Richard Kang

http://www.thebetabrief.com
Total Rating:
0 / 0

42 Comments

    • Wed Dec 20th 18:43 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      First-Ever International Real Estate ETF Launched
      Video where an SSGA portfolio manager talks of the fund and the asset class here: publish.vx.roo.com/the...;channel=Mutual+Fund%2...
      View article »
    • Wed Dec 13th 10:56 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Interview: Luciano Siracusano, Director of Research for ETF Firm WisdomTree Asset Management
      Luciano

      My questions overlap with Matthew's and Vincenzo's above. Matthew asks about the FTSE RAFI indices. Can you give some idea on the results of your work and how they compare with other fundamental indexation methodologies like that of Research Affiliates or even what Vincenzo outlines in his question. Also, any idea on what the potential "spread" of fees between traditional market cap weighted index ETFs will be versus fundamental weighted ETFs? Clearly the strength of the traditional ETF's case is in its low cost approach most exemplified by Vanguard. Thanks. Richard Kang
      View article »
    • Sat Dec 9th 20:49 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Hedge Fund Replication Strategies: What's Under the Hood?
      No news of one in existence or in development from what I know. In good time PM. However, there are some closed end funds managed by fund-of-funds whose underlying strategy would be classified as "hedge funds". The spread between NAV and market price often makes these bit of "hit and miss" in my opinion. My guess is someone develops a whole family of ETFs with each fund somehow representing a particular style (US equity long-short; covertible arb; global macro; etc). In my opinion, the concept and implementation of replication strategies allows for ETF development more than any other innovation from the industry in recent years.
      View article »
    • Wed Nov 15th 10:16 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      ETF Cornucopia: Bring Them On!
      Thanks Roger. As I've said this in the past: we have used and still use funds from Dimensional Fund Advisors as a means to implement non market cap weighted exposure to various broad asset classes. These are considered core positions and thus do not get traded often. The only related ETF we use is RSP which Rydex launched over 3 and a half years ago. RSP is a simple add on for fine tuning US equity exposure but even in that case we've had little reason to touch it. Its rise over the past few years has been strong even with significant bumps like we saw this past summer.

      I've done quite a bit of research on fundamental indexation and its different variations. We only have Claymore up here in Canada (they track FTSE-RAFI), although there's nothing stopping us from investing with WisdomTree in the US. The currency risk (and our view on the USD) is one main reason why we try to use Canadian domiciled instruments wherever possible thus my leaning towards Claymore, if we decided to go ahead with fundamental indexation. However, I am not completely sold yet on fundamental indexation as a better solution than that of DFA funds. Actually, I don't see that much difference between the two. All of them (Rob Arnott, Jeremy Siegel, Fama/French who are advisors of DFA) are simply trying to provide a de-linking of classic market cap weighted indexing. The resulting portfolio composition and performance may not be significantly different in most cases. The fact that DFA has been doing this for decades provides me a greater level of comfort. The new offerings provide a different approach and intraday trading. Perhaps as the new ETFs in fundamental indexation increase in terms of diversity (coverage of more countries and industry sectors) as we've seen lately, it might attract more attention. I just don't think I'll be "in" in a significant manner. I guess I'm just at the watching and learning stage.
      View article »
    • Tue Nov 14th 14:52 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      New Leveraged Rydex ETFs Among Lastest ETF Offerings
      Couldn't find the specific posting. Please provide url. But is JK suggesting a stock selection strategy on the long side with an overlaid ETF short program to offset the beta, leaving you with (hopefully positive) alpha? Makes sense if the investor is confident in their stock picking abilities. But some investors may be more confident in broad asset allocation decisions rather than stock picking decisions.
      View article »
    • Sat Nov 11th 15:26 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Can Retail Investors Profit From Hedge Fund Access?
      In Toronto, there's a well known fund-of-hedge fund company whose focus is mainly on institutional investors. However, they do have a few exchange traded vehicles. Here are some links for bigcharts.com:

      bigcharts.marketwatch....

      bigcharts.marketwatch....

      Nearly 9% yield in both cases which is a nice benefit. This type of instrument (exchange traded hedge fund vehicle) is in its earliest stages. It needs to expand and with increased competition will become further innovation and more rosbust product development.

      Until then, might be wise to wait and see. The charts show these have fairly thin trading in both cases. Benefits of liquidity in exchange traded instrument are offset by this low volume (at least if we're talking significant assets).

      In the US, you have to wonder if this will have legs. What hedge fund manager will want to be burdened by the added regulatory requirements placed on publicly traded instruments (Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.)? This is equally true for private equity managers.
      View article »
    • Fri Oct 20th 10:10 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      New Classes Covered by ETFs: International Real Estate
      Thanks JonD. SSGA will hopefully have an MER close to the 65bps of NGREX. Costs are not the only factor but I still try to avoid any ETF (or similar passive oriented instrument) with MERs over approximately 65bps.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 18th 09:46 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Good Time to Buy VIX Call Options
      WCW: I'll be perfectly honest. Like you and basically everyone else out there, trading VIX options for me is a work in progress. It isn't actually that surprising how different VIX and its options behave. I know quite a few hedge funds that are trading this market (both options and futures) with incredibly mixed success. Those that are doing fairly well are staying relatively quiet as they are unsure how long they can keep up the good returns. Most admit that VIX trading is not a continuous program but one that is usually "off" and swithches "on" very few times of the year.

