BULLS & BEARS: Exchange-traded funds are a bonanza for Wall Street
“It slices! It dices!” That was the claim of late-night pitchman Ron Popeil of his invention, the Veg-OMatic. He could very well have said the same about Wall Street and its penchant to carve up the stock market and repackage it for sale to investors. The most visible evidence of this pursuit is the development of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. An ETF is essentially an index mutual fund-an unmanaged pool of investor money that is invested in a select group…