Tag Archives: etf

jane-street-corporate-bond-market-maker

Quant-Centric ETF Market-Maker Jane Street Adds Corporate Bond Axe

Jane Street Capital, the quant-centric proprietary trading firm best known for its dominant role in the ETF marketplace–including its role as a liquidity provider for stocks and options as well as exchange-traded funds to buy-side accounts– has a new arrow in its quiver; making markets in corporate bonds.  The firm disclosed that it is lifted its anonymous veil and is now a ‘disclosed dealer’ on electronic bond trading platform MarketAxess (NASDAQ: MKTX).

jane-street-capitalShall we guess whether the 6-pack banks and their first cousins–the industry’s legacy source of liquidity to buy-side managers navigating the corporate bond market landscape are (i) happy to have a new competitor, (ii) happy not to have to make markets and tie up balance sheets with inventory of hard-to-move corporate bonds or (iii) f–king pissed that tech-focused prop trading firms are now invading a secondary market product area that banks have viewed as their exclusive territory since time began?

As noted by WSJ reporter, Matt Wirz, investment banks and brokerages are the main go-betweens for money managers looking to buy and sell corporate bonds, about $25 billion of which trade daily in the U.S. Now, Jane Street Capital LLC, has begun offering the same service to investment firms on electronic trading platform MarketAxess and has recruited about 60 clients, people familiar with the matter said.

The move puts Jane Street in direct competition with traditional dealers like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. It also shows how bond markets are being transformed by electronic and algorithmic trading, innovations that swept stock and currency markets more than a decade ago.

Jane Street’s headquarters are a five-minute walk from Wall Street, but in some ways the firm is more akin to a Silicon Valley startup than an investment bank. “They have a different approach—there’s not a lot of sales and a lot of technology,” says Mike Nappi, a bond trader for mutual-fund manager Eaton Vance Corp. who has bought and sold bonds through Jane Street. “That’s different from a traditional bank where they have a lot of sales and the technology is more like Microsoft Excel.”

By joining those ranks, Jane Street aims to get recognition from asset managers for the balance sheet it uses to buy and sell with them, ultimately boosting the amount they trade with the firm, said Matt Berger, the firm’s head of fixed income and commodities trading. Jane Street trades about $550 million worth of corporate bonds in the U.S. every day, he said. This amounts to about 2% of the overall market, five times more than the firm traded two years ago.

That expansion would have been impossible without the recent spread of electronic bond trading.

Technology-driven trading firms like Jane Street and Virtu Financial LLC emerged after stock exchanges electronified in the 1990s, connecting  buyers and sellers through computers and reducing trading times to fractions of a second. The firms’ computer scientists built programs to cull market data and identify profitable trades that humans missed. Now, quantitative trading firms dominate the stock market.

Electronic trading has been slower to catch on in debt markets because bonds typically trade over-the-counter rather than on centralized exchanges. That has begun to change over the past five years as banks and money managers turn to electronic trading and data analysis to trim costs and to connect to more trading partners. Electronic trading platforms like MarketAxess have given Jane Street and other quantitative investors venues to apply the technology they used in other markets.

MarketAxess accounted for about 18% of all U.S. investment-grade bond trading last year, up from 12% in 2014, according to data from the company.

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Jane Street, founded by four partners including Michael Jenkins and Robert Granieri, now has about 50 bond salespeople and traders. Recruiting materials tout chess facilities, office gyms, math puzzle contests.

The firm trades less debt overall than most banks, which still employ hundreds of human sales and trading staff. But when it comes to its inventory of corporate bonds, “we are on par with the banks,” Mr. Berger said.

Jane Street hold bonds on its balance sheet for days or weeks to facilitate so-called portfolio trades of bundles of bonds often tied to ETFs. The portfolio deals normally range from $50 million to $750 million but can go as high as $2 billion, a person familiar with its trades said.

Read the full WSJ story here

CNBC Debuts Programming Dedicated to ETFs-Finally!

