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Securities sector seeks to fend off SEC drive
July 12, 2010--Proposals to narrow the pool of investors allowed in the US to buy complex asset-backed securities in private markets are being drawn up by the securitisation industry in an attempt to fend off a push by regulators to ban such deals outright.
In an attempt to avoid a repeat of a key problem that led to the financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to scrap rules that allow “sophisticated investors” to buy asset-backed securities in private markets where disclosure requirements are not as rigorous as public markets.
In an attempt to avoid a repeat of a key problem that led to the financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to scrap rules that allow “sophisticated investors” to buy asset-backed securities in private markets where disclosure requirements are not as rigorous as public markets.
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Source: FT.com
BMO Investments Inc. Launches New Mutual Fund Portfolios of Exchange Traded Funds, Providing Investors More Access to the ETF Market
Strategic ETF portfolios combine many of the benefits of ETFs with mutual funds in a simple, easy to use investment option.
July 12, 2010--
BMO Investments Inc., today announced the launch of a new series of four mutual fund portfolios that invest primarily in exchange traded funds (ETFs), giving investors broader choice and greater access to the growing ETF market.
The new offering from BMO Mutual Funds consists of four strategically managed risk-differentiated portfolios. Each ETF mutual fund portfolio is a class of BMO Global Tax Advantage Funds Inc., a mutual fund corporation, which allows for switching among the other BMO Global Tax Advantage Funds without incurring a taxable event.
These portfolios complement two previously introduced tactical ETF mutual fund portfolios launched in May.
Available BMO Mutual Funds ETF Portfolios now include:
BMO Tactical ETF Mutual Fund Classes
BMO Canadian Tactical ETF Class
BMO Global Tactical ETF Class
BMO Security ETF Portfolio
BMO Balanced ETF Portfolio
BMO Growth ETF Portfolio
BMO Aggressive Growth ETF Portfolio
"With the ever growing popularity of ETFs, BMO has been looking at ways to make this investment vehicle available to a wider range of clients, through products offered directly in our BMO branches. These new portfolios allow retail investment clients access to this market, in a mutual fund structure they are familiar with, simply by coming in and talking to an investment professional," said Serge Pepin, Head of Investments at BMO Investments Inc. "Essentially, investors can now get professionally managed exposure to ETFs, through an all-in-one, solution."
Source: BMO Investments Inc
CFTC Issues Proposed Rulemaking to Improve Account Ownership and Control Data
July 12, 2010--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today approved for publication in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that calls for the collection of certain ownership, control and other information for all trading accounts active on U.S. futures exchanges and other reporting entities. The information will be collected via an account ownership and control report (OCR) submitted periodically to the CFTC by reporting entities.
Specifically, OCR data will include trading account numbers, the names and addresses of accounts’ owners and controllers, owners’ and controllers’ dates of birth and other information necessary to uniquely identify owners and controllers to identify related trading accounts.
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Source: CFTC.gov
AdvisorShares Lists Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF on NYSE Arca
July 9, 2010--NYSE Euronext (NYX) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, NYSE Arca, began trading Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF(Ticker: GRV). The ETF is sponsored by AdvisorShares, and sub-advised by Mars Hill Partners LLC.
The Fund’s investment objective is to generate average annual returns in excess of the total return of the MSCI World Index (the “Index”), with comparable volatility and little to no correlation with the Index. The Fund is considered a “fund-of-funds” that seeks to achieve its investment objective by primarily investing in both long and short positions in other exchange-traded funds that offer diversified exposure to global regions, countries, styles (market capitalization, value, growth, etc.) or sectors, and other exchange-traded products, including but not limited to exchange-traded notes, exchange-traded currency trusts and closed-end funds. In addition, the Fund may use liquid futures contracts, swaps and other derivatives tied to broad market indices when establishing net long or net short exposure on top of the core long/short portfolio.
Source: NYSE Euronext
AdvisorShares files with the SEC
July 9, 2010--AdvisorShares has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for
The Active Bear ETF
NYSE Ticker: HDGE
The fund will be managed by Ranger Alternative Management L.P>
PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
The Sub-Advisor seeks to achieve the Fund’s investment objective by selecting a portfolio, on a short basis only, of liquid U.S. exchange-traded equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded products. The Sub-Advisor implements a bottom-up, fundamental, research driven security selection process that seeks to identify securities with low earnings quality or aggressive accounting that may be intended, on the part of company management, to mask operational deterioration and bolster the reported earnings per share over a short time period. In addition to these issues, the Sub-Advisor seeks to identify earnings driven events that may act as a catalyst to the price decline of a security, such as downwards earnings revisions or reduced forward guidance. On a day-to-day basis the Fund may hold U.S. Government securities, short term high quality fixed income securities, money market instruments, overnight and fixed-term repurchase agreements, cash and cash equivalents with maturities of one year or less for collateral purposes.
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Source: SEC.com
AdvisorShares Set to Launch First Actively Managed Long/Short ETF- Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (GRV)
July 9, 2010--AdvisorShares Investments, LLC, an innovator of actively managed ETFs, today announced that it will begin trading in the industry's first actively managed long/short ETF, the Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (NYSE: GRV) tomorrow, July 9th. GRV is sub-advised by Mars Hill Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered Investment Adviser and an affiliate of private wealth manager Huntley Thatcher Ellsworth, Ltd.
GRV employs a "Relative Value" approach created and managed by Mars Hill Partners, which combines long positions in the most attractive country, sector and industry ETFs, with an equal dollar amount short in the least attractive country, sector and industry ETFs. This core long/short portfolio construction is designed to reduce downside volatility and drawdown risk caused by the directional influence of the global equity markets and instead strives to profit from the performance spread between its long and short positions. These relative value spreads are prevalent throughout both rising and falling market environments, enabling GRV to potentially generate more consistent returns over time than a conventional long-only approach.
