In an effort to distinguish new ETFs from existing ones, some issuers are getting downright goofy with their tickers. The Australians seem to take the cake, with the ProShares Ultra Australian Dollar ETF trading under “GDAY,” the ProShares UltraShort Australian Dollar ETF trading under “CROC,” and the IndexIQ Australia Small-Cap ETF trading under “KROO,” for “kangaroo. ETF.com put together a pretty entertaining list of the “most-memorable ETF tickers,” with the “ROAR,” the ticker for IQ Asian Tigers ETF, taking first place.
If you got an updated, or perhaps your first, smartphone over the holidays, you might also be getting exposure to the wide world of emojis. It’s incredible how much can actually be communicated with the right emoji, and financial market updates are no exception. A nifty little guide walks through how to quickly send everything from “Ben Bernanke” to “two-for-one stock split,” “market jitters,” and “fire sale.”
The Dow Jones industrial average may have closed at record highs in December, but many investors may want to temper some of their excitement. The New York Times’ columnist Ron Lieber warns that if an investment portfolio is properly balanced with only 20 percent of money in large stocks, then the Dow really isn’t a useful measurement of a client’s financial health. Lieber argues that low-cost investments that track assets and markets from around the world, focusing on strategies to increase savings, and considering long-term disability insurance will do more for financial health that fretting the daily swings of the Dow.