MarketsMuse coverage of the exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry began nearly ten years ago, and our senior curators have since been scratching their heads as to why CNBC, the retail investors’ most-watched business news network had never created dedicated programming to educate their viewers about ETFs, an asset class that has consistently grown (by as much as 20% YoY). How big is this market? Based on various metrics published by the assortment of ETF Issuers, more than $3 Trillion (with a “T”) of ETFs are held by US investors, the global market size is over $5 Trillion (with a “T”).

More telling, RIAs (Registered Investment Advisors) that manage money for retail investors now allocate well more than 50% of client money into these thematic funds. That said, CNBC–the business media channel that has become ubiquitous for its retail investor-targeted 12 hour+ daily coverage of stock market activity, interviews with fund managers, sell-side research analysts and public company CEOs have provided merely tangential insight to the ETF marketplace. Until now, that is.

Yesterday, CNBC premiered a new segment titled “ETF Edge” and hosted by commentator Bob Pisani. The premiere segment captured two particularly insightful ETF industry veterans; hedge fund manager Tim Seymour (who is also one of CNBC’s frequent market commentators) and Andy McCormond, Managing Director of ETF Execution for agency broker-dealer WallachBeth Capital, a boutique institutional brokerage whose thought-leadership on the topic of ETFs and better approaches to executing orders in ETF products has been embraced by a discrete universe of institutional investors and tens of dozens of RIAs for more than 10 years.

Hats Off to CNBC for shedding more light on an asset class that retail investors need to know more about.  Roll the opening show clip!

ETF Edge, January 23, 2019 from CNBC.

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Stock Price Implosion Puts HFT Firms Under Attack, Again

Stock Price Implosion Leads Some to Challenge Current Market Structure; HFT Firms Are Under Attack, Again…

Heads Up to High-Frequency Firms: Time to Hire a PR Crisis Manager Again, Call Your Lobbyists, Book Your Plane Tickets to Washington DC.

Before “bidding on” to the anti-HFT and anti-ETF remarks circulated by the assortment of market pundits appearing on Bloomberg, Reuters or the financial media megaphone channel, CNBC, you should know that SecTres Mnunchin has already weighed in. So has the SEC’s favorite tech entrepreneur, Mark Cuban. So has icon stock investor Leon Cooperman, who has the ear of Mnuchin and others. There’s a whole ‘hang-em-high’ crowd assembling to lay blame on high-frequency trading for the latest market routs. According to CNBC, Trump favorite Mike Flynn was overheard shouting to Mnuchin and Trump: “Lock them up!”

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NYSE DMM Citadel Securities started as a HFT prop trading firm

But, unless you’ve been investing in or trading in the equities markets for at least 20 years, you probably have no conception of a simple premise: markets go up and markets go down. Blame games are easy to play, equities investing is not always easy.

Traditional drivers to stock price movements include simple, time-tested fundamentals: the interest rate environment, the economic cycle, the value of the US dollar vs. other currencies, corporate revenue and profit, corporate debt levels, consumer debt levels, trends in residential real estate prices and other consumer optimism metrics. Yes, you can throw in the degree of confidence in the current government administration and a bunch of other geopolitical stuff (including tariff wars, Brexit event, and total uncertainty in many countries’ leadership–including the US) into the mix. We’ve all grown accustomed to the minute-to-minute chaos caused by the current president. His impact on stock prices is powered by his Twitter comments about China, the Federal Reserve Chairman, and blaming the latest government shutdown on democrats. Beyond that, institutional investors can only make investment decisions based on reality within context of  company earnings reports and not easily-fudged economic data. Investors should NOT make decisions based on a reality TV show produced in Foggy Bottom.

But, we should agree on one thing: the combination of complacent investing, a belief that prices of company shares will go up year after year is a fool’s view. The topic of debate in this post is whether the evolution of high-frequency trading (aka HFT) weaponry has contributed (yet again) to the large (downward) percentage moves in stock prices during the recent weeks. The sell-off, which arguably began during the first week of October, has led to an approximate 20% decline in the leading stock indices from the record highs. Many individual share prices have suffered bigger mark-downs, most notably tech sector stocks. Before asserting that high-frequency trading algorithms are the culprit, one need to ponder whether those same HFT tools also contributed to the nearly 50% gains the stock market has enjoyed since the 2016 US presidential election (two years ago)?

