ETF Database » PGM

VelocityShares Debuts Leveraged Precious Metals ETNs

Michael Johnston — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:00:01 +0000

VelocityShares, the issuer behind several popular ETNs linked to volatility-based indexes, made a big expansion to its product lineup this week with the launch of eight notes offering leveraged exposure to various precious metals. The new additions include both long and inverse offerings covering gold (3x), silver (3x), platinum (2x), and palladium (2x). Each of the new products is a first-to-market offering; the gold and silver ETNs represent the fist time 3x daily exposure has been available to those metals, while the platinum and palladium products are the first to offer leveraged or inverse exposure to those metals [for analysis of all new ETFs, sign up for the free ETFdb newsletter]: Ticker ETF Index UGLD 3x Long Gold ETN S&P GSCI Gold Index (300%) DGLD 3x Inverse Gold ETN S&P GSCI Gold Index (-300%) USLV 3x Long Silver ETN S&P GSCI Silver Index (300%) DSLV 3x Inverse Silver ETN S&P [...]

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Commodity ETFs: It Takes Two To Contango

Jared Cummans — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:00:25 +0000

Futures-based investing has long been a popular option for those looking to gain exposure to commodities that were otherwise difficult to reach. But with the introduction of ETFs came increased granularity in this investing segment, as there are now exchange traded products that offer exposure to a wide variety of commodities through a single ticker. This alleviates the stress and complexities that are involved with managing a futures account, while allowing investors to sometimes gain access to multiple commodity futures with just one fund. Still, for everything that ETFs have opened up for the everyday investor, these funds are by no means perfect. The biggest issue with numerous futures-based funds is contango. When futures markets are contangoed–near month futures are cheaper than those expiring further into the future–the roll process can mean selling low and buying high, thereby creating some significant headwinds for investors. Exchange traded commodity products are powerful [...]

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Ten Most Successful New ETFs Of 2010

Michael Johnston — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:24:59 +0000

The first half of 2010 is in the books, and it is no surprise that the ETF industry has continued to grow at an impressive rate. According to the latest data from the National Stock Exchange, the universe of exchange-traded products saw almost $40 billion of cash inflows during the first six months of the year. From purely a volume perspective, the expansion of the ETF industry has been impressive as well; by our count, the first half saw more than 100 new product launches covering a wide variety of asset classes and investment strategies. Of course some of these new products have been more successful than others; most ETFs take a significant amount of time to build up material asset levels and trading volumes. But others come flying out of the gates, tapping into a corner of the investable universe that investors are eager to tap but that wasn’t [...]

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First Trust Plans Three New ETFs

Michael Johnston — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:12:57 +0000

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 Fund. All three will have an expense ratio of 0.70%. The two commodity funds seek to cash in on the wave of investor demand for precious and industrial metals both as a way to protect against inflation and as a way to play a possible economic recovery. A handful of existing ETFs seek to track the price of platinum, including the E-TRACS UBS Long Platinum ETN (PTM), iPath Dow Jones-UBS Platinum Trust Subindex TR ETN (PGM), and ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT). The iPath Copper Total Return ETN (JJC) offers exposure to copper. The funds [...]

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Everything You Need to Know About PPLT, The New Platinum ETF

Michael Johnston — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:00:33 +0000

As the ETF industry has expanded in recent years, a significant portion of growth has come from the tremendous rise in popularity of exchange-traded commodity products. In addition to broad-based funds such as DBC or DJCI, several commodity-specific products have accumulated billions of dollars in assets, and several were even among the very largest of all ETFs at the end of 2009. In addition to the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the second largest ETF with more than $40 billion of assets, silver (SLV, $5.2 billion), natural gas (UNG, $4.6 billion), and crude oil (USO, $2.6 billion) have become extremely popular investments. But the opportunities for commodity ETF investing go far beyond these “super funds,” with products offering exposure to everything from corn to tin now available. Moreover, the universe continues to expand, as evidenced by the recent launch of the first platinum ETF from London-based ETF Securities, the ETFS Physical [...]

