A record flood of new cash. Leveraged and inverse products. Hedge-fund and private-equity firms getting in. Exchange-traded funds are the big investing story of the year.

Vanguard Value ETF VTV offers investors a broadly diversified, market-cap-weighted portfolio of value stocks at a minuscule ...

As IPOs decline, new ETFs promise retail investors access to private market growth. But are they a smart bet or a risky substitute for real private equity?