Whatever black swans have been flying over head for the past 6 months, now that equity prices have suffered multiple-day declines of 1%-3% (and the interim 1%-2% “dead cat bounce”) we need to blame someone!! After all, our very own president has been unwavering in his leadership mantra: “When the shit hits the fan, blame someone else for the problem!”

Let’s say you want to blame HFT firms for the slide. Considering the fact that today, the 3 largest NYSE market-makers are better known

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Specialist traders work at a Virtu Financial booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange April 16, 2015. Shares of electronic trading firm Virtu Financial Inc rose as much as 24.6 percent during their IPO, valuing the company at about $3.23 billion. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid – RTR4XMJS

for their legacy as high-frequency trading outfits, its easy to be cynical. These are ‘not your father’s NYSE specialist firm’, these are young quant jocks who made a ton of money as HFT prop trading shops starting back in the early 2000’s, and more recently, used some of that cash to purchase the legacy NYSE market-maker firms; the firms responsible for maintaining fair and orderly markets in NYSE listed companies. Now known as NYSE “DMMs”, they (actually their computers) also have the “first look” at orders to trade shares in which they are now the designated market-maker for. Instead of old-fashioned auction markets, these folks utilize algorithmic trading tools to match buyers and sellers and also trade for themselves. As a consequence, there is circumstantial evidence these firms are, to some extent, culpable for the rapid reflex moves in share prices.

Keep in mind, the flip-side is that these ‘HFT black boxes’ are also providing instantaneous liquidity, price transparency, and facilitate exiting or entering a investment position in less time than it takes to hit a ‘send’ button (until someone unplugs the machine after realizing they’ve risked the entire firm’s capital). Further, because everything happens in nano-seconds, one can argue that bear market cycles –periods that typically reflect recessionary pressures and in turn, signals that lead to a negative impact on the value of a company’s equity shares—are now much shorter in duration when compared to cycles going back 60-70 years.

To the first question, who can forget the May 2010 ‘Flash Crash’—an event that was certainly connected to HFT computers plugged into the walls surrounding the NYSE and NASDAQ computer server farms–and then became unplugged by humans when markets cratered due to a “fat finger” episode. We’ll tell you who cannot remember that event (other than having read about it years later): upwards of 1/3 of current ‘senior’ Wall Street quant jock HFT programmers who code the HFT machinery. Many of them were mining bitcoins in their MIT dorm rooms back in 2010. How many of the current generation of ‘systematic traders’ who now oversee billions of dollars were beyond high school in 2004? How many current trading desk wonks were around during the dot com bubble? How many folks who worked on trading desks in 1987 are even still alive, no less working in the business? Have you gotten the point, yet?

Because our pundits have accurately predicted this latest market down draft, allow us to further predict that we want to be “long on” private jet services to Washington (NYSE: BRK.A) and we’d love to invest in engagement contracts issued by PR Crisis Management gurus who represent these folks; they are presumably getting calls already by the best-known HFT honchos, starting yesterday.

Let’s be clear, the fundamental economic underpinnings that power equity prices have been sending mixed (warning) signals for months. OK, employment figures have been good, but Trump told us while campaigning for president that “US Employment figures are fake and fraudulent.” Yes, corporate earnings have met expectations, but nobody has delivered out-sized reports, and many companies have been sweating to provide realistic expectations, not wild-ass projections. According to recent polls, nearly 50% of Fortune CFOs are anticipating a recession will hit the US economy in 2019. 80% of CFOs believe a recession will be upon us before the end of 2020. Many multi-nationals based in the US are lamenting “Tariff Man” tweets. He says ‘US companies with US employees that make/sell products to US consumers will benefit, and the big companies have plenty of money to cushion the blows..” Really?!

So, fundamentals have been weakening during the past 2 quarters (unemployment figures aside). Even for those who subscribe to technical analysis and historic charts, the writing has been on the wall for months: “Caution Mr. Robinson, Caution!”

