ProShares, the issuer responsible for pioneering leveraged and inverse ETFs, has filed prospectuses for 16 new funds. Expansion is nothing new for ProShares–the company has launched a handful of new ETFs over the last year–but the filing was interesting because it detailed plans for 300% leveraged ETFs. ProShares’ current product line, which consists of more than 90 funds, includes only two ETFs with 300% leverage, the UltraPro S&P 500 (UPRO) and UltraPro Short S&P 500 (SPXU). [click to continue…]
First Trust, best known for its line of AlphaDEX ETFs that utilize quantitative analysis to select holdings poised for outperformance, is planning a pair of full-blown active ETFs. The proposed funds are the First Trust Developed International Markets AlphaDEX Fund and the First Trust Emerging Markets AlphaDEX Fund. The SEC filing notes that the funds will be actively-managed, and not seek to track the performance of a specified index. [click to continue…]
Over the past six months, New York-based Global X has introduced a line of sector-specific China ETFs, many of which have already seen impressive cash inflows and daily trading volumes. Now the upstart ETF issuer is turning its attention to commodities, filing for approval on four funds tracking indexes composed of mining stocks. The ETFs [...]
Tuesday marks the first day of trading for the PIMCO Short Term Municipal Bond Strategy Fund (SMMU), the third actively-managed ETF from the Newport Beach, California-based bond fund giant. The fund is designed for investors seeking tax-exempt income, and consists of a diversified portfolio of short duration, high credit quality bonds that carry interest income [...]
Grail Advisors, known in the ETF world as the issuer responsible for the first actively-managed ETF that allowed managers total discretion, announced today the launch of two actively-managed fixed income ETFs. The Grail McDonnell Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF (GMMB) and the Grail McDonnell Core Taxable Bond ETF (GMTB) began trading on the NYSE Arca Exchange [...]
Thursday marked the first day of trading for the UBS E-TRACS S&P 500 Gold Hedged ETN (SPGH), a unique product that offering investors exposure to large cap equities along with a hedge against a declining U.S. dollar. SPGH will track the S&P 500 Gold Hedged Index, a benchmark designed to measure the performance of an [...]
WisdomTree, the ETF issuer specializing in dividend and earnings weighted funds, announced a change to the Japan Total Dividend Fund (DXJ) beginning April 1. DXJ will still follow the same equities and maintain an expense ratio of 0.48% but will also seek to neutralize the affects of the volatile currency market and limit the impact [...]
First Trust, the Lisle, Illinois-based ETF provider best known for its AlphaDEX funds, has filed papers for three new ETFs, including two commodity funds and one emerging market ETF. The funds in registration are the First Trust BICK Index Fund, First Trust ISE Global Copper Index Fund, and the First Trust ISE Global Platinum Index [...]
iShares, the San Francisco-based issuer behind nearly 200 ETFs, announced today the launch of five new international sector funds. The five funds, which include four financial ETFs and one materials ETF, expands iShares offerings in the international segment allowing investors to exploit regional differences in sector performance. The new ETFs include the MSCI ACWI ex [...]
Last year saw the continuation of the ETF industry’s impressive rise, with more than 100 new products hitting the market and a handful of new issuers entering into the arena. While many of the new exchange-traded products are “plain vanilla” funds that will compete directly with existing products, we also saw a number of truly [...]
ProShares made an addition to its line of leveraged fixed income products on Thursday, launching the Ultra 7-10 Year Treasury (UST) and Ultra 20+ Year Treasury (UBT). UST seeks daily investment results that correspond to 200% of the daily performance of the Barclays Capital 7-10 Year U.S. Treasury Index, while UBT will seek to deliver [...]
After launching more than 120 new funds last year, the ETF industry seems poised to continue its rapid growth in 2010. Numerous issuers have big plans for this year, with the number of new product launches expected to once again exceed 100 and perhaps even top last year’s results. A recent SEC filing shed some [...]
