Some New ETFs are off to Fast Starts
Roughly 140 exchange traded funds and exchange traded notes (ETNs) have come to market this year. As is the case with any year’s crop of new ETFs, some are off to faster starts than others.
To be precise 16, or just over 10%, of the new ETFs that have come to market in 2013 have hit the highly touted $100 million in assets under management mark. That is the oft-cited number at which an ETF issuer supposedly breaks even on a new fund.
Two of this year’s most successful new ETFs are actually ETNs; the Barclays ETN + Enhanced Global High Yield ETN (FIGY) and the Barclays ETN + FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN (FEEU) . Those ETNs have $1.34 billion and $977 million in assets under management, respectively. [Interesting New ETFs]
However, there is more than meets the eye with these ETNs. “They were custom-made at the request of institutional clients. Apparently, the FI stands for deep-pocketed customer Fisher Investments, which owns $1.3 billion of FIGY and $961 million of FEEU,” reports Trang Ho for Investor’s Business Daily.
Indicating that interest in FIGY and FEEU is not heavy behind Fisher Investments, the ETNs combined average daily is less than 14,000 shares.
The Vanguard Total International Bond ETF (BNDX) debuted in June as an offshoot of the Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund, a mutual fund, and already has $760 million in AUM. BNDX’s underlying index is made up of foreign government, agency and corporate bonds, and the ETF hedges currency exposure, according to IBD.
The actively managed SPDR Blackstone/GSO Senior Loan ETF (SRLN) was also highlighted by IBD as one of the most successful new product launches this year.
SRLN, which competes directly with the passively managed PowerShares Senior Loan Portfolio (BKLN) and at least two other new bank loan ETFs, debuted in April and already has almost $572 million in AUM. That serves as confirmation that investors’ appetites for low-duration, high-yield bank loan ETFs remains robust.[Bank Loan ETFs Continue to Thrive]
Other new ETFs that have already eclipsed $100 million in AUM include the Vident International Equity Fund (VIDI) , the db X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (ASHR) , which has over $195 million in less than two months on the market, and the iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (QUAL) .
SPDR Blackstone/GSO Senior Loan ETF
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.
