We have been quite busy at the Journal of Indexes over the last quarter. In addition to continuing to build the content and readership of JoI, we have expanded our offerings to include qualified subscriptions to a very strong Exchange Traded Funds Report publication and a new Web site, www.indexuniverse.com, which is a welcome and more interactive addition to our existing www.journalofindexes.com Web site.
The IndexUniverse.com Web site not only has its own frequently updated news, research and data, but also offers content from JoI, ETFR and our books, as well as an ever-expanding array of spreadsheets, data, research reports and tools from across the industry. With its breadth of content, depth of data and interactivity, IndexUniverse.com is a project we are quite excited about. If you are a qualified financial professional, you can also subscribe to the print editions of JoI or ETFR at the Web site.
But onward now, to the current issue of the Journal of Indexes.
The latest hot trend has swept across Index Nation-and it is not really even index investing. Enhanced indexing is the name, and beating Mr. Market is the game. Enhanced indexing clearly has become a buzzword in indexing circles, in the same way that hedge funds and commodity indexes, and free-float weighting and sector investing before them, all hit the scene in the recent past. Here today, gone tomorrow? Steven Schoenfeld doesn't think so, and neither do I.
The stakes for the index industry are enormous, because giant chunks of portfolio money are moving into index core and risk-controlled strategies. Schoenfeld & Joy Yang talk about how to differentiate what is enhanced from what is merely active. Chris Tobe discusses a very interesting and underpublicized strategy offering guaranteed enhanced market returns in insurance products.
Expounding on the theme of this issue are discussions of two index methodologies that aim to be turbocharged-PowerShares' Intellidexes and Chih-Wei Huang's Trading Value Index. Bringing us home are Jim Quinn and Frank Wang with an overview of the problems of rebalancing with various indexes, Jack Bogle with some advise about your job and The Curmudgeon on the glut of indexes that has become something akin to the average American waistline.
Jim Wiandt
Editor-in-Chief
| 
