ETF Database » CSM

ProShares Launches Hedge Fund Replication ETF (HDG)

Michael Johnston — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:45:22 +0000

ProShares announced the launch of the Hedge Replication ETF (HDG), a new product that will seek to provide returns characteristic of the hedge fund asset class. The new ETF is designed to maintain a high correlation to the HFRI Weighted Composite Index, an equal-weighted composite of more than 2,000 funds. The new ETF will seek to accomplish its objective by employing a proprietary model to establish weighted long or short exposure to six factors: S&P 500 Total Return Index MSCI EAFE US Dollar Net Total Return Index MSCI Emerging Markets US Dollar Net Total Return Index Russell 2000 Total Return Index 3-month U.S. Treasury Bills ProShares UltraShort Euro ETF The ETF will rebalance monthly, at which point a systematic regression analysis will determine which weighting for the factors would have produced the strongest correlation with the HFRI benchmark over the previous 24 month period. The S&P 500, MSCI EAFE, and [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performers From First Half Of 2011

Michael Johnston — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:00:40 +0000

The first half of 2011 is officially in the books, and many investors find their portfolios in approximately the same place as they were to start the year (though a furious rally in the final week of the quarter gave a nice boost at an opportune moment). Most major equity indexes are up slightly on the year, while fixed income benchmarks have similarly hovered around breakeven. Beyond these broad generalizations, there are some significant performance discrepancies among exchange-traded products that may seem to offer up similar risk/return profiles. The following tables highlight the top performers from every ETFdb Category during the first six months of the year, shedding some light on the asset classes that have struggled and thrived so far in 2011–and reinforcing that the seemingly minor distinctions between ETPs can lead to big differences in performance [for monthly updates on the best performers, sign up for the free [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

ProShares Debuts Two VIX ETFs

Michael Johnston — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:23:37 +0000

ProShares, a leading issuer of leveraged ETFs, launched one of the last new ETFs of 2010 when it debuted the RAFI Long/Short (RALS) in December. Now the company has launched the first new ETFs of 2011, rolling out two volatility products on Tuesday. The ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures (VIXY) and VIX Mid-Term Futures (VIXM) are the first products to offer exposure to volatility in ETF form. VIXY will seek to replicate the performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index, which targets a weighted average term of one month. VIXM will seek to replicate the S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures Index, which targets a weighted average maturity of five months. The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as the VIX, is a well-known measure of the expected short-term volatility of the S&P 500 Index. The VIX is sometimes referred to as the “fear index,” reflecting its tendency to spike when [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

ProShares Launches Long/Short RAFI ETF

Michael Johnston — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:39:26 +0000

ProShares, the Maryland-based ETF issuer known as a pioneer of leveraged exchange-traded products, announced today the latest addition to its product line. Like many of the new products hitting the market in recent weeks, the ProShares RAFI Long/Short (RALS) will be the first of its kind. RALS will seek to replicate the RAFI U.S. Equity Long/Short Index, a benchmark that utilizes the fundamental weighting methodologies developed by Research Affiliates that have gained impressive traction with investors in recent years. The RAFI methodology offers an alternative to traditional market capitalization-weighting strategies, under which a direct link exists between the price of a stock and the weighting that the security receives in an index. While there are many advantages to cap weighting–including simplified maintenance–the rise of the ETF industry has contributed to greater scrutiny on construction methodologies. Cap weighted indexes will have a tendency to overweight overvalued stocks and underweight undervalued stocks, [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

ProShares Planning Long/Short ETF

Michael Johnston — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:00:56 +0000

Rob Arnott’s footprint on the ETF industry just might be getting a little bit bigger. ProShares, the Maryland-based leveraged and inverse ETF giant, recently filed details with the SEC on an ETF that would seek to track the performance of the RAFI US Equity Long/Short Index. That benchmark is based on a methodology devised by Arnott’s firm, Research Affiliates, that more and more investors are embracing as an alternative to traditional market cap weighting. PowerShares currently offers a handful of equity ETFs linked to RAFI indexes, and earlier this year swapped out the index on its high yield bond ETF (PHB) in favor of a RAFI index. Steering clear of market capitalization, the RAFI methodology uses four “fundamental” metrics to determine a company’s size: sales, cash flow, dividends, and book value [see Do You Need A RAFI ETF?]. Determining the holdings of the index underlying the proposed long/short ETF would [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

130/30 ETF (CSM) Continues To Impress

Michael Johnston — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:36:24 +0000

