Last week was fairly active within the ETF industry. The period ending May 10 saw the launch of 11 new ETFs, including funds from Global X, WisdomTree and TCW. Closure activity affected just one ETF, while several more funds underwent material changes.
PGIM Debuts New July, August Buffer ETFs
During the week, PGIM expanded its family of buffer ETFs with the launch of four ETFs. Buffer ETFs generally offer exposure to the upside price performance of their reference asset up to a set cap, while protecting against downside performance up to a certain percentage. In this case, the “Buffer 12” funds protect against the first 12% of downside performance and the “Buffer 20” funds protect against the first 20% of losses. The new ETFs and their upside performance caps are as follows:
- PGIM US Large-Cap Buffer 12 ETF – July (JULP ), 2.02%
- PGIM US Large-Cap Buffer 20 ETF – July (PBJL ), 1.85%
- PGIM US Large-Cap Buffer 12 ETF – August (AUGP ), 3.2%
- PGIM US Large-Cap Buffer 20 ETF – August (PBAU ), 2.95%
Buffer funds are usually launched at the start of a typical one-year outcome periods, however, these funds will reset within several weeks of their launch. JULP and PBJL will reset after June 28, 2024, while AUGP and PBAU will reset after July 31. Their current caps for their abbreviated outcome periods are much smaller than they would be for a 12-month period.
Each fund has an expense ratio of 0.50% and lists on the Cboe BZX Exchange.
Other New ETFs
Defiance rolled out an actively managed ETF that applies an options income strategy to the United States Oil Fund, LP (USO ), a fund that tracks the price of oil futures. The Defiance Oil Enhanced Options Income ETF (USOY ) sells put options on USO on a weekly basis to generate income and provide exposure to USO’s share price and provides monthly distributions to its shareholders. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.99% and lists on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Themes ETFs launched the Themes Silver Miners ETF (AGMI ) during the week. The passively managed fund tracks an index of silver miner equities based in developed and emerging markets. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.35% and lists on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Material Changes
Only one closure was announced during the week, with the Xtrackers S&P SmallCap 600 ESG ETF (SMLE ) set to see its last day of trading on May 24. The fund originally launched in February 2021.
Two VanEck funds changed their names. The VanEck Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR ) changed its name to the VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF, and the VanEck Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX ) changed its name to the VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF.
Meanwhile, three funds in the FT Vest lineup of ETFs also changed their names. The FT Vest Fund of Deep Buffer ETFs (BUFD ) is now known as the FT Vest Laddered Deep Buffer ETF, while the name of the FT Vest Fund of Nasdaq-100 Buffer ETFs (BUFQ ) changed to the FT Vest Laddered Nasdaq Buffer ETF. Finally, the FT Vest Fund of Buffer ETFs (BUFR ) is now called the FT Vest Laddered Buffer ETF.
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