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Guggenheim Investment Advisory Announces the Launch of the Guggenheim Alternatives Platform
Providing the Wealth Management Community With Improved Access to Hedge Funds
November 14, 2012--Guggenheim Investment Advisory, a business unit of Guggenheim Partners, LLC, announced today the launch of the Guggenheim Alternatives Platform, a web-based solution designed specifically for independent registered investment advisors, private banks and trust companies and similar wealth management firms.
The platform enables such advisors to build and implement customized hedge fund portfolios for their clients by connecting them to Guggenheim Investment Advisory's deeply researched menu of hedge fund managers, along with thematic guidance and support.
"We are pleased to introduce advisors to the Guggenheim Alternatives Platform, which draws on our strong legacy in alternative investing," said Michael Christ, head of Guggenheim Investment Advisory.
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Source: Guggenheim Partners
SSGA-US ETF Snapshot: October 2012
November 13, 2012--SNAPSHOT OVERVIEW
1,240 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)-with assets totaling $1.3TN-were managed by 37 ETF managers as of October 31, 2012.
Month over month, ETF assets decreased $11.9BN, down 0.9%.
In October, the ETF Industry experienced a 0.9% decline in assets, driven by a $14.4BN drop in the Size - Large Cap category. However, the Fixed Income category had a gain in assets of $5.5BN.
ETF Industry Detail
Asset Classes — Overall
The S&P 500® Index dropped 1.8%, while the MSCI EAFE® Index increased 0.8%. Commodities were negative, with the S&P GSCI® Index down 4.1% and Gold dropping 3.2%. US Bonds were mixed with the Barclays US Treasury Index dropping 0.2% and the Barclays US Aggregate Index increasing 0.2%.
FLOWS
ETF flows topped $2.7BN in October. The Fixed Income category had a leading $5.0BN of inflows, increasing its year-to-date total net flows to $46.5BN. The Size -Large Cap category had the most significant outflows during the month of October, with $9.2BN leaving the category.
Manager and Fund Detail
The top three managers in the US ETF marketplace were: BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard. Collectively, they account for approximately 83% of the US listed ETF market.
The top three ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], iShares Russell 2000 [IWM] and PowerShares QQQ [QQQ].
The top three ETFs in terms of assets for the month were the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], SPDR Gold Shares [GLD] and Vanguard Emerging Markets [VWO].
For more information, including product fact sheets, related whitepapers or to read more visit www.spdrs.com.
Source: State Street Global Advisors
CBOE sues ISE for $525 mln over options trading system
November 13, 2012--The Chicago Board Options Exchange has sued International Securities Exchange LLC for at least $525 million, accusing its rival of infringing three patents related to an automated options trading system.
In a complaint filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, CBOE said the patents were issued in 2008, 2011 and 2012, and cover systems to monitor quote risk and automatically adjust quotes when risk exposure gets too high.
The Chicago-based unit of CBOE Holdings Inc said these methods are "crucial to market maker participation" and that ISE, a unit of Deutsche Boerse AG, has deprived it of profit and royalties by infringing its patents.
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Source: Thomson Reuters
New World Bank Report Finds 50 Percent Increase in Middle Class in Latin America and the Caribbean over Last Decade
Bank President Kim says world can learn from government policies that increased wealth for tens of millions
November 13, 2012-- A new World Bank report released today found that Latin America and the Caribbean registered a 50 percent jump in the number of people joining the middle class during the last decade, which was called by economists an historic achievement for a region long riven by wealth inequality.
The report, called “Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class’’, found that the middle class in the region grew to an estimated 152 million in 2009, compared to 103 million in 2003, an increase of 50 percent.
“The recent experience of Latin America and the Caribbean shows the world that policies balancing economic growth while still expanding opportunities for the most vulnerable can spread prosperity to millions of people,” said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. “Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean still need to do much more – one third of the population is still in poverty – but we should celebrate this achievement of growing the middle class and learn from it.”
view the World Bank report-Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class
Source: World Bank
SEC releases study on proposed copper ETFs' impact on copper prices
November 13, 2012--A group of four copper fabricators and a copper merchant have been fighting tooth-and-nail since the spring to keep the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from approving two proposed ETFs (exchange-traded funds) that would invest in physical copper.
They fear that the investment products would hoard copper, driving up the price to the benefit of their investors, but to the detriment of industrial users.
Nothing has been decided yet. The SEC won’t rule on the two ETFs until December. One is being proposed by JPMorgan, and the other by Blackrock’s iShares.
view the SEC Study
Source: TedMagazine
iShares files with the SEC-iShares 2023 Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF
November 13, 2012--iShares has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the iShares 2023 Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
ETF Fervor Shifts to Loans as Bonds Lose Luster: Credit Markets
November 13, 2012--Exchange-traded funds that amassed junk bonds at a record pace in the first half of 2012 are now attracting unprecedented cash to buy speculative-grade loans as investors wager that a four-year rally in the notes is ending.