High-flying tech company shares started cracking in the 2nd quarter of 2018. They’ve been under an assortment of pressures that range from severe government and shareholder scrutiny to simple supply/demand obstacles impacting their business models (e.g. FB down nearly 40%, GOOG down 30% from its high, AAPL down 40%, AMZN down etc etc.) Bank stocks have been pummeled for the most part, even if GS’s latest beating is connected to yet another multi-billion dollar scandal. Big ticket corporate acquisitions made in the past 2 years have resulted in transition management problems. Corporate balance sheets have become increasingly overly-bloated with debt, thanks to folks on Wall Street who came up with a new pitch to corporate treasurers starting back in 2011: “We’ll float your bond offering (and get a big fee), you use the proceeds to repurchase outstanding shares, and you’ll make your EPS numbers look fantastic; everyone wins!!” Until the music stops, of course.  Corporate share repurchases have been credited with keeping equity prices stable and moving higher for upwards of seven years; the brokers are making nice commission on executing those buybacks and all is good with the world, until its not.

Stock market chartists started raising red flags in October. Corporate debt issuance came to a crashing stop in the last 6-8 weeks. That was a big signal. Less than two dozen Fortune companies have actually been buying back debt in the past quarter in preparation for the next shoe to drop; the one with the word ‘recession’ stamped on the bottom of each shoe. The notion that corporations should unwind the ‘sell debt, buy shares’ trade –by issuing new shares and using the proceeds to balance the balance sheet and repurchase outstanding debt is an idea that no investment bank would even suggest in his sleep, no less in an office. It would be professional suicide for a corporate CFO to even suggest that idea makes sense. Geopolitical impact re Trump’s tariff war is hitting US companies and US workers, even if not the Trump Hotel enterprise. The corporate tax cut was a short shot of heroin that stimulated the stock market, but increased the Federal deficit by nearly $1trillion. (Let’s not forget that Trump campaigned on reducing debt, not increasing it–but so does every other candidate). Now people are coming off the sugar high and that’s how/why stock prices revert to the mean.

Tariff Wars, Brexit and the assortment of geopolitical catastrophes have all been thrown into the mixing bowl. Crude oil prices have been crushed–along with the share prices of companies that drill, process and sell oil-based products. Yes, we’ll repeat: employment figures have been great, but as Donald Trump said throughout his presidential campaign, “Nobody can believe government employment figures, they’re all fake news!”

When weighing the assortment of fundamental signals that have been brightly broadcast throughout the past 9-12 months—and certainly since October of this year, anyone who had not re-balanced or pared down exposure to equities has no business investing in stocks. Its easy to say “Ok, 20-20 hindsight is great..blah blah blah..” For those following @marketsmuse, there’s no 20-20 hindsight; our resident pundits (with trading market pedigrees that go back to the 1980’s) have been shouting “Caution Ahead!!” for at least 4 months. (see the pinned tweet).  But, who wants to listen to experienced (if not cynical) professionals who have lived through multiple market cycles, especially when prices keep going up? Who wants to risk taking a profit and paying taxes on those gains when the asset value keeps going up, with or without fundamental justification? The answer: people who are (i) naïve (ii) overly-optimistic (iii) financially irresponsible (iv) not old enough to appreciate that what goes up, must go down.

Whatever black swans have been flying over head for the past 6 months, now that equity prices have suffered multiple-day declines of 1%-3% (and the interim 1%-2% “dead cat bounce”) we need to blame someone!! After all, our very own president has been unwavering in his leadership mantra: “When the shit hits the fan, blame someone else for the problem!”

Before the ink was dry on the famous Michael Lewis book “Flash Boys,” which profiled the May 2010 stock market crash, everyone knew who to blame. Before the first 1000 copies of that book left Barnes & Noble, government officials and regulators were busy sending out outlook meeting invites to the primary suspects-the heads of HFT proprietary trading firms that had come to dominate the trading of shares in US companies listed on public exchanges (and ‘dark venues), as well as stock index futures traded on electronic venues in Chicago.

