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UBS Allows Daily Redemption for Five of its Exchange Traded Access Securities (E-TRACS)
December 14, 2010--UBS Investment Bank announced today that it will allow daily, instead of weekly, redemption for any holder of the following UBS E-TRACS (the "Securities") that wishes to exercise its right of early redemption: E-TRACS Linked to the Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index due April 2,- 902641646- MLPI -2040 E-TRACS Linked to Alerian Natural Gas MLP Index due July 9, 2040- 902641620 -MLPG
2xMonthly Leveraged Long E-TRACS Linked to the Alerian MLP -902664200- MLPL- Infrastructure Index due July 9, 2040- 1xMonthly Short E-TRACS Linked to the Alerian MLP Infrastructure- 902641612- MLPS Total Return Index due October 1, 2040 E-TRACS Linked to the Wells Fargo MLP Index due October 29, 2040 -902664408 MLPW.
“In-Laws and Outlaws”-Remarks of Commissioner Bart Chilton of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to the Americans for Financial Reform
December 14, 2010--Thanks for the opportunity to be with you today to talk about something I know has been on your minds for a long time—and mine too—speculative position limits in commodities.
In the last decade, we saw the U.S. futures industry grow five-fold when the rest of the world grew three-fold. In several years we saw over $200 billion come into regulated U.S. futures markets. This new money was primarily from speculators, much of which was held by speculators I call "massive passives," those with a known, fairly price-insensitive trading strategy. Then, in 2008, we saw a huge commodity bubble. Wheat was at $24. Today it is around $8. Crude oil spiked to $147.27 and gas was at $4 per gallon. Then the economy and commodity prices all fell off a cliff. Did the new speculators, including the massive passives, contribute to that price volatility—volatility that had large and small businesses alike all paying higher prices than they should?
MSCI Launches Barra Portfolio Manager
December 13, 2010--December 13, 2010 - MSCI Inc., a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and corporate governance services, announced today the launch of Barra Portfolio Manager, the next generation of equity portfolio management tools for institutional investors.
Designed to help fund managers and their teams manage, monitor and build better equity portfolios, Barra Portfolio Manager provides users with additional portfolio insight and enables them to make faster, more informed investment decisions. With its easy-to-use, interactive user interface, Barra Portfolio Manager offers a cost-effective way to access a broad range of equity portfolio analytics, advanced workflow tools, and high quality data.
“In this competitive environment, our clients need flexible, easy-to-use tools that align with their investment process – whether quantitative, fundamental or a blend of both,” said Nathan Tidd, Global Head of Equity Analytics at MSCI. “We designed Barra Portfolio Manager with these requirements in mind and the result is a platform that investment managers can rely on for a broad range of mission-critical information.”
ISE is First Options Exchange to Launch Post-Trade Allocation Functionality for the Stock Leg of Complex Options Orders
Partnership with ConvergEx enables Post-Trade Allocation directly through ISE’s PrecISE Trade Front-End
December 13, 2010--The International Securities Exchange (ISE) announced today that
ISE is now using ConvergEx Group technology to implement post-trade allocation functionality for the
stock leg of tied-to-stock options orders. The new functionality can be applied to orders that are entered
into ISE’s complex orderbook through proprietary, FIX or PrecISE connections. Once a tied-to-stock
options order has been executed, members will be able to change clearing instructions in PrecISE or split
the stock component among multiple parties for clearing. This is the first time that fully automated posttrade
allocation for stock has been available to the options market.
“We are very excited to partner with ConvergEx to provide our members with greater control and flexibility
in managing their trades,” said Boris Ilyevsky, Managing Director of ISE’s options exchange. “For the first
time, firms who solicit liquidity from multiple parties for their clients’ tied-to-stock options orders can send
their orders to ISE as one package and then split it among different parties after the trade is executed.”
“Working with ISE to further leverage the Millennium ATS’* capabilities and expand our business partnership is a great example of ConvergEx’s focus on developing technology to improve execution for our clients and partners” said Brian Carr, Managing Director and Co-head of ConvergEx’s Millennium group. “We look forward to working with ISE on continuing innovations in the tied-to-stock options space.”
ISE plans to roll out this new post-trade allocation functionality for stock to its proprietary and FIX connections as part of the exchange’s upcoming migration to its new options trading system. ISE already supports fully-electronic post trade allocation for the options legs of all order types through all connections.