"GRV has an institutional-caliber investment strategy that is designed to pursue consistent positive absolute returns regardless of the direction of the stock market or interest rates. We are excited to bring investors access to this compelling investment strategy through an actively managed ETF," said Noah Hamman, CEO and Founder of AdvisorShares.
Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Mars Hill Partners, Jason Huntley said, "We are very excited to partner with AdvisorShares to package and launch GRV given the underlying merits of our long/short investment strategy when combined with the daily liquidity, fully transparent and tax efficiency benefits of an NYSE-listed ETF. Historically, strategies like ours have been accessible primarily through separate accounts or private hedge funds, neither of which offers anywhere near the potential benefits of the ETF structure which includes transparency."
Source: AdvisorShares
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
July 9, 2010--The Commitments of Traders Reports for the week of July 6, 2010 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
NYSE Amex to Begin Trading Nasdaq-Listed Issues on July 13, Providing More Choice for Customers
July 9, 2010--NYSE Amex, a unit of NYSE Euronext (NYX), today announced that pending Securities and Exchange Commission approval, it will begin trading Nasdaq-listed issues on July 13, 2010 on an Unlisted Trading Privilege (UTP) basis, bringing a different market model to the trading of Nasdaq stocks.
“Trading Nasdaq-listed issues on the NYSE Amex platform will provide greater choice for our customers,” said Joseph Mecane, Executive Vice President and Co-Head of U.S. Listings and Cash Execution. “NYSE Euronext is now able to offer traders in Nasdaq stocks two distinctive models – NYSE Amex in addition to NYSE Arca – which appeals to different types of firms and to traders with diverse execution strategies.”
NYSE Amex will feature the following benefits for trading Nasdaq-listed issues:
• A designated market maker assigned to each issue, with an obligation to make fair, orderly markets and to quote at the best bid or offer a certain percentage of the time;
• One or more electronic, off-floor supplemental liquidity providers for most issues, with an economic incentive to add liquidity at the best price a certain percentage of the time;
An additional market center with a differentiated pricing structure; and
A parity-based system that enables the designated market maker, any floor broker and the first order in the exchange’s order book to have equal standing in terms of execution priority at a particular price level.
NYSE Amex will add Nasdaq-listed issues on a gradual basis starting with 10 issues on July 14, to be followed by additional issues to be announced soon.
Source: NYSE Euronext
AdvisorShares Announces Partnership With Ranger Alternatives to Develop an Active Short ETF
Partnership Will Create a Solution That May Be Used as a Tool to Hedge Equity Exposure
July 9, 2010--AdvisorShares Investments, LLC, an investment adviser to actively managed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), announced today a partnership with Ranger Alternative Management, L.P. (Ranger Alternative Management), a Dallas based investment manager, to develop an actively managed ETF which implements a Short only All-Cap Domestic Equity investment strategy. The proposed ETF would join AdvisorShares' growing stable of innovative actively managed ETFs which includes the Dent Tactical ETF and the Mars Hill Global Relative Value.
"Ranger Alternative Management has an excellent track record using their proprietary forensic accounting approach to identify domestic equity stocks that are expected to underperform," said Noah Hamman, CEO and Founder of AdvisorShares. "We believe investment advisors are seeking the ability to hedge their long domestic equity exposure without worrying about compounding, derivatives or commodities."
Scott Canon, President of Ranger Capital Group (Ranger Alternative Management's parent company), said, "Current options to provide a true equity hedge for investment advisors are difficult to implement and maintain. Products currently available to investment advisors do not provide a true "buy and hold" option in applying a hedge to equity exposure. The opportunity to bring our team's expertise, process and skill set to the investment advisor community is very exciting for us.
"At Ranger, we maintain an institutional quality platform to support our various asset management groups and affiliates. We believe that Ranger Alternative Management is poised to help market participants manage assets with transparency and liquidity in these difficult and volatile times."
Source: AdvisorShares
Standard & Poor's Announces S&P/TSX Preferred Share Index Methodology Changes
July 9, 2010--Standard & Poor's Canadian Index Services announces the following modifications to the methodology of the S&P/TSX Preferred Share Index, which will become effective after the close of trading on Friday, July 16, 2010, with the second semi-annual review of the index in 2010:
There will be no limit to the number of preferred share issues from any given issuer.
Previously, the number of issues per issuer was limited to a maximum of three.
There will be a maximum relative weight of 10% set per issuer. All eligible lines for an issuer will be included in the index and capped on a pro-rata basis to a maximum of 10% of the total index market capitalization.
Preferred shares that have a mandatory conversion or a scheduled maturity or redemption within 12 months of the review period will not be added to the index. Existing index constituents which have a redemption or conversion will be removed on the redemption or conversion date.
A buffer rule for existing index constituents will be applied for the dollar value traded liquidity requirement. Existing constituents must have a minimum average dollar value traded in the 3 months prior to the review date of C$100,000.
The liquidity requirement to get included in the index will increase from C$100,000 to C$200,000.
Effective January 2011 the rebalance scheduled will change from semi-annually to quarterly. Rebalancing will occur after the close on the third Friday of January, April, July and October.
In order to lessen the impact of these changes, the new methodology will be phased in beginning with the July 2010 rebalance. The index will rebalance 25% each month from July to October, effective after the close on the third Friday, where S&P will apply a weight factor to each issue in order to gradually bring each in to the index.
Company additions to and deletions from an S&P index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard& Poors