Legg Mason appears ready to make its long anticipated move into the active ETF space. The Baltimore-based asset management firm filed for approval with the SEC that would allow it to introduce actively-managed ETFs to U.S. markets. Filing for exemptive relief is one of the first steps on the road to launching ETFs, and requires very little in the way of disclosure from would-be ETF issuers. Legg’s filing mentioned that potential ETF products could include domestic equities, global equities, and fixed income funds, but didn’t specify beyond that or indicate which products may be first up. [click to continue…]
Last year saw more than 100 new product launches, ranging from plain vanilla equity and bond funds to ETFs offering exposure to exotic new investment strategies and asset classes previously available only to a limited slice of the investing community. The innovation that has made ETFs a popular alternative to mutual funds seems ready to continue through2010. Based on discussions with industry executives and others covering the industry, it seems like a safe bet that 2010 will shatter existing records for new ETF launches.
But there has also been some concern over saturation in the ETF industry, as well more than 100 funds currently have less than $10 million in assets. Hype around the launch of new products doesn’t always translate into sustained investor demand. While many investors and advisors are looking forward to some of the exciting products in the pipeline for 2010, we take a look back, checking in on ten of the most interesting ETFs launched in 2009 (we should note the the numbers don’t reflect a ranking of any sort). [click to continue…]
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 [...]
T. Rowe Price has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to launch a line of actively-managed ETFs. In its filing for exemptive relief with the SEC, T. Rowe indicated that its initial fund would invest primarily in domestic fixed income securities, but that it could eventually launch domestic and international equity ETFs, [...]
San Francisco-based Grail Advisors is set to expand its presence in the actively-managed ETF space, introducing four actively-managed ETFs later this week: RP Growth, RP Focused Large Cap Growth, RP Technology, and RP Financials. The new funds will join Grail’s existing actively-managed ETF, the Grail American Beacon Large Cap Value ETF (GVT), which launched earlier [...]
In the summer of 1992, Eugene Fama and Kenneth French published “The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns” in The Journal of Finance, a groundbreaking analysis that prompted financial presses to run headlines declaring “beta is dead.” While the death sentence may have been a bit severe, it struck a significant blow to a widely-accepted and [...]
Over the past several years, exchange-traded funds have enjoyed a tremendous surge in popularity, passing many major milestones as they were embraced by retail and institutional investors alike. Once comprised solely of “plain vanilla” products tracking well-known equity indexes, the ETF industry has evolved at an incredible pace in recent years, and now offers investors [...]
Pacific Investment Management Co. (Pimco), the world’s largest bond manager, is making a run at the actively-managed ETF business, less than two months after launching its first passively-indexed fund. According to a filing with the SEC, Pimco plans to launch five new actively-managed ETFs, three of which will focus on bonds maturing in less than [...]
A study performed by New York-based research and consulting firm Novarica makes some bold predictions about the investment industry, painting a dismal picture for the future of traditional actively-managed mutual funds. The study predicts that nearly half of mutual funds will disappear by 2015, being replaced by low-cost ETF alternatives. Among the highlights of the [...]
Although ETFs and mutual funds seem in many ways to be natural rivals, one of the most closely-watched trends in the “active vs. passive” debate has been the development of a hybrid type of investment option: actively-managed ETFs. While the space has mostly taken “baby steps” to this point, it appears to be poised for [...]
Claymore Advisors, sponsor of 35 passively-managed ETFs, has filed for exemptive relief with the SEC to launch three actively-managed ETFs, the latest indication that these “hybrid” funds could fuel the next wave of the ETF industry boom. The three proposed funds are:
Claymore Advisors has filed a request with the SEC to introduce three new ETFs, each of which would be actively managed. Among the proposed funds is the Claymore Delta Global Hard Assets ETF, which would be the first actively-managed commodity ETF.
