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New Rydex Equal Weight ETF Begins Trading
Rydex MSCI ACWI Equal Weight (EW) ETF Provides Broad Exposure to the Global Equity Markets; Brings EW Line-Up to 16
January 12, 2011--Rydex MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) Equal Weight ETF began trading today on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol EWAC.
EWAC provides broad exposure to the companies in the MSCI All Country World Equal Weighted Index, which currently consists of 45 country indices representing 24 developed and 21 emerging market countries.
"EWAC is designed for investors who seek to invest broadly across the global equity markets," said Mike Byrum, chief investment officer, quantitative strategies for Rydex. "Compared with a traditional cap-weighted index, the equal weight methodology reduces the bias toward the largest constituents and provides broader diversification across all constituents, thereby potentially reducing concentration risk. Through disciplined quarterly rebalancing, EWAC sells those holdings that have appreciated in price and buys those that have not."
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Source: Marketwire
iShares Reduces Expense Ratios for 34 Foreign ETFs
January 12, 2011--One of the trends we have been predicting for 2011 is lower expense ratios for exchange-traded funds. On Tuesday, Jan. 11, iShares became the first industry player in 2011 to cut its ETF prices for investors, announcing that it has decreased the expense ratios for 34 of its ETFs, effective Jan. 1.
In the case of all but one of the ETFs, the fee reductions are minimal--between 1 and 5 basis points--and affect only ETFs that invest in foreign-domiciled companies. All 34 ETFs track MSCI indexes.
IShares attributed the price reductions to two dynamics affecting the funds: management-fee breakpoints and foreign taxes.
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Source: Morningstar
Russell Investments Buys U.S. One to Establish ETF Business
January 12, 2011--Russell Investments will acquire U.S. One Inc., issuer of the One Fund, in a step to establish its business in the $1 trillion exchange-traded-fund market.
The creator of stock-market indexes bearing its name filed for the acquisition with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. The One Fund ETF surpassed $10 million in assets under management on Jan. 6. A shareholder vote for approval of the acquisition is scheduled for mid-February.
Russell continues to build the infrastructure for viable and comprehensive ETF offerings,” said Jim Polisson, managing director of Russell’s global ETF business, in a statement today. “By acquiring U.S. One, we can more immediately leverage our proprietary research to extend the options available to investors and include ETFs in our suite of products that we deliver to the marketplace.”
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Source: Bloomberg
CBOE To Publish CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) Term Structure Data On Cboe.com
January 12, 2010--The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) today announced that beginning Friday, January 14, the Exchange will launch a web page displaying CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) term structure data, calculated every 15 seconds throughout the trading day.
The term structure of VIX refers to the characteristic differences in the volatility calculated for options of different maturities. The concept of term structure is essential in the pricing and trading of VIX futures and options, offering insight into expectations of market volatility in forward contract months conveyed by S&P 500 (SPX) index options prices.
In addition to point-in-time data, the website will allow users to create historical time series for VIX term structure values and construct their own versions of VIX based on differing times to expiration. Historical data is available throughout the week except between 7:00 a.m. and 7:10 a.m. Central time on weekdays and between 12:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Saturdays.
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Source: Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
Vanguard Attracted $84.8 Billion to Mutual Funds, ETFs in 2010
January 11, 2011--Vanguard Group Inc., the asset manager that pioneered low-cost passive funds for retail investors, gathered more client money last year than any competitor, becoming the world’s largest mutual-fund company and closing ground on its competitors in exchange-traded funds.
Investors poured $58.3 billion into Vanguard’s stock and bond mutual funds and $39.2 billion into ETFs, while pulling $12.7 billion from money-market funds, the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based company said today in a statement.
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Source: Bloomberg
ETF Securities files with the SEC
January 10, 2011--ETF Securities LLC has filed pre-effective Amendment NO. 2 TO Form S-1 Registration statement with the SEC for the ETFS Asian Gold Trust.
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Source: SEC.gov
iShares files with the SEC
January 11, 2011--iShares has filed a fourth amended and restated application for exemptive relief with the SEC.
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Source: SEC.gov
Debate rages over muni bond defaults
January 11, 2011--Warren Buffett has warned of difficulties ahead. So has hedge fund manager Jim Chanos and Meredith Whitney, who foresaw the problems at US banks ahead of the financial crisis.