As ETFs have growth from a closet industry to a primary element of the investing landscape, the number of products available to U.S. investors has surged, rising to more than 1,000 over the last two years. Many of the new products to hit the market in recent years have been twists on the most popular members of the first generation of ETFs, altering the weighting methodology or selection criteria underlying well-known stock and bond benchmarks. As perhaps the best-recognized index in the world, the S&P 500 is the basis for the the largest U.S.-listed ETF by total assets (for the time being at least); current assets in ETFs linked to this benchmark exceed $80 billion. The S&P 500 has also inspired a number of “spin off” ETFs, including an equal-weighted fund, revenue-weighted fund, and a product linked to a gold-hedged version of the index (see Nine Alternative S&P 500 ETFs). [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Beyond SPY: Nine Alternatives To S&P 500 ETFs

Michael Johnston — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:29:17 +0000

When ETFs began to make their way into the investing mainstream, almost all products were “plain vanilla” funds linked to well known stock benchmarks, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500. But as the popularity of ETFs has surged, so too has the number of product offerings, with approximately 30 issuers now competing for a slice of a still-growing pie. In addition to offering exposure to different asset classes (such as commodities, volatility, and hedge funds), many ETFs now present unique approaches to stock and bond investing by tweaking popular and widely-followed benchmarks. The very first ETF, the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), remains by far the largest U.S.-listed ETF, reflecting investor familiarity with the underlying benchmark. Between SPY and the iShares S&P 500 Index Fund (IVV), assets in S&P 500 ETFs at the end of March exceeded $100 billion, or about 12% of total ETF assets. So [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Seven Alpha-Seeking ETFs That Have Crushed Their “Benchmarks”

Michael Johnston — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:29:20 +0000

Many investors point to the rise of the ETF industry as a clear shift in preferences away from relatively expensive active management in favor of low-cost indexing. It’s been said that the alpha hunters have evolved into beta grazers. But the benefits of the ETF structure aren’t reserved solely for passive cap-weighted products, and the last few years have seen a huge increase in the number of ETFs that blur the lines between active and passive management. While the vast majority of ETF assets are invested in beta funds that track widely-followed equity and fixed income benchmarks (such as the S&P 500 or the MSCI Emerging Markets Index), there are a number of funds that track non-traditional “intelligent” indexes. These benchmarks are typically constructed using various proprietary quantitative methodologies that aim at achieving excess returns by identifying securities poised to outperform the broader markets and experience above-average capital appreciation (read [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

Beyond SPY: Five Outperforming Large Cap ETFs

Michael Johnston — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:08:19 +0000

At the core of many investor portfolios is an allocation to large cap, U.S.-listed equities. With market capitalizations usually exceeding $10 billion, large cap stocks generally have long operating histories, stable operations, and large amounts of cash on hand, making them less risky investments than small and mid cap firms. Moreover, although domestic large caps are headquartered in the U.S., they are often multinational companies that generate significant portions of revenue and earnings from overseas, providing some degree of geographic diversification with the efficiency and liquidity that comes with U.S. exchanges. One of the most widely-followed benchmarks in the world is the S&P 500, a collection of the 500 largest publicly-traded U.S. companies (with a few exceptions). And one of the most popular ways to gain exposure to the companies included in this index is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). SPY is one of the largest and most heavily-traded [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

IndexIQ Planning 130/30 ETF

Michael Johnston — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:23:11 +0000

IndexIQ, the New York-based developer of alternative indexes and exchange-traded funds, has taken the first step towards launching a 130/30 ETF, filing a 40-APP application with the SEC earlier this week. IndexIQ currently maintains the IQ 130/30 Index, a rules-based benchmark that employs fundamental factors to select U.S. stocks with a long exposure of 130% and short exposure of 30%. According to the company’s Web site, the index uses “a purely quantitative, multi-factor model that leverages the alpha generated by a customized quantitative model combined with the controlled use of short positions to enhance the risk-adjusted returns of the portfolio.” InedxIQ is best known for its hedge fund replication products, including the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (QAI) and the IQ Hedge Macro Tracker ETF (MCRO). QAI has become quickly gained traction with investors, accumulating nearly $70 million in assets according to the October NSX figures. IndexIQ has begun aggressively [...]

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.

ETF Database » CSM

ProShares Launches Hedge Fund Replication ETF (HDG)

Related Posts:

ETFdb Category Kings: Best Performers From First Half Of 2011

Related Posts:

ProShares Debuts Two VIX ETFs

Related Posts:

ProShares Launches Long/Short RAFI ETF

Related Posts:

ProShares Planning Long/Short ETF

Related Posts:

130/30 ETF (CSM) Continues To Impress

Related Posts:

Beyond SPY: Nine Alternatives To S&P 500 ETFs

Related Posts:

Seven Alpha-Seeking ETFs That Have Crushed Their “Benchmarks”

Related Posts:

Beyond SPY: Five Outperforming Large Cap ETFs

Related Posts:

IndexIQ Planning 130/30 ETF

Related Posts: