Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund that holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds, and is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs can be attractive investments because of their low costs and tax efficiency, and are a very popular type of exchange-traded product. ETFs have grown in recent years. Some examples of ETFs include EWZ for Brazil, ECH for Chile, EPI for India, EWM for Malaysia, EWW for Mexico, RSX for Russia, EWS and SGT for Singapore, EZA and SZR for South Africa, EWY for South Korea, EWT for Taiwan, THD for Thailand, and TUR for Turkey.

Your Assignment

Your final project will require you to examine any foreign currency of your choice (preferably one from an emerging market), and provide an analysis of that currency against the U.S. dollar over the 5-year period ending with 2010. To complete this assignment, examine an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for that currency, perform any additional research you need to do in order to understand the topic, and then write a 750-word paper that summarizes the results of your macroeconomic analysis. To find an ETF fund for a country that you’re interested in, go to an Internet search engine such as Google, and enter the keywords “exchange-traded fund for X,” and replace the “X” with the name of the country of your choice. You can see the history of your chosen ETF, in terms of U.S. dollars, by checking or entering the ETF call letters or ticker symbol in a financial search engine such as Yahoo! Finance (the web address for this site is http://finance.yahoo.com/).

Project Objective The goal of this project is to demonstrate the knowledge that you’ve obtained in your Economics 1 course. To complete the project, you’ll need to research a foreign currency and an ETF for an emerging market that you find interesting, perform a macroeconomic analysis of the currency, and write a paper that summarizes your analysis.

Instructions

Step 1: Select a foreign currency as described above.

Step 2: Perform your research. The content of your textbook can be one of your sources. However, your paper should also include at least four independent and reliable sources. Use general Internet search engines and financial search engines to perform your research.

Step 3: Perform your macroeconomic analysis on the material. Remember that you need to provide an analysis of your chosen currency against the U.S. dollar over the 5-year period ending with 2010.

Step 4: Write a first draft of your paper. Your paper should be written using a word-processing program, such as Microsoft Word or a Word-compatible program. Your essay should include a separate title page, and between three and five pages on your topic. The essay should include a brief introduction, several paragraphs that cover the required information, and a conclusion. The last page after the main body of the essay should provide a list of your reference sources.