Displaying items by tag: research

(New York)

As our readers will know, we have been covering some of the best funds we met at February’s Inside ETFs conference. Today we want to profile a great service we found that we think would be useful to our readers. The service is a new ETF screener and research tool called ETF Action. The service was built by an experienced team from a major distributor and their experience shows in the design of the system. We were offered a free trial for their screener and found the user interface and functionality of the system very appealing. It was not only fast, but it was also useful to compare different funds side by side and search for new ones. For instance, we compared various dividends funds to help choose the best for our purposes, and the platform offered easy-to-access and multifaceted information for doing so. We preferred the system to the numerous other ETF screeners we have used. The company is building out the tool as a paid service and they have promotional pricing for advisors.

FINSUM: We really liked ETF Action and were impressed with the functionality. The management team clearly knows what they are doing and have in-depth industry experience, which is invaluable when it comes to thoughtfully building the system.

(New York)

Being journalists ourselves, we are always on the lookout for the best content for our readers, including who to read for stock calls. That led us to a site, called TipRanks, which ranks all the equity research analysts on Wall Street. One of the major components of their rankings is their average market return per recommendation. The top ten analysts from returns are: Richard Davis, Cannacord Genuity (42.7% return per recommendation); Ross MacMillan, RBC Capital; Joseph Foresi, Cantor Fitzgerald; Matthew Hedberg, RBC Capital; Glenn Greene, Oppenheimer; Brian Schwartz, Oppenheimer; John Difucci, Jefferies; Brent Bracelin, KeyBanc; Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital; and Brian Peterson, Raymond James.

FINSUM: This list, and TipRanks in general, is a great way to separate value from noise in all those equity research comments.

(Washington)

Brokers who want to publish more of their own research will now find it easier. For the last several years, publishing research on individual funds has been a complicated and risky endeavor for brokers as rules meant some research work could be seen as a sales material, subjecting it to stricter scrutiny. The SEC is harmonizing rules to allow brokers to publish research on ETFs, mutual funds, registered closed-end funds, and business development companies under the same rules that govern other types of research.

FINSUM: This delineation had existed too long and we think this is a good change of rules.