Index holdings must be available to foreign investors and have a minimum average daily traded value of $1 million.

HSBC has launched the HSBC Optimised Global Water Index, and plans to bring out a number of investment products pegged to the concentrated global water benchmark. The HSBC Optimised Global Water Index is a modified market-cap-weighted index comprising a maximum of 20 stocks. It exists in two versions: the Global Water Total Return Index, which includes ex-dividend adjustments; and the Global Water Price Return Index, which excludes the effects of dividends. Index holdings must be available to foreign investors and have a minimum average daily traded value over three months of $1 million. Index companies must be engaged in water and water-related businesses including water collection, storage, purification, distribution, metering, desalination and sanitation, but it is not a pure-play index, as companies whose business is closely linked to water

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ETFs using fundamental rankings to weigth portfolios will cut expense ratios to 0.39% per year on Nov. 1. 

 

PowerShares announced late Friday that it plans to slash expense ratios on its 11 exchange-traded funds that use Research Affiliates' fundamental indexing approach.

The ETFs now have expense ratios capped at 0.60%, according to a PowerShares spokesman. Those fees will be reduced to a uniform 0.39% on Nov. 1.

The moves come after similar moves by a range of ETF providers this year, including the Vanguard Group and XShares Advisors with its consolidated line-up of HealthShares funds. The price cuts also come as total assets in ETFs continue to grow -- in September, those levels reached $587.8 billion, up from last September's $562.6 billion, according to data from the National Stock Exchange. (See story here.)

But consolidation is showing up in the industry. With that comes pressure on smaller providers. A general rule-of-thumb used by industry

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Some 23 different companies have been deleted in the blue chip benchmark since June alone as the credit crisis takes its toll.

 

 

The S&P 500 is set to add another exchange to its blue chip index. After the close of trading on Tuesday, the Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. will replace department store chain Dillard's Inc., which has occupied the blue chip benchmark's last spot.

The shift follows the addition of Comstock Resources Inc., an oil and natural gas producer, to the S&P MidCap 400 index. It replaced Entercom Communications Corp., a radio broadcaster that was listed as the benchmark's 400th largest company based on market-cap size when the move was made last week.

Also, the S&P SmallCap 600 index has made two changes within the past week. One of those involved replacing wireless tech provider EMS Technologies with Radio One Inc.  At the same time, Integral Systems Inc. was added and Fleetwood Enterprises, which makes recreational vehicles, fell out of the benchmark.

This

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Some 23 different companies have been deleted in the blue chip benchmark since June alone, as the credit crisis takes its toll.

 

The S&P 500 is set to add another exchange to its blue chip index. After the close of trading on Tuesday, the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. will replace department store chain Dillard's Inc., which has occupied the blue chip benchmark's last spot.

The shift follows the addition of Comstock Resources Inc., an oil and natural gas producer, to the S&P MidCap 400 index. It replaced Entercom Communications Corp., a radio broadcaster that was listed as the benchmark's 400th largest company based on market-cap size when the move was made last week.

Also, the S&P SmallCap 600 index has made two changes within the past week. One of those involved replacing wireless tech provider EMS Technologies with Radio One Inc.  At the same time, Integral Systems Inc. was added

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Week 46 Major Position ChangesFund positions of 1.0% or greater can be found each week in the right margin of the blog, under the label cloud and recent comments areas; I highlight weekly the larger position changes.Being a long only fund, via Marketocracy rules, the only hedges to the downside I have are cash or buying short ETFs. I cannot short individual ...

Everybody knows there is some kind of food crisis. Grocery prices are painful. Wal-Mart has rationed rice purchases. Mexico has had tortilla riots due to corn prices. Rice riots have occurred Asia. China introduced laws prohibiting conversion of human food crops to fuel.

However, who would have predicted a 5 standard deviation price move for an index of 60 foods, or a 16 standard deviation move in rice prices. No, that is not a typo. Bloomberg today reported a UN Food Crisis study and related price charts revealing this food Black Swan.

At the core of the definition of Black Swan is an unpredictable and unexpected price move that is way off the chart in terms of standard deviations from the mean.

Since 3 standard deviations theoretically encompasses 99.7% of all observations, 5 to 16 standard deviations is a shocker.

We’ll have to rely on businesses and

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