Too much of a good thing? Cheesecake and exchange-traded funds.

Last week, 32 new exchange-traded funds launched, creating the 'ETF Sampler Tray' for investors.

A pumpkin cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory is shown in this Nov. 2010 file photo. When guest blogger Joshua M. Brown was 19, he stuffed himself with a cheesecake sampler platter from The Cheesecake Factory. The huge number of ETFs introduced last week make an "ETF Sampler Tray," he writes.

Business Wire / File

April 26, 2011

When I was 19, my friend Howie and I settled a bet by walking into the Bethesda, Maryland Cheesecake Factory and ordering the famous "Sampler Tray".

Armed with only a glass of milk each, Howie and I settled in to see if we could finish 64 different flavored cubes of cheesecake in under an hour. At the outset, we were fighting over flavors. 30 minutes in we wanted to vomit. By the end, we wanted to die.

I bring this up because somebody's just brought the ETF Sampler Tray to our table, I hope you guys have a big enough appetite...

From Morningstar:

Last week, a staggering 32 exchange-traded products launched as two providers--First Trust and Barclays Bank PLC--launched respective suites of products. First Trust debuted 13 exchange-traded funds that track rules-based AlphaDEX indexes, while Barclays rolled out 19 "Pure Beta" exchange-traded notes tracking an broad variety of commodities. Below, we discuss the First Trust funds first, followed by the Barclays ETNs.

This is the biggest week in IPO issuance ever from what I'm told. These are two "full suites" of offerings hitting in the span of a few days. You can now own just the Alpha small cap index or Lead and Nickel-only ETNs. The visual you should be getting here is the broomsticks carrying buckets of water from Fantasia.

By the way, Howie and I won the bet. I forgot what the stakes were in the first place. We were in college, shut up.

Source:

32 ETFs and ETNs Launch Over Just Three Days (Morningstar)

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