Invited Editorial: The CFTC and commodity-based exchange-traded funds

Pricing Exchange Traded Funds

Exchange Traded Funds are equity issues of companies whose assets consist entirely of cash and shares of stock approximating particular indexes. These companies resemble closed end funds except for the unique feature that additional shares can be created or redeemed by a number of registered entities. This paper investigates the extent and properties of the resulting premiums and discounts of E...

Natural Resources Exchange Traded Funds: Performance Appraisal using DEA Modeling

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of a sample of natural resources exchange traded funds (ETFs) by applying a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, the generalized proportional distance function (GPDF) in the data envelopment analysis (DEA) context is used for the first time to measure the relative efficiency of sectoral ETFs. In the second stage, a Tobit model is empl...

The Case for Country-specific Closed-end Funds Instead of Exchange-traded Funds

The performance of country exchange-traded funds and closed-end funds is investigated over the 2002 to 2011 period. Operating characteristics (i.e., expense ratios and portfolio turnover) and investment results (i.e., return, risk, and risk-adjusted return) are studied for investment funds with at least ten years of data. We find that although exchange-traded funds have significantly lower expe...

Where do I put my money? Mutual funds versus exchange-traded funds.

Let’s start with a disclaimer. Despite going to business school, neither of us is sitting on a beach living off investments; so please, take our comments bearing that in mind. In the current column, we explore two commonly used vehicles for investing in broad asset classes. They are exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds. These assets are broadly held by plastic surgeons and by the inves...

Hedge Funds, Funds-of-Funds, and Commodity Trading Advisors