JonD

Total Rating:
0 / 0

28 Comments

    • Tue Dec 5th 16:59 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      PowerShares' Preferred Stock ETF Just Doesn't Stack Up
      ever heard of "leverage"?
      View article »
    • Fri Nov 3rd 07:47 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Building An All-Seasons Tech ETF Portfolio
      interesting article. I'm going to now go jump in my time machine to capture the excess return of this strategy.

      seriously, I own VGT b/c it's the cheapest ETF on the board (by far) and also the most diversified (measured by the most total holdings in the portfolio and the least concentration among largest stocks) among the broad Tech ETF offerings.

      the sector ETFs are interesting if you want to make a call on a certain sector short term but i don't think are true diversifiers long term as their components are well represented in the broader Tech offerings (except for PXN I suppose)

      where did I put that flux capacitor now...? funny, I actually saw a DeLorean on the road the other day. pretty neat.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 25th 09:57 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      CVY Looks to Double the Yield of Other Dividend-Paying ETFs
      the earlier, related articles on CVY present a much more in depth analysis of this security. this article sounds like an advertisement.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 25th 09:54 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      ETFs: Capture an Idea Without Betting the Bank
      I don't understand. why are people so critical (sorry, "skeptical") of narrowly focused ETFs but no one has an issue with recommending individual stock XYZ?!? what's more narrowly focused than a single stock?!?!?

      i'm not critizing you Roger, b/c you're an open-mind ETF/CEF supporter. i'm just making a broader comment about the media.

      so, a dozen money magazines and countless breathless bubbleheads on CNBC can tout "10 stocks to own for 2007" all day long and yet criticize "overly specialized, thinly sliced ETFs." I really don't get it. it's funny how the media is so skeptical of anything newly popular (hedge funds, too) and create this impression with investors like they're getting taken when the reality is just the opposite.
      View article »
    • Fri Oct 20th 09:29 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      New Classes Covered by ETFs: International Real Estate
      Alpine Int'l Real Estate (EGLRX) and Fidelity Int'l Real Estate (FIREX) have been around for approx. 4-5 years. and 1+ years, respectively. they each have expense ratios of approx. 1.2% and are nearly 100% non-US. i've owned EGLRX for a while and it's performed very well.

      i, too, am intrigued by the new SSGA ETF and will probably switch to that when it's released.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 19th 13:57 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Water: Huge Potential Over the Next 10 Years
      i should add that the New Yorker article (on newsstands now - the Oct 23rd issue) spent most of its space illustrating just the issues Roger raised - that being the desperate need for water infrastructure in developing countries.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 19th 13:45 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Water: Huge Potential Over the Next 10 Years
      great point. I don't disagree with you there, Roger. but I'm not convinced that the components of PHO are leveraged as much as you (or I) would like them to be to emerging markets. many of the components are domestic and european utilities. the US-based equipment suppliers certainly have the opp'ty to go after emerging mkts but i just don't know how much of their business is international today.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 19th 08:10 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Water: Huge Potential Over the Next 10 Years
      this month's New Yorker has an interesting take on water demand - not necessarily from an investor's perspective (which is good, IMHO). the message was that yes, there is need for water infrastructure in developing countries, but in *developed* countries (US, Japan, etc.) water consumption, on a per capita basis AND on an absolute basis, is going down --- due to better conservation efforts and more efficient economies.

      it's easy to make the bull water case but, like many macro themes, it's a bit too simplistic to say "look at the population growth and how many people don't have water" and jump into PHO.
      View article »
    • Fri Oct 13th 11:30 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      New Structured Note Strategy for Large Cap Bulls
      i think if you rearrange the letters from "structured products" and "retail" you can spell "exhorbitant hidden fees"
      View article »
    • Thu Jul 13th 13:25 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Responding to Cramer on 'ETF Overload'
      it's interesting that Cramer would accuse ETF's of providng investors with a false sense of security with respect to diversification. He will often give callers a pu pu platter portfolio of a large bank stock, an oil/gas stock, some random international mining stock, and a speculative tech play with an extra side of egg rolls and tell them they're in good shape.

