ETF Investors Are Caught by Surprise as Prices Diverge
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David Blain, a financial adviser in New Bern, North Carolina, likes exchange-traded funds so much he’s put all his clients’ money in them. He also thinks individual investors trading ETFs on their own may be in for surprises when markets come under stress.
Share prices for dozens of ETFs last month strayed to their biggest discounts in a year against the published value of their holdings, or net-asset values, as investors fled stocks and bonds around the world. The price of the $362 million iShares MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index Fund swung from a 4.7 percent premium to a 6.1 percent discount and back to a 2 percent premium in the space of nine trading days through June 25.