The years 2007 and 2008 substantially hurt the appetite for equity securities in the United States. People lost 50% of their assets that were in equities, and people who were overleveraged lost more than that unfortunately. And it has left a bad taste for equities in people’s mouths.
So people have shied away from equities, and a lot of them have turned to ETFs and funds to do their investment. You know there has been a theory that ETFs are better than managed products. Now that is starting to switch back because in the last 12 months managed portfolios out performed the ETF portfolios. But that’s always going to be a contest there. And the managed portfolio companies do have the mutual fund industry, as we call it, has really brought down their cost too, so that’s helped them to compete.
I mean ETFs were competing on the fact they didn’t charge as much in some ways. That’s how they competed. But ETFs help you build a diversified portfolio very quickly but there is no ETF that is really a private equity on the venture capital side that is out there that you can buy. And, that is because the asset class, because of the diversification and the fact that you’ve got to do diligence on the companies, you’ve got to be selective in what you do. It’s hard to make a general ETF.
