Cover Me! News From ETF Land

My friends over at PowerShares continue rolling out unique and innovative exchange-traded fund (ETF) products designed to accommodate the needs of nearly every investor.

The latest from PowerShares is the upcoming listing of three buy-write portfolios covering the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 indexes.

The industry’s first buy-write ETFs (also known as covered calls) are expected to begin trading the week of December 20, 2007.

The anticipated ETF ticker symbols and fund names are:

PowerShares’ BuyWrite ETF portfolios will provide investors with continuous access to a buy-write, or covered call, investment strategy on three of the most widely recognized U.S. market indexes.

"The buy-write investment strategy is one in which the portfolio holds a basket of stocks, and sells a succession of at-the-money call options with one-month left to expiration," said Bruce Bond, president and CEO of PowerShares. "This strategy is popular with asset managers, as it can provide additional income to a portfolio through call option premiums. These are the first ETFs that allow investors to capture the moving parts of a buy-write strategy, and they do it in one simple transaction."

I sure like what the PowerShares CEO is saying, since anything that makes options investing easier is a welcome addition to Wall Street.

As soon as these unique income-oriented ETFs hit the market, I’ll be watching them closely to see if they do, in fact, deliver solid gains for investors. Stay tuned.