      As a big ETF user, I hear you about costs. Your "el-cheapo" strategy is clearly the more Excedrin free approach. I only wonder how the VIX derivatives market will evolve in time as more participants enter. It's been getting more press over the year since options trading commenced.

      For me, as a portfolio manager, I simply like the concept of VIX as an ultimate (maybe even the ultimate) diversifcation tool. In a world of increasing correlations (I've discussed in this site how the emerging markets ETF is highly correlated to the Canadian ETF), it's harder to find the right tools to offset market drawdowns. Index puts and the new inverse ETFs (along with basic shorting) are fine but VIX provides another area of research for me.
      View article »
    • Mon Oct 9th 17:48 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Oil Versus Natural Gas
      Hey Roger. When I say "But here’s the point, or rather question, in this blog entry" I'm talking about the purpose/point/question... that I wish to put forward in this blog titled "Oil versus natural gas". I am not quoting you or anyone else on this. Sorry for the confusion.

      So I'm talking about my firm and my firm's clients when I refer to having not sold energy positions and that they're in fact somewhere around 4-8% of portfolio currently.

      So that's that. Getting back to the real question now. What's tricky with the oil sands play, and as good as it is in terms of a nice long-term strategic position, I just can't get around the fact that in the short term (I say roughly six months but energy specialists I talk to differ in their opinions regarding time frame) natural gas may not move in the same direction as oil. The oil sands play consists of companies exposed to both oil and gas. So one way around this is to simply be long oil futures and short gas futures. Is there another way to play this? Of course you can buy & short a small handful of companies that focus on oil/gas respectively. But anything cleaner and simpler that can be done for this? These are the question that I can't seem to get around.

      SeekingAlpha energy contributors: What about this?

      Thanks.
      View article »
    • Fri Sep 29th 09:40 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Beware New Real Estate Investment Products
      Slavo

      Thanks for your critique. I’ve been writing for Seeking Alpha for nearly 4 months now and there’s nothing that will improve me more than constructive criticism. Whether your criticisms are truly constructive, I’m not so sure.

      You’re right that my argument is less than perfect. In my view, what I provide is less of an argument and more an observation on the behavior of both investors and the industry that provides investment vehicles to them. Nevertheless, I could have made it clearer that possible bubbles in product development are somewhat analogous to bubbles in asset prices (for a particular asset class or strategy).

      I did a google search on you and see you're also in the industry. Feel free to email me at my office, rckang@investmgi.com to discuss further privately.

      Best
      View article »
    • Fri Jul 7th 01:43 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Arnott vs. Siegel: The Fundamental Indexation Battle Begins
      Roger, I've rarely used country specific positions for our clients (of course Canada and the US, Japan as well). It's been a lot of regions EAFE, Pacific ex-Japan, etc. I'd have no problems with more country based ETFs if that's what the market is asking for. I'm more interested in coverage to broader geographic areas. Central/Eastern Europe is a good example although their gains rank up there with Latin America and other EM zones. But sometimes, the logical isn't that great ... I'm thinking BRIC. Sounds good when you think about it, but I'd rather have access to the country ETFs directly in this case.

      Btw, yours is a really great blog site ranked in my "favorites list" right up there with Ritholtz, Kirk and very few others.
      View article »
    • Fri Jun 23rd 22:32 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Two Concerns With the New ETFs Hitting the Market
      Thanks JonD and Andrew for comments. Would have loved to had the choice to use DFA ETFs 3 years ago at the bottom of the market. I only wonder if it's too late for them to get in now . Consider GLD vs IAU. "First to market" matters in this space as much as in information technology.

      JonD: Interesting input on timber. As much as I like the idea of passive instruments, I'm not an absolute fanatic about it. Thus, perhaps this is an area (and infrastructure as well) where it pays to put down some $$$ to get an active manager who specializes in that area (like Hancock for timber and Macquarie for infrastructure).

      Lastly, back to Andy. The iPath ETNs and a significant concern for retail investors: Any word on negative tax consequences on these versus ETFs? I hear "notes" and I think "taxed as income". I need to find some documentation that explains the difference in the underlying structure of ETNs versus ETFs. I saw someone from BGI talking about these on CNBC but didn't provide much other than that they provided exposure to certain markets (I think he was pushing commodities ... big surprise).
      View article »
Loading...
Symbols:
Authors:
Quick Links:
Contribute an Article Become a Seeking Alpha Contributor

Transcripts

More Transcripts»