Rules were introduced. Market structure lobbying groups were formed. Exchange executives pilot tested uptick rule changes. Fintech firms that provided ‘better solutions’ now represent more than just a cottage industry as evidenced by the fact, three of the leading HFT firms have through acquisition, become the three largest NYSE DMMs. For old folks, DMM is the contemporary phrase for ‘floor specialist’-the folks who are responsible for maintaining fair and orderly markets in the companies the NYSE assigns to market-makers on the floor of the NYSE. Pay-to-play and maker-taker rebate schemes advanced by brokers and exchange venues have flourished. Blah Blah Blah. Along the way, the US equities market, spurred by improving economic circumstances, and the last 10 years have been pretty much one long wet dream for traders and stock investors. The evolution of high-frequency trading morphed even more.

Irrespective of bull vs. bear views on individual stocks and stock indices and the 1500+ Exchange-Traded Funds that provide thematic investing styles, more than a carload of institutional investment managers still agree on one simple fact:  share price movements in individual companies and ETFs are exacerbated by high-powered black boxes that spit out millions of orders per minute. Those orders are often based on what has transpired in the markets during the past few seconds. This algorithmic approach to trading causes educated investors to scratch their heads when observing the value of shares in public companies can gyrate so violently in the course of an hour or a day, despite the fact those companies haven’t made any earnings report nor announced any positive or negative news as to the health of their business or the industry they sit in.

How does a company’s enterprise value move 10% down one day, then 5% up the next? Are there so many investors with differing views who are expressing these views constantly via buying and selling millions of shares? No. Honest electronic trading industry experts will estimate that at least 80% of the time, transactions taking place at the NYSE or NASDAQ are between two ‘transformers’; computer bots that are set on auto-trade. These black box powered bots do not represent investors, they don’t smoke (unless the computer is overheated and not residing in a freezer), they don’t curse and they don’t sweat—they simply spit out–orders based on algorithms.

Put more simply, actual investors are not involved in upwards of 90% of the trades taking place. Bottom line: the exaggerated changes in publicly traded corporate enterprise values that take place from second to second are even more pronounced as prices move lower. That’s a real fact, not a Kelly Ann Conway or Sarah Huckabee-style “alternative fact.” More than a handful of objective market observers and participants have long argued that Wall Street has evolved into a Battle of the Transformers”; price moves and volatility are powered by computers, not by momentary sentiment changes on the part of real investors.

But, we live in a blame game world, as best evidenced by our so-called leaders (yes, we’re referring to the current occupant of the White House) who, when faced with obstacles or after making stupid decisions, automatically blame others for the disaster that occurred recently.  And those blames are applauded by the blind mice and sheep who go along with the stupid decisions made for them.

Because our pundits have accurately predicted this latest market down draft, allow us to further predict that we want to be “long on” private jet services to Washington (NYSE: BRK.A) and we’d love to invest in engagement contracts issued by Wall Street-friendly PR Crisis Management guru. Those folks will be on speed dial for the best-known HFT honchos, starting yesterday.  Caveat Emptor: PR crisis management should be advanced by smart folks, not those trained in the art of jibber jabber and deflection. If there is a fundamental flaw, acknowledge it and implement transparent steps that will appease the plaintiffs and provide real solutions to the ‘problem’ .

If you’ve got a hot insider tip, a bright idea, or if you’d like to get visibility for your brand through MarketsMuse via subliminal content marketing, advertorial, blatant shout-out, spotlight article, news release etc., please reach out to our Senior Editor via cmo@marketsmuse.com

gts-etf-market-maker

NYSE DMM GTS Securities Buys Cantor’s ETF Market-Making Business

Breaking News: GTS Securities, the NYSE’s biggest specialist firm aka Designated Market Maker (“DMM”) and one of the electronic market-making world’s biggest players in the FX and rates markets is now aiming to become the ETF industry’s biggest market-maker the old-fashioned way, by buying into the space. After several months of speculation and rumors of a pending deal, GTS formally announced today they have acquired the entire team of ETF brokers and traders from Cantor Fitzgerald. According to the press release issued by GTS, the deal to acquire Cantor’s ETF team of approximately 35 ETF sales traders led by ETF industry veteran Reginald Browne is expected to close in February 2019. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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(l)Reginald “ETF Godfather” Browne (r) Ari Rubenstein, co-founder GTS Securities

