Mark Henwood

A Look at Claymore's Solar Energy ETF

VanEck has a Solar EFT in registration. Since the universe of companies is limited the ETFs will be essentially the same. I hope their offering has a lower cost than Claymore's 65 BP.

Catch a TAN with Claymore's New Solar ETF

There is no mystery in selecting companies to participate in a solar index. I've been tracking a PurePlay(tm) Solar index since mid-2007 and all but one of the companies in the Claymore index are in my index. I exclude MEMC (WFR) because I calculate its exposure to solar is currently just 25% and doesn't meet my criteria as a PurePlay(tm) company. I also include some additional companies but that isn't the point of this post.

I expect the VanEck index to be substantially the same group as Claymore's, maybe with some slightly differences in weights. So the real difference is going to be the expense ratio and I hope investors reward the provider with the lowest cost.

So, is VanEck going to come out lower than the 65 BP Claymore charges?