Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Fixed Income Exchange- Traded Funds

The fixed income exchange – traded funds are a special kind of fund designed to track the
performance of a specific bind market index. The shares of such funds are traded on
major stock exchanges. The bond market index is a statistical composite, which is created
and maintained by the financial institution or by the financial information service. This
tracks the performance of the overall bond market or only of a specific sector. The
various types of ETFs give the investors the opportunity of achieving the bond market
exposure that they desire. When you are interested in making gold investments then you can surely turn to ETFs
for help.

It is safe to day today that the bond market is definitely not as liquid or as transparent as
the equity market. Unlike stocks, bonds are not traded on the exchange market. However,
bond ETFs can definitely be liquid and transparent as the stock ETFs and also, they can
be traded on a stock exchange.

Just like the bond market indices, the ETFs are created and managed by financial firms
and they are usually traded in organized exchanged such as the New York Stock
Exchange or the American Stock Exchange. When we are talking about their prices, we
should know that the fixed income ETF shares are influenced by the same factors that
affect bond prices: the changes in the interest rates, changes in yield spreads and changes
in the yield curve.

The monthly dividends which include both the interest income on the underlying bonds
and capital gains are distributed on monthly dividends. The ETFs also have no maturity
date; also, the only way for and ETF investor to get his or her money back is to simply
sell their shares. When this is done, many actually register a profit according to the
direction of interest rates and other bond market conditions in interim.

Gold investments are among the most popular types of investments these days. When you
are making such a gold investment you should be sure though that you pay a special
attention to details and the logistics of the purchase. The gold ETF funds represent a
method of making a gold investment without any worries. Some of the problems that you
might encounter when you are buying physical gold are: insurance, storage, moving and
reselling (optional).

What makes gold ETFs attractive for investors is the fact that trading in gold can be done
easily. Another great advantage of such gold investments is the fact that you don’t have to
buy a large amount of gold in order to be able to invest. This is truly a real plus as not
many people can afford to invest massive amounts of money in buying gold.

Something else about this gold investment is the fact that gold is very easy to invest in it.

You can do this online and you don’t have to worry about the security of the transaction
since the specialized websites are usually extremely safe. Before starting to make any sort
of investment in buy gold you should make sure that
you learn as much as you can about gold, gold
funds
, physical gold etc.

Investors Leave Emerging Markets

This year, emerging markets are not as cheap as they used to be in the past, especially
compared to developed markets. However, they are at least representing the countries that
have some real GDP growth. If you decide to buy stocks in the West then you are
actually buying into the economies that are paralyzed by political failure and debt. When
you are buying into emerging markets though, you are buying into the economies that
have high-growth economies, which have vibrant democracies and have skilled
governments that have a complete knowledge of economics.

Emerging markets though are not cheap at all. The premiums for the developed markets
are quite small and sometimes it is hardly enough to compensate for the high governance
risk in the average emerging market. These emerging markets are growing faster than
those in the West and the reality is that the short term performance is about money flows
while the long term performance is about the price (the cheaper you buy, the better it will
be in the long run).

We all know that China’s economy is one of the most powerful economies in the world,
alongside India. There is one thing that we should notice in China: the investment sector
that is way ahead of the demand: the empty shopping malls, the apartments that are not
sold and so on. However, those that are interested in making sure that they invest in
something right, then buy gold and any other
sort of gold investment represent the best choice.

The massive debts in Europe, the weak dollar and the fact that no commodity or asset is
sure, have determined investors to turn towards gold. Of course, this has been the best
hedge for inflation for a very long time, but during the last couple of years, the price of
gold has skyrocketed.

Investors are always trying to find new markets and new assets to invest in and it seems
that gold investments (physical gold, gold funds etc) and emerging markets have made it
to the top of their preferences. When countries like China and India are investing in gold
why shouldn’t be follow suite and do the same thing? They are protecting themselves by
diversifying the Central National Bank holdings and this is really a good thing. For those
interested in diversifying their portfolio, the best option that they have is to start investing
in gold funds.

The Chinese government has been against people owing gold, still for some time now,
they have been advising them to invest in gold. If they decide to do this then why
shouldn’t we do the same thing? Surely there are numerous ways in which we can make
gold investments these days. One of the most popular methods is by investing in gold
funds. However, there are other ways that we can invest in gold to, such as gold ETFs,

physical gold and in some parts of the world, even gold jewellery is considered an
investment. These days, to make things even easier, you can even buy gold online. When
you have found the best online dealers then you can start to make investments in gold in no time.