ETFs investing in sector-specific portfolios of equities may present significant advantages to investors who are looking for an efficient means to place tactical bets during earnings season. It is common to see heightened trading activity in equity markets during this time as traders attempt to capitalise on the large influx of new information to the market. Earnings season is the period of time during which a large number of publicly traded companies release their quarterly earnings reports. In general, each earnings season begins one or two weeks after the last month of each quarter (December, March, June and September). Chris Beauchamp, Senior Market Analyst, IG Group, commented: “Using these ETFs to play earnings season takes advantage of the key features of ETFs, namely their low costs.”

Online trading platform IG Group, is offering a commission-free trading program for clients buying and selling exchange-traded funds for their individual savings accounts (ISAs). The offering, which is available to all new and existing clients who have opened an IG Stocks and Shares ISA account before 30 April 2016, includes over 1,000 eligible ETFs and applies to all trades conducted in both this tax year and the next. Launched in September 2014, IG’s platform does not charge transfer fees, platform fees, or exit fees.

BlackRock, the asset manager behind the iShares exchange-traded fund range, has announced that it is acquiring FutureAdvisor, the fifth-largest “robo-adviser” in the US. “As demand for digital wealth management grows, we believe that our combined offering will accelerate our partner firms’ abilities to serve the mass-affluent in a convenient, scalable way,” said Tom Fortin, Head of Retail Technology for BlackRock. The service will be branded ‘FutureAdvisor Powered by BlackRock Solutions’.

IG Group, the online trading platform, has partnered with BlackRock, a leading global asset manager and the parent company of iShares, to launch a range of ETF-based portfolios. As the largest provider of CFDs and financial spread betting worldwide, IG Group are broadening their offering through this partnership. “The launch of these ETF portfolios is a natural progression in our commitment to provide our clients with an increasingly comprehensive offering. Portfolios composed of passive instruments, such as ETFs, have the potential to disrupt the investment management industry, challenging the traditional high-fee approach to asset management,” said Ian Peacock, Head of UK and Ireland at IG Group