In this video interview with IndexUniverse's Jim Wiandt, Vanguard founder John Bogle takes on everything from the so-called death of buy-and-hold investing to the wisdom of buying index-based commodity funds.

In case you missed it, juiced-up inverse bond ETFs are here. Could this really turn out to be a more workable solution for long-term investors to hedge their portfolios?

As Matt recently noted in his excellent review of the ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ETF (NYSE Arca: TBT) and several similar rivals, fixed income seems to provide much less tracking error during periods of market fluctuations than its leveraged and inverse equities rivals. (See article here.)

That begs the question, could bonds turn out to be a safer, or more mild-mannered and logical, way for investors to add some hedging strategies to long-term portfolios?

“In the vast majority of circumstances measured over a day, a week or even a month, these types of funds will likely deliver close to a simple multiple of the long-term index return,” notes Hougan in the article.

But he adds: “As you extend out over a month, however,

The full transcript of John Bogle’s recent webinar examining exchange-traded funds and the outlook for America’s investors.

As part of the festivities surrounding the 2009 Journal of Indexes editorial board meeting, IndexUniverse.com hosted a live webinar with Vanguard founder and index industry legend John Bogle.

During the one-hour presentation, Mr. Bogle unveiled new research regarding how successful (or not) investors are when trading exchange-traded funds, and took a big picture look at the state of American finance.

Moderated by JoI editor and IndexUniverse.com publisher Jim Wiandt, the webinar features an extensive audience Q&A session. A full transcript follows below.

Jim Wiandt, editor, Journal of Indexes (Wiandt): Good morning everyone, and welcome to a very special event that we have here today. We are actually at the NASDAQ market site and we have the Journal of Indexes editorial board meeting today.

We have

Vanguard founder and index industry legend John Bogle presents new data showing that investors generally make poor trading decisions when buying and selling ETFs. This one-hour webinar, moderated by Journal of Indexes editor Jim Wiandt, also features a lengthy audience Q&A covering everything from index funds to Bogle’s life work to the future of the financial system in the United States.

Click here to view a full replay of the webinar.

Click here to view Bogle’s slides in PDF format.

Click here for a transcript of the presentation (coming soon).

Click here for IndexUniverse.com’s coverage of Bogle’s research.

Real estate legends Bob Steers of Cohen & Steers and Robert Shiller of MacroMarkets and Yale University provide their insights into the current state of both REITs and residential real estate.

In this sweeping look at the current trends and opportunities in real estate investing, Robert Steers of Cohen & Steers looks at the history and potential of the REIT market, while Robert Shiller of MacroMarkets examines the environment and opportunities for investors in retail housing. A lively panel discussion moderated by IndexUniverse.com's Jim Wiandt follows.

Click here to view the archived recording of this webinar.

Click here to download a PDF copy of the presentations.

Note: Certified Financial Planners who preregistered and attended this event live are eligible to receive one CE credit. Information on receiving credit has been sent to all registered attendees

What do iShares, Formula One, Tower Records and the Belgian Post Office have in common? Sometime next week, they'll probably all be owned by the same private equity firm.

That's right, it's (almost) official: Barclays issued a statement this morning confirming reports in the FT and elsewhere that its iShares unit was likely being sold to CVC Capital Partners. The Barclays statement read:

Barclays notes recent press comment regarding a possible sale of iShares. As announced on 16 March, Barclays has held discussions with a number of potentially interested parties.

We now have a preferred bidder, CVC Capital Partners. If these negotiations reach a satisfactory conclusion, it would lead to a sale of Barclays iShares business without the attributable securities lending business. Earlier speculation assumed the sale of both iShares and securities lending.

A further announcement will be made in due course.

So much for Jim Wiandt's recent

So Then, Bonds for the Long Run? … P/E Ratios at 200? Really? … Mark-to-Market Slip Slides Away… Housing Sales Improve?  Not Hardly

Investors, we are told, demand a risk premium for investing in stocks rather than bonds. Without that extra return, why invest in risky stocks if you can get guaranteed returns in bonds? This week we look at a brilliantly done paper examining whether or not investors have gotten better returns from stocks over the really long run and not just the last ten years, when stocks have wandered in the wilderness.

This will not sit well with the buy and hope crowd, but the data is what the data is. Then we look at how bulls are spinning bad news into good and, if we have time, look at how you should analyze GDP numbers. Are we really down 6%? (Short answer: no.) It should make for

Reports are listing a San Francisco-based private equity firm as the leading candidate in the bidding war over ETF leader BGI.

That shouldn't come as a big surprise to those following the next evolution of a changing iShares brand.

In case you missed it, weekend stories in papers ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the Sunday Times reported that a list of finalists has emerged in the auction of Barclays Global Investors by its parent London bank. Insiders are indicating that Hellman & Friedman LLC could wind up as the leading candidate to assume control of BGI.

As pointed out in the WSJ, that's a private equity firm also based in San Francisco with a history of past relations with the asset manager. Other possibilities, according to the paper, are Bain Capital and other private equity rivals such as TPG and Apax Partners LLP.

Although we've heard some industry

A lot of people called me yesterday to ask who might buy iShares. The short answer is, I don't know. But like everyone, I can't help but speculate.

I know my more serious colleagues—Jim Wiandt and Murray Coleman—will accuse me of falling short of the desired journalistic reserve. To that, I plead guilty. The list of potential suitors I lay out below is rank speculation, based on nothing more than my intuition about the industry and a few silly hunches.

But the fact that Barclays is shopping iShares around is big news in the ETF industry. There are important ramifications. And besides, this is a blog, and if I can't speculate here ...  

So let's get it out of the way. Here is my list of potential suitors. This is borrowed from my own speculation, and that reported by John Spence and others in the media yesterday:

Oil ETF Grows Too Big?

The enormous growth of the U.S. Oil Fund (NYSE: USO) since the second half of last year has made it difficult for the fund to hide its monthly automatic rollover in front-month contracts, according to this Dow Jones News Service story.

On Friday, it rolled over such a huge number that analysts are blaming it for influencing prices.

You can read the story here.

Dividend Focused ETFs

John Spence of MarketWatch takes a survey of ETFs that focus on dividends on the market.

You can read the story here.

More On Jim Cramer’s Record

Considering you might’ve read on these pages last September Jim Wiandt’s blog, “Why Jim Cramer’s A Moron,” how could we not bring the latest Barron’s cover story?

It’s titled “Cramer’s Star Outshines His Stock Picks.”  (Seeking Alpha has an interesting commentary about how this story differs from the magazine’s last review of

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