An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product, i.e. they are traded on stock exchanges. ETFs are similar in many ways to mutual funds, except that ETFs are bought and sold from other owners throughout the day on stock exchanges whereas mutual funds are bought and sold from the issuer based on their price at day's end. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, futures contracts, and/or commodities such as gold bars, and generally operates with an arbitrage mechanism designed to keep it trading close to its net asset value, although deviations can occasionally occur. Most ETFs are index funds: that is, they hold the same securities in the same proportions as a certain stock market index or bond market index. The most popular ETFs in the U.S. replicate the S&P 500 Index, the total market index, the NASDAQ-100 index, the price of gold, the "growth" stocks in the Russell 1000 Index, or the index of the largest technology companies. With the exception of non-transparent actively managed ETFs, in most cases, the list of stocks that each ETF owns, as well as their weightings, is posted daily on the website of the issuer. The largest ETFs have annual fees of 0.03% of the amount invested, or even lower, although specialty ETFs can have annual fees well in excess of 1% of the amount invested. These fees are paid to the ETF issuer out of dividends received from the underlying holdings or from selling assets.
Clearstream is a post-trade services provider owned by Deutsche Börse AG. It provides settlement and custody as well as other related services for securities across all asset classes. It is one of two European International central securities depositories.
Of all the precious metals, gold is the most popular as an investment. Investors generally buy gold as a way of diversifying risk, especially through the use of futures contracts and derivatives. The gold market is subject to speculation and volatility as are other markets. Compared to other precious metals used for investment, gold has been the most effective safe haven across a number of countries.
iShares is a collection of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by BlackRock, which acquired the brand and business from Barclays in 2009. The first iShares ETFs were known as World Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS) but have since been rebranded.
A crossing network is an alternative trading system (ATS) that matches buy and sell orders electronically for execution without first routing the order to an exchange or other displayed market, such as an electronic communication network (ECN), which displays a public quote. These broker-dealers employ computerized systems to match buyers and sellers of large blocks of shares without using the stock exchange. Depending on the particular broker-dealer's system and the type of securities traded, these crosses could occur at various times during the day, or after the close of trading, and could be priced at the last sale price or some other objective price, such as the midpoint between the bid and offer or the volume weighted average price (VWAP). The advantage of the crossing network is the ability to execute a large block order without impacting the public quote. Crossing networks tend to be used for highly liquid stocks and offer money managers the advantages of very low commissions, anonymity for the buying or selling account, and avoidance of market impact.
State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is the investment management division of State Street Corporation and the world's fourth largest asset manager, with nearly $4.14 trillion (USD) in assets under management as of 31 December 2021.
ETF Securities is an asset management firm that issues exchange-traded funds (ETFs) primarily in Australia.
An inverse exchange-traded fund is an exchange-traded fund (ETF), traded on a public stock market, which is designed to perform as the inverse of whatever index or benchmark it is designed to track. These funds work by using short selling, trading derivatives such as futures contracts, and other leveraged investment techniques.
Lee Thomas Kranefuss is an American businessman, investment manager, corporate adviser, and entrepreneur.
An exchange-traded product (ETP) is a regularly priced security which trades during the day on a national stock exchange. ETPs may embed derivatives but it is not a requirement that they do so - and the investment memorandum should be read with care to ensure that the pricing methodology and use of derivatives is explicitly stated. Typically, individual underlying securities, such as stocks and bonds, are not considered ETPs.
SPDR Gold Shares is part of the SPDR family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed and marketed by State Street Global Advisors. For a few years, the fund was the second-largest exchange-traded fund in the world, and it was briefly the largest. As of the close of 2014, it dropped out of the top ten.
WisdomTree Investments, Inc. is a New York-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) and exchange-traded product (ETP) sponsor and asset manager. WisdomTree launched its first ETFs in June 2006, and became one of the major ETF providers in the United States. WisdomTree sponsors different ETFs that span asset classes and countries worldwide. Categories include: U.S. and International Equity, Currency, Fixed Income and Alternatives.
Applico, LLC is a business consultancy headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco. It provides services for traditional enterprises adapting to a platform business model. Applico works alongside C-suites and Boards as operating partners to help traditional companies build or buy their own platform business. Applico's team is composed of entrepreneurs, operators and bankers. Alex Moazed, CEO, and Nick Johnson, Head of Platforms, co-authored the book Modern Monopolies, which describes the platform business model and why it dominates the 21st century economy.
Markets.com, is a global trading and investing brand owned by Finalto Group, the financials division of FTSE 250 listed Playtech. Market.com is an electronic trading platform for trading on the foreign exchange market, commodity market, cryptocurrency market, stock market, ETFs and bonds through Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and in the UK & Ireland, Spread Bets. It is also an investment services provider offering physical share dealing and a quantitative investment strategy builder. Playtech is listed on the London Stock Exchange under ticker PTEC.
Direxion is a provider of financial products known for its leveraged ETFs. Founded in Alexandria, Virginia, the company also has offices in New York City, Boston, and Hong Kong.
China Securities Index Company is a Chinese financial research firm and index provider. The company was founded in August 25, 2005 as a joint venture between the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. CSI is an index provider in China and manages over 4,000 indexes. The company also offers bond valuation and credit rating services. As of 2020, CSI has 138 employees.
Flow Traders is a leading global market maker and proprietary trading firm. It provides liquidity in the securities market by using high frequency and quantitative trading strategies. Originally founded in Amsterdam, Flow has offices in New York, London, Milan, Paris, Cluj, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
