ETFs versus ETNs

[UserNameNeeded]

What's everyones thoughts on ETNs? Someone was telling me, offhand, that if I buy into a natural resource fund, I should get an ETN called iPath Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index Total Return (DJP). I don't know what the ETN was, so I looked up the website:

http://www.ipathetn.com/

What do you guys think? ETFs have the collateral of the underlying securities they're supposed to be tracking, but the ETNs have unsecured debt somehow linked to an index with Barclay's credit staked to it. Is that more or less safe?

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[etf]

What's everyones thoughts on ETNs? Someone was telling me, offhand, that if I buy into a natural resource fund, I should get an ETN called iPath Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index Total Return (DJP). I don't know what the ETN was, so I looked up the website:

http://www.ipathetn.com/

What do you guys think? ETFs have the collateral of the underlying securities they're supposed to be tracking, but the ETNs have unsecured debt somehow linked to an index with Barclay's credit staked to it. Is that more or less safe?

from what i understand the advantage of an exchange traded note comes from the deferral of all capital gains until the note matures, so you don't have to deal with paying taxes until you sell. apparently there's a bit of credit risk involved, but i think that if something catastrophic happend to barclay's, it's effects would be felt throughout global markets.