ETF short interest provides some great insights into what the market really thinks.

I’m going to ignore Matt’s twitter-length rebuttal of my last post, and instead point to an excellent set of data that just appeared in my inbox. State Street Global Advisors publishes (as many firms do) a monthly report on the ETF industry. What grabbed me this time was the short-interest report.

It should come as no surprise that ETFs are heavily shorted. After all, one of the great things about ETFs is that phrase “exchange-traded.” It means you can fold, twist and mutilate an ETF just like you can any other stock, and that means that if you can find it to borrow, you can short it. And since many ETFs are phenomenally liquid, they can be pretty easy to locate for shorting.

Overall, short interest in ETFs as reported on Oct. 15 was 11.84 percent. This is substantially

Pimco is ready to launch the first short-term TIPS ETF in the U.S.

Pimco is set to launch its second exchange-traded fund on Monday, again sticking with short-term Treasuries.

This time, however, the world’s biggest bond fund manager is moving into Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. It’s a market with two entrenched competitors already vying for investment dollars. But TIPS have been hot attractions so far this year, and if inflation hawks are correct, could heat up even more in coming years.

New Competition

The Pimco 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index Fund (NYSE Arca: STPZ) will be the first to focus on the short-end of the yield curve. The two others already on the market take an intermediate tilt: the iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (NYSEArca: TIP) and the SPDR Barclays Capital TIPS ETF (NYSEArca: IPE).

State Street Global Advisors also sponsors a global TIPS ETF, the SPDR DB International Government Inflation-Protected Bond ETF (NYSEArca: WIP). It

Law Firms Threatening Action Against Leveraged ETF Providers

At least two law firms say they're talking to clients who use leveraged exchange-traded funds about potential lawsuits against the funds' providers.

The list is large and includes ETFs sponsored by ProShares, PowerShares, Direxion and ETF Securities, which recently entered the U.S. (see story here.)

How do we know this? The law firms, of course, put out a press release. You can read it here.

Two Deutsche Bank Funds Hit By CTFC Ruling

A pair of PowerShares-DB commodity ETFs will be curtailed in how much they can buy in soybeans, wheat and corn due to a decision by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

You can read this Bloomberg News report for more details. Also, check Matt Hougan's blog here.

SSgA's Hoguet: Sovereign Wealth Funds To Buy SDRs

Special drawing rights, or SDRs, are what the International Monetary Fund uses internally as currency markers to traverse

Third sector ETF for emerging markets launches aimed at providing a composite choice for investors.

The third emerging markets sector exchange-traded funds launched on Wednesday, this time adding top stocks from a composite index of 10 sectors spanning 15 countries.

The name of the new ETF is a mouthful – the Emerging Global Shares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Titans Composite Index Fund (NYSE Arca: EEG).  Its sponsor is Emerging Global Advisors, which is responsible for coming to market in May with the first sector-focused emerging markets ETFs so far.

Those are: the Emerging Global Shares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Energy Fund (NYSE Arca: EEO); and the Emerging Global Shares Dow Jones Emerging Markets Metals & Mining Titans Index Fund (NYSE Arca: EMT).  You can read more about those ETFs here.

EEG is designed to track the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Titans Composite Index. That benchmark includes the 100 top names by market capitalization

Of course they're more volatile. But can emerging markets sector ETFs offer diversification tools to cut overlap and limit overall portfolio risks?

Bob Holderith is chief executive of Emerging Global Advisors. Richard Kang is chief investment officer for the New York-based company, which recently launched the first exchange-traded funds focused on specific sectors in emerging markets. (See related story here.)

EGA is expected to launch soon a third ETF that will act as a composite of the 10 underlying sectors in the Dow Jones emerging markets indexing series it’s using for current and upcoming funds.

The company says that nine more are in the works focusing on emerging markets sectors. Those will join the May launches of the EGS Emerging Markets Energy Fund (NYSE Arca: EEO) and the  EGS Emerging Markets Metals & Mining Fund (NYSE Arca: EMT).

IndexUniverse.com’s Murray Coleman caught up with Holderith and Kang late Thursday to

Of course they're more volatile than rival iShares and SPDRs. But international sector ETFs focused on developing markets can help diversify portfolios, say firm's managers.

Bob Holderith is chief executive of Emerging Global Advisors. Richard Kang is chief investment officer for the New York-based company, which recently launched the first exchange-traded funds focused on specific sectors in emerging markets. (See related story here.)

EGA is expected to launch soon a third ETF that will act as a composite of the 10 underlying sectors in the Dow Jones emerging markets indexing series it’s using for current and upcoming funds.

The company says that nine more are in the works focusing on emerging markets sectors. Those will join the May launches of the EGS Emerging Markets Energy Fund (NYSE Arca: EEO) and the  EGS Emerging Markets Metals & Mining Fund (NYSE Arca: EMT).

IndexUniverse.com’s Murray Coleman caught up with Holderith and Kang

Of course they're more volatile. But can emerging markets sector ETFs reduce exposure overlaps and limit overall portfolio risks?

Bob Holderith is chief executive of Emerging Global Advisors. Richard Kang is chief investment officer for the New York-based company, which recently launched the first exchange-traded funds focused on specific sectors in emerging markets. (See related story here.)

EGA is expected to launch soon a third ETF that will act as a composite of the 10 underlying sectors in the Dow Jones emerging markets indexing series it’s using for current and upcoming funds.

The company says that nine more are in the works focusing on emerging markets sectors. Those will join the May launches of the EGS Emerging Markets Energy Fund (NYSE Arca: EEO) and the EGS Emerging Markets Metals & Mining Fund (NYSE Arca: EMT).

IndexUniverse.com’s Murray Coleman caught up with Holderith and Kang late Thursday to discuss the future

It was an extremely interesting Journal of Indexes board meeting, but two things stand out.

For those of you who missed it, we’ve posted an array of comments and photos from Wednesday’s Journal of Indexes board meeting. Although the proceedings may have been dominated by John Bogle’s frontal attack on ETFs, a couple of other issues really stood out for me from the day.

First let’s quickly discuss the Bogle data. Jim Ross from State Street Global Advisors I think provided the most eloquent rebuttal to the data. Ross argued that the turnover numbers and holding periods implicit in Bogle’s data are a distortion, owing to the fact that you have large institutional investors and hedge funds doing myriad things with ETFs. These investors may appear to be long the funds, but may have their positions wholly hedged; they may also be short the fund (which requires the creation of