As of 03/18/2024
  Indus: 38,790 +75.66 +0.2%  
  Trans: 15,418 -81.05 -0.5%  
  Utils: 853 +3.06 +0.4%  
  Nasdaq: 16,103 +130.28 +0.8%  
  S&P 500: 5,149 +32.33 +0.6%  
YTD
 +2.9%  
-3.0%  
-3.2%  
 +7.3%  
 +8.0%  
  Targets    Overview: 03/13/2024  
  Down arrow38,000 or 39,350 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow16,300 or 15,350 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow885 or 830 by 04/01/2024
  Down arrow15,200 or 16,600 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow5,250 or 5,000 by 04/01/2024
As of 03/18/2024
  Indus: 38,790 +75.66 +0.2%  
  Trans: 15,418 -81.05 -0.5%  
  Utils: 853 +3.06 +0.4%  
  Nasdaq: 16,103 +130.28 +0.8%  
  S&P 500: 5,149 +32.33 +0.6%  
YTD
 +2.9%  
-3.0%  
-3.2%  
 +7.3%  
 +8.0%  
  Targets    Overview: 03/13/2024  
  Down arrow38,000 or 39,350 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow16,300 or 15,350 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow885 or 830 by 04/01/2024
  Down arrow15,200 or 16,600 by 04/01/2024
  Up arrow5,250 or 5,000 by 04/01/2024

Bulkowski on Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs)

What Are ETNs?

Until I read the February 2011 issue of Active Trader magazine ("Exchange-traded notes"), I would have corrected someone saying "ETN" when I thought they meant "ETF."

An ETF is an exchange traded fund. An ETN is an exchange traded note. ETNs are the new kids on the block, having been created in 2006 by Barclays Bank, according to the article.

As you might have guessed from the name, ETNs trade debt instruments instead of stocks.

According to an earlier February 2008 article ("The ABCs of ETFs"), "ETNs are debt instruments, meaning the company offering the ETN is assuming all the risk for the product. So if the company were to go bankrupt, the ETN would become worthless. This differs from ETF trusts because, while the company holding the trust could become insolvent, the trust would still exist and could be managed by another firm."

That's an important distinction that investors in Lehman Brothers ETN discovered when Lehman failed in 2008.

ETNs are bought and sold like stocks and listed on the major exchanges. ETNs represent a promise by the issuer to deliver a specified return, and that return is disclosed in the terms of the note. ETNs can expire, but often that expiration date is years into the future.

Because an ETN has a fixed return, it helps reduce the tracking error more common to ETFs, according to the 2011 article. Tracking error is the difference between the ETNs return and the return of the underlying security.

Since ETNs are a comparatively recent invention, trading volume can be thin, so check that before investing.

-- Thomas Bulkowski

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