06-23-2017, 11:08 PM
The NYSE's Arca subsidiary submitted a request to the SEC on Tuesday to allow the listing of two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) designed to return four times their underlying indices. While one fund will deliver quadruple the S&P 500's move on a given day — for better or for worse — the other is designed to track the Russell 2000 index of small-cap companies, according to a filing. Both will be managed by ProShares as part of the provider's QuadPro suite of offerings.
New four times leveraged ETFs present more market risk - Business Insider
Hargreaves took a deep dive into the Crypto-Currency Fund Index from Eurekahedge. The data firm uses the index to track the performance of five actively managed hedge funds with holdings in bitcoin, ethereum and other digital cash. His findings? The Eurekahedge index not only beat traditional hedge funds, it even blew bitcoin itself out of the water. Between June 2013 and April this year, the index shows eye-popping cumulative returns of 2,152.32%, versus 1,408.11% for the Bitcoin Price Index. Looked at annually, that’s a return of 125.35%, compared with 102.96%.
How to bet on bitcoin, without the crazy volatility? Here’s one idea - MarketWatch
Share repurchases have been a crucial backbone for the eight-year bull market. On several occasions during the period, the US stock market has looked devoid of any positive catalysts, relying heavily on buybacks to keep share prices afloat. This was never more true than during the S&P 500's five-quarter earnings contraction from 2015 into 2016, a period that saw the benchmark edge higher by 1.5%, driven largely by companies repurchasing their own stock.
Ultimately, it's a win-win for corporations to conduct buybacks, because it pushes share prices higher while also signaling to the market that they view their shares as undervalued. So it's unwelcome news to equity bulls that buybacks are slowing. Repurchases by S&P 500 companies totaled $133.1 billion in the first quarter, a 17.5% decrease from a year ago, according to data compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. The slowdown is also reflected on a trailing 12-month basis, with buybacks declining 13.8% from the year that ended in March 2016. While quarterly buybacks are still higher than they were four years ago, a more tempered pace undoubtedly adds to anxiety in a market that some experts already think is overvalued.
Stock buybacks are vanishing — but it might not matter - Business Insider
Cardiff Garcia points out at FT Alphaville that the members of the Federal Open Market Committee have continuously underestimated how low the U.S. unemployment rate can go. Perhaps inflation will pick up once the effects of nearly 4 percent unemployment are felt, but if unemployment can go lower, then underestimating inflation again will result in fewer people with jobs and lower wage growth for those with them.
Is the Fed being misguided by the Phillips curve? | Equitable Growth
To be a professional cyclist, one must have guts, microbiologist Lauren Peterson says, and she doesn’t just mean that in the metaphorical sense. Peterson, herself a pro endurance mountain biker, has discovered that the most elite athletes in the sport have a certain microbiome living in their intestines that allow them to perform better, and if you don’t have it, well, there may soon be a way to get it. . . . “Call it poop doping if you must,” Peterson told Bicycling magazine last week about her research.
Move over, blood doping; cyclists might be ‘poop doping’ soon - The Washington Post