      that said, his show is very entertaining and he is a very intelligent person with a quick wit and knowledge of history/politics. plus, he does not hide how suspect he is of the sell side which I respect.
      View article »
    • Wed Jun 21st 10:12 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Block Money Flow in Small Cap ETF Signaling Further Strength Ahead? (IWM)
      Or, you might say that IWM is down despite strong support from big institutions. what happens if/when they stop buying? wouldn't IWM go down further?

      that's the beauty of technical analysis - two people can draw totally different conclusions from the same chart.
      View article »
    • Wed Jun 21st 10:06 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Two Concerns With the New ETFs Hitting the Market
      you can build your own (I did) Timber REIT Index by buying PCL, RYN, PCH, LFB, TWF.UN, and ADN.UN. PCL is the biggest by far and the most diversified - they all trade together, really - so even just buying PCL would give you solid Timber exposure. oh, and a nice tax-advantaged (deferred) dividend, too. Income from cutting trees is considered a capital gain (the IRS considers trees to be capital assets - pretty cool) so Timber REITs are the ONLY REITS whose distributions are not taxed at marginal income tax rates. that's pretty cool.

      great call on infrastructure with MGU - i like it better than MIC or MFD b/c it's more diversified.

      also, if you want to get oil and gas exposure WITHOUT the exposure to oil and gas prices, buy TYG - it's a closed end fund holding a diversified portolio of oil and gas *PIPELINE* MLPs like Kinder Morgan, Energy Transfer Partners, etc. The pipelines have are not levered to the price of what they are transferring. and TYG takes care of all the K-1 paperwork.

      finally, I totally agree with you re: DFA. they are the original index+ guys - Siegel et al are pretenders and their models are embarassingly simple.
      View article »
    • Wed Jun 21st 09:53 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Concerns With the New Wisdom Tree ETFs
      the "data set" issue is typically what makes me skeptical of most academic finance research. is it at all surprising to anyone that by using a data set culminating in years that have strongly favored small cap value (typically dividend paying) stocks that voila, Mr. Siegel's research concludes that these types of stocks will continue to outperform? Where was this research in 1999?!?!? I'm sure it would have led to different conclusions.

      IMHO, the best way to analyze historical data is to use a large collection of sequential, *rolling* 10 year periods. Why? Because 10 years is a reasonably long term horizon for an equity investor. And because when making an investment decision, you really just want to know what your odds are. So, for example, if Siegel's research had concluded that in the 50 rolling 10 year periods dating back to 1956, small cap dividend paying stocks outperformed large cap growth stocks 30 out of 50 times (or more), that might be meaningful information.

      but to just use average returns over a fixed period of time completely neglects the fact that the end points really matter.

      also, I agree their attitude is a little arrogant considering their only like the 5th ETF family to jump on the dividend bandwagon in the past 2 years. hey guys, welcome to the party. have you heard about that tax rate reduction on dividend income? pretty cool, huh?

      all that said, I absolutely applaud Wisdom Tree for filling an ETF niche that for the life of me I can't believe has remained unfilled in today's micro-sliced ETF universe. that being small/mid cap international. there is not a single, broad based, small/mid cap international ETF out there. not one. it's amazing. so, while i think Wisdom Tree went completely overboard by introducing way too products (they really could have covered this strategy with a handful or so of ETFs), I give them credit for being the first to small/mid cap Int'l, even if that's not what they are crowing about.

      I'm going to wait for a bit to see if iShares or someone introduces a plain vanilla small/mid cap ETF but if not I'll probably swap out my 1.5% fee active fund (TAVIX) for DIM/DLS by year end or so.
      View article »
Loading...
Symbols:
Authors:
Quick Links:
Contribute an Article Become a Seeking Alpha Contributor

Transcripts

More Transcripts»