Wild Market Swings Sending iShares Low Volatility ETFs to New Heights

The iShares Edge MSCI Minimum Volatility USA ETF (USMV) - Get Report is up 12 percent thus far in 2016, outperforming the S&P 500 Index by over six percentage points. Martin Small, head of U.S. iShares at BlackRock (BLK) - Get Report , said the ETF's success is a clear demonstration that slow and steady wins the race. 'Building long term wealth through investments is about time in the markets, it is not about market timing and that's what our minimum volatility product suite is all about,' said Small. The yield on the USMV as of the end of the second quarter was approximately two percent. The ETF held 168 stocks at last check and charged an expense ratio of 15 basis points. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) - Get Report is up 18 percent year-to-date as many investors, especially foreign ones, sought the safety of U.S. government bonds. The TLT tracks the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities greater than twenty years. The TLT's yield at the end of June was 2.2 percent, and while that does not seem like much historically, it is still a huge step up from the negative yields in Europe and Japan.