I think we are ready for the futures market. ETFs do track the performance of an index, any index all over the world, and allows it to be traded just like a stock. It is a fascinating financial product.
On the futures market, not only will it provide an inflow of currency but will provide a price band or price control measure of the associated products involved (please read unga and sugar).Futures will reduce the possibility of the runaway prices that we are experiencing in Kenya on some products to occur as they are a contract between two parties with a specific price agreed on and a specific day.
Question is do futures prices indicate where commodity prices will be?
Are we ready for MBS even though they were responsible for the 2008 global melt down?
Do we have the human capital that comprehends the fundamentals of derivatives?
I can't wait to get your thoughts on these questions.

Yup. 1st we take out the prime then move on to sub-prime. 15-20ys of upside before re-write history untill then it's kaChing! time

Unajivunia kuwa mkenya na una jina ya zimbabwean chief. Comrade mwenemutapa (Monomotapa)!
Kweli wewe si mshona au mndembele?

OK, thanks too @Nabwire. Do you think it'll have any effect on raising liquidity in the market? Like more foreign portfolio flows.[/quote]


You are welcome My experience has been that all these exotic trading instruments just cause confusion among individual investors. An ETF or index fund usually has ALOT of stocks on the index that it is tracking, for example the index fund that I bought tracks ALL the stocks on the S&P 500 INDEX, thats 500 stocks!!! Sounds good when they sell you the dream coz you will be invested in McDonald's, Exxon Mobil, Citi, Walmart etc etc so they tell you that you will be well diversified. Until you go back and do the math and realize that just one share costs over $100, so effectively if you buy $3,000 worth of stock, you only only 30 shares. Then you factor in the stocks that pull the others down, and things are not quite so rosy But, when it comes to FDI flows, it will definitely help coz these fund managers are not particularly interested in tracking African stocks, they would rather just buy an ETF that tracks African Financial stocks, or mineral stocks. In 08 when I asked them if they invest in Africa, only a few did and they did so through ETF and index funds. So basically I gues this move is to make investment easier for foreign investors but for locals, I just dont see why you wouldcreate more fees for yourself unless you have beaucoup money and want to invest in alot of African countries with one stroke.
@ The Deal, if you want me to write an article on ETFs, giving me credit on your page is not the way to interest me, show me the money!! I like cold hard cash and I will give you a way to EFT prior to submission of the article
Mainat is spot, all these derivates trades are a way to create employment for the brokerage firms, but the upside is we will get huge FDI inflows

Interesting. So should we expect that the ETF will include the NSE 20 and or the NASI or will it also include stocks from other mkts.