WC Whiner

The Case for Bonds, and the Problem With Bond ETFs

I like some income if it's stuffed into a tax-deferred account, too.

That said, I am puzzled by your throwaway comment that, "foreign currency, precious metals, emerging markets, commodities, and short positions" were "safely out of the hands of retail investors" before ETFs came along. Even if you restrict yourself strictly to exchange-traded managed vehicles, the closed-end fund industry had delivered things like GIM (inception 1988, non-US sovereign debt, hence a currency and relative-rate play), ASA (inception 1958, not a typo, gold), EMF (inception 1987, emerging markets), PEO (inception 1929, again no typo, oil) and AMO (inception 1994, does a little short-selling).

What seems different to me is not availability, but marketing.