For more information about ISE’s post-trade allocation functionality, or about PrecISE Trade and the twomonth fee waiver available for new users, contact ISE Business Development at bizdev@ise.com.
* ConvergEx Group acquired the Millennium ATS in December 2009.
Morgan Stanley EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS: US ETF WEEKLY UPDATE
December 13, 2010--Weekly Flows:
$9.6 Billion Net Inflows
3rdStraight Week of Net Inflows
ETFsTraded $287 Billion Last Week-Launches: 9 New ETFs
US-Listed ETFs: Estimated Flows by Market Segment
For the third straight week, ETFs generated net inflows ($9.6 billion last week)
Net inflows into US Equity ETFstotaled $10.1 blnlast week, more than offsetting outflows in Fixed Income
ETF assets stand at $980 bln; up 26% YTD
13-week flows were mostly positive among asset classes
$54.8 bln net inflows into ETFs over past 13 weeks (61% into USEquity ETFs)
We estimate ETFs have posted net inflows 36 out of 49 weeks YTD
US-Listed ETFs: Estimated Largest Flows by Individual ETF
Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) posted net inflows of $5.2blnlast week, the most of any ETF
US Equity ETFsoccupied 8 of the top 10 spots for largest net inflows last week
For the fourth straight week, SPY posted net outflows; unusual given that during the 4th quarter, SPY historically has generated large net inflows.
iShares Announces Social Media Launch
New iShares Blog Makes ETF Experts Available to an Expanded Audience
December 13, 2010-- BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK - News) today announced that its iShares® Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, the world's largest manager of ETFs, has launched a social media program to provide a deeper level of education for investment professionals.
The latest addition is the iShares blog (http://isharesblog.com) featuring input and opinions from some of its most experienced leaders including Russ Koesterich, iShares Chief Investment Officer; Noel Archard, Head of iShares Product for the Americas and Kevin Feldman, Managing Director, US iShares.
Semi-Annual Changes to the NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index
December 13, 2010--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) announced today the results of the semi-annual evaluation of the NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index (Nasdaq:ABQI), which will become effective prior to market open on Monday, December 20, 2010.
The following five securities will be added to the Index: Abington Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABBC), First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (Nasdaq:FIBK), Pacific Capital Bancorp (Nasdaq:PCBC), Sterling Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:STSAD), and ViewPoint Financial Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:VPFG).
The Index is designed to track the performance of banks and thrifts, or their holding companies, listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market®. The Index is intended to serve as a benchmark for investment products by including the larger and more liquid community banks. The NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index is reviewed on a semi-annual basis. For more information about the NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index, including detailed eligibility criteria, visit https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/.
U.S. Money Market Funds: Recent Trends in Exposure to European Banks
December 13, 2010--Summary Background
This research study is intended to
provide market participants with
information on MMF exposures
to European banks. It is based on
public filings and does not comment
specifically on Fitch-rated MMFs. As
such, the report does not at present
have any ratings implications.
Because this analysis is based on
aggregated data for the 10 MMFs
sampled, it does not capture
potential differences in exposure
profiles across individual funds.
In light of recent volatility in European sovereign debt markets, there has been a focus on identifying
and sizing the various forms of risk exposure that are either directly linked to or correlated with
sovereigns that have experienced heightened investor concern. Exposures to large, systemically important financial institutions, whose perceived credit risk is closely tied to the ability of the sovereign to provide support, have received particular attention.
A potential channel for eurozone sovereign risk is U.S. money market funds (MMFs), which provide banks with short-term dollar-denominated funding by investing in various banks’ securities including certificates of deposit (CDs) and commercial paper (CP). By analyzing time series data for the 10 largest U.S. prime MMFs (a sample that currently represents $740bn, or roughly 45%, of the $1.7tn U.S. prime fund universe), Fitch Ratings has identified several notable trends regarding U.S. MMFs’ dollar exposure to European banks’ CDs, CP, and bank-sponsored assetbacked CP (ABCP) issuances.
