VTWO: Vanguard Russell 2000 ETF Instablogs

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Monday, May 20, 3:11 PM The Russell 2000 (IWM) cracked 1,000 for the first time this morning, but the small cap sector is far from over-loved by the fund managers who invest in it, according to Credit Suisse's Lori Calvasina - they ended Q1 with cash holdings at a near 10-year high. Indexing (IJR, IWO, IWN XSLV are some others) beats most active management, but Calvasina screened for stocks owned by fewer than 50 small-cap funds with $500M-$1.5B market cap, and with favorable investment ratings. No surprise the answer is heavy on mREITs - MTGE, AMTG, PMT. Also coming up: OMX and WFR. Comment!
Thursday, May 9, 3:24 PM "Our enthusiasm is clearly a notch below where we were at the beginning of the year," write Credit Suisse analysts, starting to see a bit of froth creep into small caps. At 16.4x earnings, the Russell 2000 (IWM) "has admittedly lost its valuation appeal." For now, they're buyers on dips, but should the index near the 1,000 level, valuation pressure will really start to be felt. 3 Comments
Friday, April 26, 9:26 AM Small-caps have a fan in Goldman Sachs which is out with a report today forecasting a 14% gain in the Russell 2000 (IWM) over the next 12 months vs. just 6% for the S&P 500 (SPY). The S&P is outperforming YTD by about 50 bps. 2 Comments
Monday, April 15, 12:38 PM The S&P (SPY) and Dow (DIA) have continued to notch record highs, but small caps (IWM -3%) - which led the way higher for much of the year - rolled over a few weeks ago and are falling especially sharply today. Technicians fret. 1 Comment
Sunday, April 14, 8:25 AM The reconstitution of the Russell indexes coming up in June, Credit Suisse aims to anticipate who's in and who's out. The rules-based approach of the Russell 2000 has allowed arbitragers to profit each summer by front-running the moves, making the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) a poorer play for small cap fans than IJR . Expected among the top 25 adds are ARCP, SRPT, PBYI, ACAD, and WSTC. Among the top 25 deletes: CPST, FCEL, CHKE, OMER, and EML. Comment! [Quick Ideas]
Tuesday, March 26, 1:27 PM Small-cap stocks are set to outperform, according to Goldman research showing the IWM outperforms the SPY by an annualized 8.1% in quarters following a steep drop in the VIX. The "acute" decline in the VIX YTD "provides a tailwind to small-cap performance in 2Q13." A must-read for small cap index fans is SA author Ploutos' piece suggesting IJR is your best bet. 3 Comments [Quick Ideas]
Friday, March 22, 12:29 PM Lagging the solid rise in stocks today are small caps, the Russell 2000 (IWM) up 0.1% while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq post better than 0.5% gains. Thus far in 2013, IWM is about level with the S&P, but is about 300 bps better on a Y/Y basis. IJR - maybe better for small cap fans - has outperformed both. Comment!
Thursday, March 14, 8:44 AM Guggenheim increases expense ratios on 4 ETFs on account of "higher acquired fund fees associated with the S&P benchmarks these ETFs track". The affected funds (with new expense ratio in parentheses) are: RFV (0.40%), RZV (0.38), EWMD and EWSM (0.43%). Two Russell and MSCI ETFs seeing a decline in fees are: EWRS (0.43%) and EWEM (0.70%). 1 Comment
Thursday, February 21, 4:26 PM State Street rolls out 2 low-volatility ETFs: SPDR Russell 1000 Low Volatility (LGLV) and SPDR Russell 2000 Low Volatility (SMLV). SMLV has an expense ratio of 0.25% while LGLV is the cheapest among peers at 0.20%. Competitors SPLV, IDLV, XMLV and XSLV charge 0.25% while EELV charges 0.29%. Demand for low volatility ETFs has picked up due to recent risk-adjusted outperformance vs. standard market cap weighted funds. Comment!
Tuesday, February 19, 9:10 AM Owners of the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) may be able to declare arbitragers as dependents on their tax returns. Sharp traders have been gaming the rules-based rebalancing of the popular small-cap index for sweet profits each summer. Small-cap fans should instead take a look at IJR - it's performed better thanks to inclusion rules that may make more sense and are less likely to be arbitraged. Comment! [Quick Ideas]
Friday, February 15, 3:41 AM PowerShares expands its Low Volatility ETF suite with 2 new ETFs: S&P MidCap Low Volatility (XMLV) and S&P SmallCap Low Volatility (XSLV). The ETFs come with a 0.25% expense ratios, in line with counterpart IDLV (0.25%) and SPLV (0.25%), and slightly less than EELV (0.29%). Over the recent 1-year period, SPLV returned 16.36%, 68 basis points better than SPY, with an SD of just 8.6% vs. 12.8% for SPY. (pdf) 1 Comment
Tuesday, January 8, 9:59 AM Just before New Year's, Vanguard cut fees on more than a third of its U.S.-listed ETF lineup while raising fees on just 2 ETFs. Its sector ETFs saw the biggest price cuts (from 0.19% to 0.14%) while its 2 small cap funds (VIOO, VIOV) actually saw slight fee hikes. Comment!
Monday, January 7, 12:47 PM With U.S. small caps "picked over," some managers are looking overseas for ideas. International valuations are at 13X earnings and dividend yields of 3% vs. domestic at 15X and 2%, according to Mark Bogar, whose firm is allocating 57% of it small cap exposure to foreign holdings, a big jump from a year ago. 1 Comment
Wednesday, December 26, 2012, 9:57 AM The ETF price wars continue: Vanguard slashed fees on 11 ETFs (full list), effective last Friday. The cuts ranged from 3% for the Russell 2000 Value ETF (VTMV) to 20% for the MBS ETF (VMBS). Vanguard is quick to point out the cuts aren't its attempt to engage in the "price war," but simply reflect the lowered costs of running the funds. Comment!
Friday, December 21, 2012, 12:33 PM The technicians might find it interesting that the Russell 2000 is back at a "resistance level" it's touched and failed at a number of times going all the way back to 2007. Better luck this time? IWM -1.2%. 2 Comments
Thursday, December 6, 2012, 3:46 PM John Bogle's never bought the idea that small caps outperform large caps over time, but his assertion is based on the removal from the 20th century a decade of particular small cap outperformance starting in 1973. Without it, he says, large caps have actually done better. Is this fair? What if we remove a decade of large cap dominance? In 2012, microcaps (IWC) have gained 15%, vs. 11.6% for the Russel 2000 (IWM), and 13.6% for the SPY. 2 Comments

VTWO Vanguard Russell 2000 ETF

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Vanguard Russell 2000 ETF