GTS was established by former NY Merc floor traders Ari Rubenstein and David Lieberman, who looked to Amit Livnat, a top-of-class graduate from the world famous Israel Institute of Technology to serve as the firm’s resident tech wonk. Of the three, Rubenstein is the camera-facing thought-leader, who first cut his teeth in the trading business as a runner on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange and later became a floor trader on the New York Cotton Exchange. Aligning with fellow floor trader David Lieberman and Livnat, GTS was first positioned as a quantitative prop trading firm that leveraged in-house trading technology and home-grown algorithms to peel incremental profits by executing tens of thousands of transactions per day across US equities, rates and FX markets. GTS levered its high-frequency trading domain expertise and morphed into its current role as a global trading powerhouse once the firm took control of the NYSE’s biggest specialist firm operated by a unit of Barclays Bank.

“For the first time on a scale never seen before, the most sophisticated Wall Street technology is being deployed for mainstream investors, be they institutional or retail,” said Ari Rubenstein, CEO and co-founder of GTS. “Investors around the world can now leverage the very best in machine learning, artificial intelligence and execution technology to help them save money whenever they trade and invest. This is an unprecedented opportunity for investors that unites unrivaled innovation with pioneering client service – while enhancing the capital raising opportunities for listed companies.”Stacey Cunningham, president of the New York Stock Exchange said, “The NYSE and our partners embody the synthesis of technology and human judgment, leading to the best possible outcome for investors and issuers.”

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Insurance Co PMs Getting The Memo: ETF Products Make More Sense

Insurance Co PMs are increasingly getting  “the memo” : Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) Make Sense..

(Pensions & Investments) Exchange-traded funds have permeated almost every corner of the financial markets, but insurance companies have primarily kept their distance. That may be changing.

Though several U.S. insurers have navigated the $2.4 trillion ETF marketplace through variable-annuity products, integration into general accounts has been more recent, many observers say.

According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, insurers have only scratched the surface in their use of ETFs. Analyzing National Association of Insurance Commissioners data through 2015, S&P found that property and casualty, life and health insurers only reported an aggregate $15 billion invested in ETFs for general accounts, but the growth of ETF assets has outpaced overall growth of general account assets, which approached $6 trillion at the end of 2015, according to SNL Financial.

Since 2006, the amount of ETFs held by Insurance Co PMs has increased 146% and grown 14.5% per year, whereas total assets in general accounts have increased 26% in the same period, according to S&P. And, as with many measures of institutional investment in ETFs, year-end holdings are not necessarily indicative of ongoing ETF usage in more temporary functions such as transitions and liquidity management.

S&P projects ETF asset values for insurers to double in five years, in line with Greenwich Associates’ annual institutional ETF survey which indicated 71% of insurers surveyed in 2015 expected to increase their allocation to ETFs.

“It’s clear that the largest ETF providers — BlackRock (BLK), State Street and Vanguard — have been working more closely with the insurance companies,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, New York. “But it’s also a size aspect. Smaller insurers with fewer resources have been more willing to use index ETFs compared to larger insurers paying for active management and investment due diligence.”

“Compared to financial advisers and pension managers, insurance general account managers have more assets and greater risk aversion,” added Mr. Rosenbluth. “The ETF education model is different.”

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More recently those “educational” conversations are including the growing asset base and efficacy of fixed-income ETFs, said Steve Mickle, a director of institutional sales and trading with WallachBeth Capital LLC in San Francisco. He said that insurers have become the agency brokerage firm’s fastest growing clientele. “They see the size and liquidity of some of the earliest and most foundational fixed-income ETFs as utility products, ones that work for parking cash or interim benchmarking,” said Mr. Mickle.

According to WallachBeth, 132 fixed-income ETFs have been assessed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for risk-based capital treatment that could potentially be more favorable than common stock (as ETFs are traditionally reported).

“The NAIC designation is an added feature,” said Bill Best, managing director at VanEck in New York, “but some of the largest insurers are still working through the products and mechanics of ETFs.”