Horizons AlphaPro Launches Canada's First Floating Rate Bond ETF
December 13, 2010--AlphaPro Management Inc. ("AlphaPro"), manager of the Horizons AlphaPro family of exchange traded funds, has launched Canada's first actively managed floating rate bond exchange traded fund, the Horizons AlphaPro Floating Rate Bond ETF (the "Floating Rate Bond ETF" or "HFR").
The Floating Rate Bond ETF will begin trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HFR. The sub-advisor to the Floating Rate Bond ETF is Natcan Investment Management Inc. ("Natcan").
The investment objective of the Floating Rate Bond ETF is to generate income that is consistent with prevailing short-term corporate bond yields while stabilizing its market value from the effects of interest rate fluctuations.
The Floating Rate Bond ETF invests primarily in a portfolio of Canadian debt securities and hedges the portfolio's interest rate risk to generally maintain a portfolio duration of less than two years. It may also invest in debt securities of U.S. companies, directly, or through investments in securities of other investment funds, including exchange traded funds. The Floating Rate Bond ETF may use derivatives, including interest rate swaps, to deliver a floating rate of income. To the best of its ability, the Floating Rate Bond ETF will seek to hedge its non-Canadian dollar currency exposure to the Canadian dollar at all times.
Global X files with the SEC
December 13, 2010-Global X has filed a post effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for
Global X Oil Equities ETF.
read more
JPMorgan cuts back on US silver futures
December 13, 2010--JPMorgan has quietly reduced a large position in the US silver futures market which had been at the centre of a controversy about its impact on global prices for the precious metal.
The decision by JPMorgan was an attempt to deflect public criticism of the bank’s dealings in silver, a person familiar with the matter said. The person added that the bank’s position in silver would from now on be “materially smaller” than in the past.
iShares JPMorgan Emerging Markets Bond Fund passes USD1bn AUM
December 13, 2010--The iShares JPMorgan USD Emerging Market Bond Fund has surpassed USD1bn in assets under management.
The fund tracks a broad, diverse US dollar denominated emerging market debt benchmark, and is designed to give access to debt instruments from more than 30 emerging market countries in one trade.
The fund is one of iShares’ highest yielding funds and has seen over USD700m in inflows year to date, making it the fifth best performing European iShares product in terms of asset gathering in 2010.
CFTC.gov Financial Data for Futures Commission Merchants Update
December 10, 2010--Selected FCM financial data as of October 31, 2010 (from reports filed by November 30, 2010) are now available
view update
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
December 10, 2010--The CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports for the for the week of December 7, 2010 are now available.
view updates
ProShares Launches First Long/Short RAFI ETF
December 9, 2010 — ProShares, a premier provider of alternative exchange traded funds (ETFs), announced the launch of ProShares RAFI® Long/Short (RALS). The ETF, the first dedicated fund that offers a long/short strategy based on Research Affiliate's pioneering Fundamental Index (RAFI®) methodology, lists on NYSE Arca today.
The RAFI approach uses fundamental measures of company size—sales, dividends, cash flow and book value—instead of security price in selecting and weighting securities. The new ETF seeks to match the performance of the RAFI® US Equity Long/Short Index before fees and expenses. The Index takes long positions in companies with large RAFI weights relative to their capitalization weights and short positions in companies with small RAFI weights relative to their capitalization weights. By allocating an equal dollar amount to its long and short positions, the Index is designed to generate an absolute return over a full market cycle.
"We are pleased to partner with Research Affiliates and Rob Arnott on ProShares RAFI Long/Short," said Michael L. Sapir, Chairman and CEO of ProShare Advisors LLC, ProShares' investment advisor. "This ETF may appeal to investors looking for strategies that strive to deliver low correlation and favorable returns regardless of market direction."
"Lifting the long-only constraint extends the potential benefits of the RAFI approach," said Rob Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates. "We are excited that ProShares is providing access to another important alternative strategy for investors."
Concurrent with the launch of the ProShares RAFI ETF, ProShares is introducing a new marketing campaign with the themeline, “The Alternative ETF Company®." ProShares introduced the industry's first, and today is the world's leading provider of, geared (leveraged and inverse) ETFs. Last year, ProShares introduced ProShares Credit Suisse 130/30 (CSM), the first ETF of its kind. With the introduction of the ProShares RAFI® Long/Short, ProShares continues to demonstrate its commitment to provide investors with ETFs that pursue alternative strategies.
