Americas ETP News
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S&P Names Citi Executive Sahai President
November 25, 2013--McGraw Hill Financial Inc. ( MHFI ) said on Monday it hired Citigroup Inc. ( C ) executive Neeraj Sahai to run its Standard & Poor's Ratings Services unit, the world's largest ratings agency.
Mr. Sahai joins the company as it battles the U.S. federal government in a high-stakes lawsuit that accuses the company of inflating its letter-grade ratings to win business from bankers and other clients. He succeeds Douglas Peterson, who became chief executive of McGraw Hill earlier this month. Mr. Peterson, also a former Citi executive, was the prior president of S&P, named to that position in September 2011.
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Soure: NASDAQ OMX
Hedge Funds Prefer ETFs For Shorting: Goldman Sachs
November 25, 2013--Even hedge funds like ETFs.
But not for the same reasons as you and me. The latest "Hedge Fund Trend Monitor" study from Amanda Sneider, David J. Kostin, Stuart Kaiser, Ben Snider, Rima Reddy and Aaron Woodside of Goldman Sachs Portfolio Research says hedge funds use ETFs primarily for just that-hedging.
Hedge funds using ETFs as hedging tool
"Hedge funds use ETFs more as a hedging tool than as a directional investment vehicle, based on our analysis of 13-F and short interest filings."
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Source: ValueWalk
U.S. Fed's Tarullo wants more tools to counter shadow bank risks
November 22, 2013-- Global financial watchdogs should have more policy tools and powers over firms such as hedge funds to counter the risk of a devastating run on investment banks, the U.S. Federal Reserve's top regulator said on Friday.
Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo unveiled new details of the central bank's plans to require banks to hold more capital if they rely heavily on raising short-term cash from other banks, and he pushed regulators writing global rules to do more.
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Source: Reuters
Five Reasons Why This Association Hit the Pause Button
November 22, 2013--The National Exchange Traded Funds Association's efforts to represent the trillion-dollar investment banking industry have been shelved due to "lack of demand." Its stunted start offers insights for other budding groups.
The National Exchange Traded Funds Association (NETFA) website currently sits dormant, replaced with a placeholder site full of unrelated links. For an association launched less than two years ago with fanfare, it was an unceremonious end-at least, for now.
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Source: Associationsnow.com
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
November 22, 2013--The current reports for the week of November 19, 2013 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
ProShares Launches First Short Term Emerging Markets Bond ETF
November 21, 2013--Short duration fund offers attractive yield potential with reduced interest rate sensitivity
November 21. 2013--ProShares, a premier provider of alternative ETFs, today launched the Short Term USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMSH), the first short term emerging markets bond ETF in the United States.
The ETF is designed to offer attractive yield potential with reduced interest rate sensitivity.
"Investors concerned about rising interest rates have been flooding into short term bond ETFs," said Michael Sapir, Chairman and CEO of ProShare Advisors LLC, ProShares' investment advisor. "We are pleased to introduce the nation's first short term emerging markets bond ETF, which offers exposure to this attractive-yielding asset class while limiting the impact of rising interest rates."
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Source:ProShares
IndexUniverse & ISA Announce Partnership
November 21, 2013--IndexUniverse LLC and Index Strategy Advisors (ISA) today announced the launch of a partnership to build and deliver high-quality ETF portfolios to clients.
Under the terms of the agreement, ISA will leverage IndexUniverse's ETF Analytics and due diligence platform to select ETFs for clients, based on ISA's proprietary asset allocation models. -
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Source: Index Strategy Advisors (ISA)
State Street-Whitepaper: Leveraging the Best of Passive and Active
November 21, 2013--The active versus passive debate is often emotional and polarizing. However, when you push
beyond the black and white divides, it becomes clear that combining passive and active investment strategies is actually the most beneficial approach for portfolios, especially when
considering the growth of advanced indexes. That is, while certain efficient asset classes may
be best accessed with low cost passive investments, others may have greater potential for excess returns and, therefore, are best suited for active management.
At the same time, active
and passive solutions can complement each other within asset classes and allows investors to tilt portfolios to the best opportunities within and across markets. This approach harnesses
the best of passive and active and can help build the most cost effective, resilient and robust portfolios possible
THE EVOLUTION OF PASSIVE INVESTING
The debate over the merits of active management ignited in 1965
with the publication of Michael Jensen's "The Performance of
Mutual Funds in the Period 1945-1965". Proponents of passive
investing, also known as index investing, typically view markets
as efficient. Accordingly, rather than seek to outperform a
benchmark, passive investors seek to track the performance of a
market index by owning the same assets, in similar proportions,
as the underlying index. In contrast, active investors tend to
believe that markets are inefficient. Therefore, active managers
tend to over and underweight securities, sectors or countries in
order to generate excess returns relative to an index.
Although actively managed funds account for nearly three quarters of the overall market, passive funds have gained significant market share over the past few years. Interestingly, passive investing only became a reality in 1971 with the launch of the first fund seeking to track a rules-based index. Thus, in the grand scheme of the investing world, passive remains a relative newcomer.
Much of passive's asset growth was sparked by recent prolonged periods of market volatility starting in the early 2000s when many active managers failed to live up to expectations. The Global Financial Crisis exacerbated this trend and caused investors to reassess the role of active investment approaches, especially when many managers experienced liquidity difficulties and marked underperformance during the worst of the crisis. Accordingly, passive assets, as a percentage of total mutual fund industry assets, have risen from approximately 10% in 2001 to 26% today. At the same time, investors of all shapes and sizes have become more cost conscious and are highly scrutinizing management fees.
to view white paper visit www.statestreetspdrs.com
Source: SPDR(R) University Research
Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, October 29-30, 2013
November 20, 2013--The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on October 29-30, 2013 and of the conference call held on October 16, 2013.
The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee ordinarily are made available three weeks after the day of the policy decision and subsequently are published in the Board’s Annual Report. The descriptions of economic and financial conditions contained in these minutes are based solely on the information that was available to the Committee at the time of the meeting.
view the Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, October 29-30, 2013
Source: FRB
CFTC Announces Weekly Swaps Report
Transparency initiative will give the public a new window into the formerly opaque swaps market
November 20, 2013--Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler today announced the initiation of the CFTC Weekly Swaps Report.
The weekly report will provide the public with a detailed view of the swaps marketplace that before the Dodd-Frank Act was an opaque market. Today's report currently covers the interest rate and credit asset classes that comprise about 90% of the approximately $400 trillion swaps market. The report provides three views of the swaps market: the gross notional outstanding value, the weekly transactions measured by dollar volume, and the weekly transactions measured by ticket volume. For each asset class, the report provides detailed breakdowns of the swaps market by product type, currency (six major currencies), tenor, participant type, and whether swaps are cleared or uncleared. The Weekly Swaps Report is available at http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/SwapsReports.
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Source: CFTC.gov
