The Sun's Financial Diary

John Bogel, founder of Vanguard and pioneer of index mutual funds, is aiming his firepower at ETFs this time, especially the index and sector ETFs. Of the total asset in all index mutual funds is about $900 billion, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) now take a 38% share.
In an article appeared on Bloomberg.com yesterday, Mr. Bogel, the [...]

I have been investing in China for more than three years and the first China related financial product I purchased was Mattews China Fund (MCHFX) held in my brokerage account with Scottrade. I sold all my position at the end of 2003 when Scottrade started to charge commissions for even the non-load funds. Shortly after, [...]

According to SeekingAlpha.com, now you can buy the ETF QQQQ at QQQDirect commission free. The article on SeekingAlpha.com also reported that
The NASDAQ is sponsoring and subsidizing this arrangement. After opening an online account and choosing a payment option, QQQQ can be purchased automatically in amounts of as little as $25 per month.
After I checked their [...]

I came across an article on MarketWatch today, which named CIBC Water Growth Deposit Notes the Stupid Investment of the Week. While the article’s main focus is on the CIBC notes, which are issued in the form of principal-protected certificates and the money raised will be invested in water companies, it does make me think [...]

I came cross an article about global water shortage on BBC News today. The main message of the article is that water shortage, which is usually seen as a developing country problem, now posses a threat to both rich and poor countries alike. This reminds me an article I read early this year on MarketWatch [...]