Jonas Ferris from Cashin In on Fox pokes some good fun at WisdomTree on Seeking Alpha for poor timing on listing its currency funds (and while he was at it for the timing of its value tilted funds too).

Ok, as I went back to the article to provide the link I saw the article has been removed with the following message left; This article has been removed, pending investigation of claims of material error.

Well I didn’t notice any factual error but it is safe to say that Jonas does think the timing of a bunch of new currency products right here is bad. Without worring about whether he is right or wrong for the moment I think one crucial thing was missing which is the asset class nature of currency products.

Not everyone believes that currency is an assets class (I do) which is fine but for the folks that do view it as an asset class the timing of the listing should not matter. If currency is an asset class then a diversified portfolio will always have some exposure; maybe more exposure if the timing is “good” and less if it is not.

So then the question becomes are the WisdomTree products a better mousetrap where there is competition like with the euro and the yen? Where there is no competition, like with the real (ticker BZF) does the product capture the effect? These are ten minutes old (intentional hyperbole) so time will tell if these do work but the timing of the listing does seem to miss the point.

As someone from WT might say you could short them if you think the dollar is cheap (BTW a quick call to Schwab and they do have a few shares of BZF to lend).

Most ETFs are simple exposure to an asset class. Today is either a good day to buy that asset class or it isn’t. That statement will always be true in the future as well. Today maybe being a bad day has nothing to do with whether the asset class is viable or not or whether fund does what it is supposed to or not.

A fund is only a bad fund if it does not do what it is supposed to do.

Last 5 posts by Roger Nusbaum

• The Big Picture for the Week of November 15, 2009 - November 14th, 2009
• Process Drilldown - October 23rd, 2009
• Sunday Morning Coffee 10-18-09 - October 18th, 2009
• A Little Followup From This Morning - October 8th, 2009
• Wednesday Roundup - October 7th, 2009