If they are right, then the $3,000bn US municipal bond market could be on the verge of a crisis to rival that in the eurozone, as cash-strapped states and cities facing big budget and pension deficits struggle to pay their debts.
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Source: FT.com
AdvisorShares Announces Partnership With TrimTabs Asset Management Partnership Will Create a Solution That Utilizes TrimTabs' Liquidity-Based Investing Strategies
January 11, 2011--AdvisorShares Investments, LLC, a sponsor of actively managed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), announced today a partnership with TrimTabs Asset Management, LLC : , a subsidiary of TrimTabs Investment Research, Inc. ("TrimTabs"), to develop an actively managed ETF which will apply TrimTabs' liquidity-based investment strategy.
The proposed ETF would join AdvisorShares :' growing stable of innovative actively managed ETFs which includes the AdvisorShares Dent Tactical ETF (NYSE: DENT), the AdvisorShares Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (NYSE: GRV), the AdvisorShares WCM/BNY Mellon Focused Growth ADR ETF (NYSE: AADR), the AdvisorShares Cambria Global Tactical ETF (NYSE: GTAA), and the AdvisorShares Peritus High Yield ETF (NYSE: HYLD).
"Many investors are familiar with Charles Biderman from his regular appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg TV as well his frequent quotes in the financial media, and know that he is a go-to resource in the area of stock market liquidity. His firm, TrimTabs, is the leading independent institutional research firm focusing on stock prices as a function of supply and demand rather than value," said Noah Hamman, CEO and Founder of AdvisorShares. "We believe investment advisors will be excited to be able to offer their investors an alternative to market cap or fundamentally weighted core holdings by using TrimTabs' supply and demand investment research, used today by many of the top hedge funds in their investment decisions."
Charles Biderman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TrimTabs, said, "Most quantitative ETFs focus on easily available price, volume, and earnings data. Since data on the supply and demand for stocks is scattered across so many sources, most strategies ignore stock market liquidity. However we believe that stock prices are a function of liquidity rather than value. Like the prices of any tradable good, the prices of stocks are driven by supply and demand.
"At TrimTabs, we believe that partnering with AdvisorShares in creating this investment vehicle which will meld our extensive liquidity-based investment research with AdvisorShares' ETF expertise into a liquid, transparent actively managed ETF could be a winning proposition in the investment advisor community."
Source: AdvisorShares
PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio Commemorates Five-Year Anniversary
Fundamental Index®Strategy Outperforms Broad Market-Cap Weighted Indexes over Five-Year Period
January 10, 2011--Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with more than $54 billion in franchise assets, today announced the five-year anniversary of the PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio (NYSE Arca: PRF).
The PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 was the first retail investment product to provide investors access to the passive Research Affiliates® Fundamental Index (RAFI®) methodology. This award-winning index methodology uses four fundamental measures of company size: book value, cash flow, sales and dividends, to select and weight index constituents. By using four fundamental factors rather than one, the RAFI methodology is thought to be a more robust means of capturing a company’s true economic footprint.
Since inception, the PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio has outperformed its market-capweighted benchmarks, the Russell 1000 and S&P 500 indexes. For the five-year period ending Dec. 31,
2010, PRF achieved a cumulative total return of 23.10% based on NAV, significantly outperforming the
S&P 500 Index which had a total return of 11.99%. The Russell 1000 Index gained 13.81%, and the
Russell 1000 Value Index had a cumulative total return of 6.68% over the same five-year period. (Source:
Bloomberg)
“We are very pleased to celebrate this five-year milestone for the PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio, which has delivered on its goal of providing investors improved risk-adjusted returns compared to cap-weighted benchmarks,” said Ben Fulton, Invesco PowerShares managing director of global ETFs. “Invesco PowerShares currently offers six equity ETFs based on the FTSE RAFI Fundamental Index methodology and each one is ranked in the top third of their Lipper categories.* We believe the PowerShares ETFs based on this methodology represent an important alternative to cap-weighted portfolios. We look forward to working with Research Affiliates to continue to expand this important product suite.”
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Source: Invesco PowerShares
