securities in the world, but every day was pretty much ETF Day.

On Wednesday, ETFs took four of the top six spots on the most-traded securities list. Have a look:

1. SPDRs (SPY)
2. Lehman Brothers (LEH)
3. Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF)
4. Washington Mutual (WM)
5. The Cubes (QQQQ)
6. iShares Russell 2000 (IWM)

Hougan also notes that while assets in ETFs are kind of flat this year, trading volume in them is on pace to double. The volume for 2007 has already been topped, and it’s only early September.

The volume increase has a lot to do with the volatility in the markets, but it also has to do with the fact that ETFs are simply becoming the “go-to” product for traders and they’re changing the way Wall Street operates.

Comments

[copper1987:]

Thanks Tom.
ETF's have become the best trading vehicle for daytraders like
myself.

2008 Sep 14 09:49 AM

[Prudent Man...:]

Proof that all the volume is caused by program traders who have been dominating the markets for year and care nothing about investing.

2008 Sep 14 05:09 PM

[Geoffrey Lordi:]

I hardly think that this is *proof* that "all volume" is caused by program traders...Such blanket statements oversimplify the markets, I believe. And, specifically, there's nothing wrong with investing for a week, a month, or a year. The old belief that "investing" only involved timeframes from, say, five years and up is as arbitrary as saying that no one in GE, for example, for a year is a *true* investor...

2008 Sep 14 06:01 PM