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Physical Platinum ETF (PPLT), Palladium ETF (PALL) Launch

Michael Johnston — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:35:09 +0000

After weeks of anticipation, the first ETFs offering U.S. investors exposure to Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) launched on Friday, as London-based ETF Securities (ETFS) introduced the ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (PALL). These funds bring the total number of U.S.-listed ETFs from ETFS to four, joining gold and silver ETFs launched last year. While physically-backed platinum and palladium ETFs have been available in Europe for some time, bringing these products to market in the U.S. has been a challenge. Platinum and palladium are two of the rarest metals on earth, with total annual supplies far lower than gold and silver. Given the popularity of some precious metals ETFs — there are currently more than a dozen products with aggregate assets of almost $50 billion — some were worried that market prices could be distorted and long-term demand impacted. At least one platinum mining firm initially [...]

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Palladium, Platinum ETFs Near Launch

Michael Johnston — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:23:51 +0000

ETF Securities (ETFS) indicated in a filing with the SEC last week that financial firm Susquehanna Capital Group has bought 100,000 shares of its proposed first-ever platinum ETF, with delivery expected by the end of this week. Susquehanna has also purchased 100,000 shares of a physically-backed palladium ETF proposed by ETFS. According to an October SEC filing, ETFS planned to register about 12.9 million shares of its palladium fund with a maximum offering price per share of $19.40. Susquehanna will also serve as the lead market maker for the new products, which came a step closer to becoming reality on December 22 when the SEC approved a rule change to list and trade shares of the trusts proposed by the London-based ETF issuer. Although there are multiple exchange-traded products linked to platinum available to U.S. investors, the proposed ETFS fund would be the first to be backed by physical deposits [...]

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Platinum ETFs In Focus As Auto Sales Surge

Michael Johnston — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:50:05 +0000

After struggling just to survive for much of 2009, the U.S. automotive industry is showing surprising signs of life in early 2010, as surges in foreign demand and better-than-expected domestic results give the struggling sector a boost. While it’s far too early to tell if the turnaround will be sustainable or is simply a blip on the radar, recent developments have investors revisiting a sector that was once left for dead. While this is obviously good news for the “big 3″ (or perhaps more appropriately, the “medium six”), a potential resurgence for carmakers could impact numerous asset classes, as evidenced by platinum’s mini-rally in the first session of 2010. General Motors announced on Monday that 2009 sales in China rose 67% to a record 1.8 million vehicles, as tax cuts and incentives designed to boost the industry apparently had their intended effect. December sales nearly doubled from the year ago [...]

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Palladium, Platinum ETFs Closer To Reality

Michael Johnston — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:05:39 +0000

Platinum and palladium prices jumped to recent highs last week on news that regulators had taken an important step towards allowing London-based ETF Securities (ETFS) to list physically-backed ETFs linked to the metals to trade on U.S. exchanges. “The Securities and Exchange Commission in the past week approved proposed rule changes from the New York Stock Exchange’s NYSE Arca platform for listing and trading of shares of ETFS Platinum Trust and ETFS Palladium Trust,” writes Allen Sykora. “The market construed this as tacit approval, although the SEC hasn’t given the final go-ahead and no launch date has been set.” Platinum & Palladium 101 Platinum and palladium are both extremely rare elements, with each having much smaller annual output than gold and silver. Platinum and palladium are used most extensively in catalytic converters for cars and trucks, meaning that the prices of these metals can be impacted significantly by the health [...]

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Best Performing ETFs Of 2009

Michael Johnston — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:00:53 +0000

Following a year that saw some of the worst performances in recent memory, many asset classes have bounced back in 2009. But some have performed better than others, and as the year draws to a close we take a look at some of the best-performing ETFs. The year’s top gainers include a few of the largest and most-heavily traded funds, but the majority of those that made the list are lesser known ETFs likely off the radar of many ETF investors. Each of the 900-plus ETFs currently included in the ETF Screener has been allocated to a single “best fit” ETFdb Category (see a complete list of ETFdb Categories here). While ETFs in the same ETFdb Category generally share similar objectives and risk/return profiles, they aren’t necessarily perfect substitutes for each other. The following list shows the fund from each ETFdb Category with this highest year-to-date return as of December [...]

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ETF Database » PGM

VelocityShares Debuts Leveraged Precious Metals ETNs

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