
On April 11, 2000, the first two exchange-traded funds (ETF) based on the EURO STOXX 50 and the STOXX Europe 50 were listed on Deutsche Börse in Germany. With this listing, Merrill Lynch International brought a product to Europe which had been established in the U.S. since 1993. In addition to Germany, the trading of ETFs also began in Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. over the course of the year 2000. Even as the first reactions to these new products were positive, no one at that time really expected the future success that ETFs would experience. The following is a