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CME launches pre-emptive attack on NYSE Liffe
February 28, 2011--CME Group, operator of the largest US futures exchange, has launched a pre-emptive strike against rival exchange operator NYSE Euronext by offering cross-margining between its two flagship futures products in a bid to undermine similar plans by its New York rival.
The move aims to cut the cost of using the CME’s products – the two most widely traded futures contracts in the world – by reducing the total amount of upfront margin payments that must be made to trade them.
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Source: FT.com
Factor Advisors Launches New ETFs on the NYSE Arca
February 28, 2011-- Factor Advisors, a New York-based asset management firm, announced the launch of FactorShares, a family of spread exchange traded funds (ETFs) that allow investors to simultaneously hold both a bull and a bear position in one leveraged ETF.
Designed to ease spread trading and lower its cost barriers, the company noted, the new FactorShares ETFs will enable investors to track two market segments, one long and one short, in a single ETF position. The initial five FactorShares ETFs pair up major asset classes from among the S&P 500 Index, US Treasury Bonds, Gold, Oil and the US Dollar.
"As a portfolio manager, I used to become frustrated about being charged twice the transaction fees and double the margin requirements in order to implement spread trades," explained Stuart Rosenthal, CEO and Co-Founder of Factor Advisors. "I was determined to bring greater efficiency to spread trading. With the creation of FactorShares, spread trading among the major asset classes requiring two separate positions and indiscriminate rebalancing is in the past."
The initial suite of FactorShares spread ETFs are designed to rebalance daily to achieve the desired effect of maintaining dollar neutrality. FactorShares ETFs are also capital efficient, targeting a daily leverage ratio of 4:1, where each dollar invested provides approximately two dollars of long futures exposure and two dollars of short futures exposure, immediately after daily rebalancing. FactorShares ETFs seek investment results for a single day only, not for longer periods.
In 2009, Rosenthal teamed up with investment banker and entrepreneur Karlheinz Muhr and UCLA Anderson School of Management's award-winning Professor of Finance, Dr. Richard Roll, to found Factor Advisors. The three men believed that Dr. Roll's risk factor-based investment approach could be the basis for creating simple spread ETFs and by this shared viewpoint FactorShares products were created.
"The innovation behind FactorShares is another industry milestone for transforming alternative investment strategies into accessible, transparent ETF products" said Muhr, Chairman of Factor Advisors. "The introduction of these ETFs is Factor Advisors' first step in our commitment to building a comprehensive suite of factor-based products that will advance the way the marketplace approaches alternative investing."
Factor Advisors has also entered into a marketing agreement with Interactive Brokers, a global low-cost provider of electronic trading, to offer its brokerage clients commission-free trading of FactorShares ETFs with no minimum holding period and no short-term trading fees.
More Information:
www.factorshares.com
Source: Closeup Media
SSgA unveils two emerging markets SPDR ETFs
February 24, 2011--State Street Global Advisors (SSgA)*, the asset management business of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), today announced that the SPDR® S&P® Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (NYSE:EDIV) and the SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF (NYSE:EBND) began trading on the NYSE Arca on February 24, 2011. The addition of these two exchange traded funds (ETFs) strengthens State Street’s family of emerging markets SPDR ETFs.
“Against a backdrop of historically low Treasury yields, demand for precise exposure to innovative debt and dividend instruments is climbing,” said James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR Exchange Traded Funds at State Street Global Advisors. “The launch of the SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF and SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF helps to underscore the evolution of views on diversification – investors no longer see emerging markets as a single, uniform asset class.”
The SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF is designed to track the performance of the S&P Emerging Markets Dividend Opportunities Index. The Index is comprised of 100 of the highest yielding emerging markets stocks, based on market capitalization, in the S&P Dividend Opportunities family of indices. Constituents include publicly traded companies with market capitalizations of at least $1 billion (float-adjusted market cap of $300 million). The SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF’s expense ratio is 0.59%.
The SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF is designed to track the price and yield performance of the Barclays Capital EM Local Currency Government Diversified Index. The Index includes government bonds issued by countries outside of the United States, in local currencies, that have a remaining maturity of one year or more and are rated B3/B-/B- or higher using the middle of Moody’s Investor Service, Inc., Standard & Poor’s, Inc. and Fitch, Inc. respectively. Each of the component securities in the Index is a constituent of the Barclays Capital EM Local Currency Government Diversified Index. The SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF’s expense ratio is 0.5%.
State Street manages $255 billion** in SPDR ETF assets worldwide (as of December 31, 2010) and is one of the largest ETF providers in the US and globally.
Source: State Street Global Advisors
CBOE S&P 500 Skew Index, Ticker “SKEW”, Now Live
February 25, 2011--CBOE is now publishing values for the CBOE S&P 500 Skew Index (ticker symbol: SKEW), a benchmark measure of the perceived risk of extreme negative moves — often referred to as "tail risk" or a "black swan" event — in U.S. equity markets.
The SKEWSM and VIX indexes are different, yet complementary measures of risk. VIX is a measure of the level of volatility whereas SKEW is a measure of the shape of volatility. An increase in VIX indicates a greater probability of large S&P 500 moves whether up or down. An increase in SKEW indicates a higher probability of extreme down moves.
For more information on the CBOE S&P 500 Skew Index, including a white paper and values, see www.cboe.com/skew.
Source: CBOE
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
February 25, 2011--The current reports for the week of Tuesday, February 22, 2011 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
US One Files with the SEC
Febuary 25, 2011--US One has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the Russell Aggressive Growth ETF
Russell Consistent Growth ETF
Russell Growth at a Reasonable Price ETF
Russell Contrarian ETF
Russell Equity Income ETF
Russell Low P/E ETF
Russell Small & Mid Cap Defensive Value ETF
Russell Small Cap Defensive Value ETF
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Eaton Vance files with the SEC
February 25, 2011--Eaton Vance has filed an application for exemptive relief with the SEC.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Global X files with the SEC
February 25, 2011--Global X has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the Global X Oil Equities ETF-NYSE Arca, Inc: XOIL
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Source: SEC.gov
NASDAQ Announces Mid-Month Open Short Interest Positions In NASDAQ Stocks As Of Settlement Date February 15, 2011
February 25, 2011--
At the end of the settlement date of February 15, 2011, short interest in 2,359 NASDAQ Global MarketSM securities totaled 6,215,782,911 shares compared with 6,147,830,374 shares in 2,356 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of January 31, 2011. The mid-February short interest represents 2.99 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 2.94 days for the prior reporting period.
Short interest in 494 securities on The NASDAQ Capital MarketSM totaled 352,062,149 shares at the end of the settlement date of February 15, 2011 compared with 336,149,823 shares in 492 securities for the previous reporting period. This represents 3.91 days average daily volume, compared with the previous reporting period's figure of 3.63.
In summary, short interest in all 2,853 NASDAQ® securities totaled 6,567,845,060 shares at the February 15, 2011 settlement date, compared with 2,848 issues and 6,483,980,197 shares at the end of the previous reporting period. This is 3.03 days average daily volume, compared with an average of 2.97 days for the previous reporting period.
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Source: NASDAQ OMX
State Street Debuts Two New Emerging Markets ETFs
February 25, 2011--
State Street rolled out two new ETFs on Thursday, launching products offering exposure to emerging markets equities and fixed income securities. The SPDR Barclays Capital Emerging Markets Local Bond ETF (EBND) will seek to replicate a benchmark consisting of fixed-rate local currency sovereign debt of emerging market countries, while the SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Dividend ETF (EDIV) is linked to a benchmark made up of dividend-paying emerging markets stocks.
“Against a backdrop of historically low Treasury yields, demand for precise exposure to innovative debt and dividend instruments is climbing,” said James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR Exchange Traded Funds at State Street Global Advisors.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
