March Roundup: Launches, Filings, and Closures
The ETF industry slowed down its pace in March, showing moderate levels of activity on the product development front. After a busy February, this month saw the debut of only 14 new funds; however, investors were introduced to two new first-to-market products, including an emerging market corporate bond fund as well as an ETF that offers targeted exposure to Indonesian small cap companies. Additionally, markets welcomed the highly anticipated Total Return ETF from PIMCO and its legendary bond guru, Bill Gross [for updates on all new ETFs, sign up for the free ETFdb newsletter]:
New ETFs
New exchange-traded products that began trading in March include:
PIMCO launched its highly anticipated Total Return ETF (TRXT), bringing to market an exchange-traded version of one of the world’s most followed mutual funds.
WisdomTree rolled out another first-to-market fund that expands the universe of bonds available to U.S. investors. The Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund (EMCB) offers exposure to dollar-denominated corporate bonds from issuers in the developing world.
Exchange Traded Concepts debuted its Yorkville High Income MLP ETF (YMLP), which seeks to replicate an index that consists of Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) generally engaged in the storage and transport of natural gas and petroleum-based fuels.
Russell added two more products to its rapidly expanding suite of ETFs, launching the Russel High Dividend Yield ETF (HDIV) and the Russell Small Cap High Dividend Yield ETF (DIVS). HDIV targets components of the Russell 1000 that exhibit the highest dividend yields, while DIVS focuses on high yielding stocks that make up the Russell 2000.
State Street introduced its new SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term HighYield Bond ETF (SJNK), which targets junk bonds that have less than five years remaining to maturity.
Van Eck launched its Market Vectors Indonesia Small-Cap ETF (IDXJ), the first ETF to offer targeted exposure to small cap Indonesian stocks.
UBS expanded its lineup of monthly leveraged ETPS with its introduction of the Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged Dow Jones International Real Estate ETN (RWXL). RWXL delivers leveraged exposure to a benchmark that consists of REITs from around the world, excluding the U.S..
Direxion launched its new NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares (QQQE), which focuses on the largest stocks listed on the tech-heavy NASDAQ, but implements a unique weighting methodology that delivers a balanced, diversified portfolio.
Teucrium rolled out its new Agriculture ETF (TAGS), which targets the “big 4″ of the agriculture commodity space: sugar, corn, wheat, and soybeans. TAGS is structured as a fund-of-funds: the underlying holdings of the product are shares of existing single-commodity ETPs that the issuer has already debuted.
Guggenheim added three more BulletShares Bond ETFs to their line up, which target investment grade corporate debt maturing in a specific year. The new launches include: the BulletShares 2018 Corporate Bond ETF (BSCI), the BulletShares 2019 Corporate Bond ETF (BSCJ), and the BulletShares 2020 Corporate Bond ETF (BSCK).
ProShares expanded its suite of 3x leveraged ETFs, launching its new UltraPro Short 20+ Year Treasury (TTT). The fund seeks to deliver daily results that correspond to -300% of movements in the Barclays Capital U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Index.
Coming Soon
March saw a flurry of activity on the filing front, with dozens of proposed products hitting the SEC’s desk. The highlights include:
Emerging Global Advisors plans to introduce 11 new funds to the market, including several country and sector-specific ETFs, as well as a number of dividend focused products.
iShares has filed for two fixed income ETFs along with an intriguing “Human Rights” product that might appeal to socially responsible investors. ProShares has also laid down the groundwork for two bull-bear pairs of 3x leveraged equity funds.
Van Eck plans to bring to market an intriguing fund aimed at offering targeted exposure to the global chemicals industry.
Van Eck has also filed for a new Ex-Financials Preferred Stock ETF, which will consist of convertible and nonconvertible U.S.-listed preferred stocks that are not issued by financial companies.
Global X has laid the groundwork for four new Hedge Fund ETFs, including a “Top Hedge Fund”, “Top Value Guru”, “Top Activist Investor”, and “Listed Hedge Funds” ETF.
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing. Photo courtesy of Mike Boehmer.
Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.
Related Posts:
Russell Files For High Dividend ETFs, State Street Plans Latin America Fund
Russell Files For Dividend ETFs, State Street Plans International Equity Funds
