iShares

THE CONTRARIAN INVESTOR

Conjecture

Head of iShares International, Rory Tobin, has left the firm and Mike Latham has been appointed global head of iShares.

Several European ETF issuers will be able to launch ETFs on the S&P 500 index as of 17 May, when Standard and Poor's exclusive arrangement with iShares ends.

CONTRARIAN INVESTOR

Last week saw major indices hit 18-month highs with many now comfortably sitting at pre-crash levels.

I was first attracted to ETFs by their simplicity and low costs. As a long-standing advocate of indexing investments in efficient, complex and foreign markets for a variety of good reasons, the advent of the ETF was manna from heaven.

While there are a number of solar ETFs investing in promising projects globally, investors may be better off opting for a more general clean-energy-based fund strategy, writes Martin Morris.

Regulation is laying the foundations for funds of ETFs and greater adoption of these products among IFAs, writes Matthew Craig.

The asset management industry has mixed feelings about the long-term threat exchange traded funds pose to index-hugging unit trusts and Oeics