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Diversification didn't do much for you today

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on February 27

Apropos of my previous entry — and perhaps equally amazing for fans of diversification — only 9 out of 289 exchange-traded funds tracked at Yahoo Finance had positive returns today, led by the iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT), up 1.3%, and the CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust (FXF), up 1.1%. All of the winners listed by Yahoo were either bond or currency funds. Commodity funds all fell as the scare in China could lead to lower demand from the Asian giant. The iShares GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust (GSG) lost 2.4%, for example. And international funds took it hardest of all. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index fund (EEM) lost 8.1% and its European counterpart (EZU) fell 5.6%.

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Businessweek’s Lauren Young, Aaron Pressman, Matthew Goldstein, Emily Thornton, Amy Feldman, Ben Levisohn, and Ben Steverman focus on matters great and small for investors, from the views of a hot fund manager to an explanation of the latest products devised by Wall Street’s rocket scientists. Exploring trends in any area, from bonds and stocks to closed-end funds and futures, always with an eye towards giving investors a better understanding of the sometimes confusing and often chaotic world of finance. Standard & Poor’s senior index analyst Howard Silverblatt will also provide his take on companies’ finances and the markets. Voted one of the “Top 100 Finance Blogs” in 2007.

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