Blackstone Group LP (BX), the world’s largest private-equity firm, is planning its first ETF that will mostly buy loans, and Pyxis Capital LP, spun off from Highland Capital Management LP, announced its first such fund last week. Invesco Ltd.’s PowerShares Senior Loan (BKLN) fund, started two years ago as the first ETF solely dedicated to loans, has grown to become the third- biggest speculative-grade debt ETF with $1.2 billion of assets.
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Source: Bloomberg
DB-Synthetic Equity & Index Strategy-North America-Weekly ETF Market Review- ETP assets retreat from the $1.3 trillion mark on market pullback
November 13, 2012--Market and Net Cash Flows Review as of Friday, Nov 9th, 2012
US Equity markets plunged across the board last week. The S&P 500 lost 2.43%, with all 10 sectors going into red numbers during the period.
Utilities and Financials suffered the most, dropping 4.62% and 3.10%, respectively.
Markets outside the US were down in a similar way. The flight to safety triggered by the sell-off following President Obama’s reelection prompted a rally within rates, with the 10Y US Treasury Yield dropping by 14 bps and some products tracking 20Y+ treasuries gaining more than 3% during the week. Commodities were mostly positive, driven mainly by the Precious Metals and Energy space, where Gold, Silver, and WTI Crude Oil recorded gains of 3.16%, 5.46%, and 1.43%, respectively. At the same time, the USD strengthened against most of the majors and Volatility rose by 5.8%.
The total US ETP flows from all products registered $2.42bn (+0.2% of AUM) of inflows during last week vs $5.15bn (+0.4%) of inflows the previous week, setting the YTD weekly flows average at +$3.1bn (+$138.35bn, +13.2% YTD in total cash flows).
Equity, Fixed Income, and Commodity ETPs experienced flows of +$0.96bn (+0.1%), +$1.07bn (+0.4%), +$0.37bn (+0.3%) last week vs. +$2.78bn (+0.3%), +$2.33bn (+0.9%), +$0.01bn (+0.0%) in the previous week, respectively.
Among US sectors, Industrials (+$0.22bn, +3.9%) and Materials (+$0.14bn, +2.0%) received the most significant flows.
In the equity space, Large Cap ETFs experienced $1.9bn (-0.9%) in outflows; while Emerging Markets (+$0.7bn, +0.7%) and Value (+$0.4bn, +0.9%) ETFs saw the largest inflows. In the debt space, Sovereign products gathered most of the inflows (+$0.8bn, +1.3%). Within Commodity products, flows were driven by Precious metals with +$0.3bn (+0.3%).
Top 3 ETPs & ETNs by inflows:
EEM (+$0.9bn), TLT (+$0.3bn), GDX (+$0.3bn)
Top 3 ETPs & ETNs by outflows:
SPY (-$2.1bn), VWO (-$0.3bn), AGG (-$0.2bn)
New Launch Calendar: income generation with senior loans
Last week Pyxis Funds launched their first ETF (SNLN), the new fund was listed on the NYSE Arca and offers exposure to a portfolio of senior loans.
Turnover Review: Floor activity gets back to pre-hurricane levels
Total weekly turnover increased by 95.5% to $313bn vs. $160bn from the previous week. However, last week's turnover level was still 17% below last year's weekly average. Equity, Fixed Income and Commodity ETPs turnover increased by $137bn (+98%), $7.1bn (+64%) and $7.4bn (+93%), respectively.
Assets under Management (AUM) Review:
ETP assets shy away from peak
Markets weighed on ETF assets, pushing them down by 0.9% (-$11.9bn) to $1.26 trillion. As of last Friday, US ETPs have accumulated an asset growth of 20.5% YTD. Assets for equity, fixed income and commodity ETPs moved -$16.6bn, +$1.4bn, +$3.3bn during last week, respectively.
request report
Source: Deutsche Bank - Synthetic Equity & Index Strategy -North America
FINRA Increases Transparency in the TBA Market for Agency Pass-Through Mortgage-Backed Securities
October 13, 2012--The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), on Monday November 12, significantly increased transparency in the so-called "To-Be-Announced" (TBA) market for agency pass-through mortgage-backed securities.
This market represents more than $270 billion traded on an average daily basis in 8,400 trades. Through the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE), FINRA has begun disseminating TBA transaction information, including the CUSIP, time of transaction, price, size and other related information.
In addition to the TBA market, the SEC has approved a FINRA proposal to publicly disseminate transaction information in agency pass-through mortgage-backed securities traded "specified." This market represents approximately $19 billion traded on an average daily basis in 3,000 trades.
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Source: FINRA
Interactive Data Introduces New Suite of ETF Web Tools
ETF Tools Provide Extraordinary ETF Analysis and Publishing Capabilities to Advisory, Brokerage, ETF Issuer and Media Firms
November 13, 2012--Interactive Data Corporation, a leading provider of ETF valuations and hosted web services, today announced the launch of its new white label suite of ETF web tools.
The new tools help advisors and investors analyze, build and promote investment strategies using ETFs.
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Source: Interactive Data Corporation