Josh Penzner, managing director at BlackRock Inc. (BLK), has observed insurers testing the waters of fixed-income ETFs, particularly to manage cash liquidity and investment exposures as a placeholder before purchasing bonds that have been “and will continue to be” the core of insurance general account portfolios.

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MarketsMuse blog post title Insurance Co PMs are increasingly getting  “the memo” : Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) Make Sense..

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What’s Next? A Fintech ETF!

Just when you were about to ask “What’s the next type of exchange-traded fund that nobody else has come up with?, PureFunds has launched a fintech ETF!

If you’re not familiar with the phrase ‘fintech’, you’re likely not qualified to put assets into this latest exchange-traded fund that specializes in one of the hottest trends-financial technology companies.

Caveat: According to 4 Pinocchio star winner Donald Trump, “Many people are saying..” that “fintech” is a phrase associated with start-up companies focused on delivering innovative software applications used to streamline financial industry centric services. The fact is that ‘fintech’ is a term that is applied to the full gamut of companies that specialize in financial industry technology solutions, as evidenced by the criteria for constituents within PureFunds latest ETF product, Solcative Fintech ETF (FINQ).

FINQ allows investors to invest in this fast-growing segment of the industry without having to select individual companies. The rules- based index approach allows us to capture exposure to companies at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.”

But don’t just take our word for it, below is the press release that just crossed the tape..

SUMMIT, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ETF Managers Group in partnership with PureFunds today debuted their newest fund, the PureFunds Solactive FinTech ETF (FINQ).

“FINQ allows investors to invest in this fast-growing segment of the industry without having to select individual companies. The rules- based index approach allows us to capture exposure to companies at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.”

Trading on the NASDAQ, the fintech ETF “FINQ” invests in global companies disrupting the multi-trillion dollar financial industry by offering technology-based solutions designed to revolutionize how financial industry firms interact with their customers and run their businesses.

The fund’s holdings include technology services companies that principally derive revenue from the sale of financial-related information, financial data analysis services, financial services software tools or platforms or web-based financial services. Each company in the fund and its corresponding index – 31 in total – has a minimum market cap of $200 million.

“Financial technology is a rapidly growing subsector of the overall financial services industry, and our fintech ETF FINQ seeks to tap into the potential investment opportunity created by these disruptive, forward- thinking companies,” Andrew Chanin, CEO of PureFunds, said. “FINQ allows investors to invest in this fast-growing segment of the industry without having to select individual companies. The rules- based index approach allows us to capture exposure to companies at the forefront of innovation in the financial industry.”

If you’ve got a hot tip, a bright idea, or if you’d like to get visibility for your firm through MarketsMuse via subliminal content marketing, advertorial, blatant shout-out, spotlight article, etc., please reach out to our Senior Editor

Sam Masucci founder and CEO of ETF Managers Group said, “The idea behind PureFunds ETFs is to make available – in a single diversified investment – unique areas within markets that have been greatly enhanced by technology. Technology allows businesses to offer new innovative services that can positively affect a consumer’s experience.”

FINQ will cost 68 basis points* and will be equal weighted. It joins PureFunds’ suite of products, BIGD, GAMR, HACK, IFLY, IPAY, SILJ and IMED, which also begins trading today on the NASDAQ.

* A basis point is one hundredth of a percent

About PureFunds

As an innovator of ETF concepts, PureFunds® strives to provide the market with easy access to in-demand industries through pure-play ETFs. We are a New York City-based research and business management firm, serving as the Manager and/or Sponsor to the suite of PureFunds ETFs. We aim to provide investors with tactical ETFs that may offer attractive investment opportunities in sectors that traditionally have been difficult to invest in. With vast experience in global equity investing and ETF trading, PureFunds has a refreshing and alternative insight into the growing world of ETFs. We have constructed our distinct suite of products in an attempt to meet the needs of investors and traders alike.

About ETF Managers Group

ETF Managers Group, LLC is a leading Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) private label services company. ETF Managers Group offers a full range of ETF product services to the asset management community including commodity pool ETPs as well as both active and passive ETF funds. The services provided include product operations, regulatory, financial and compliance management. ETF Managers Group offers active marketing and dedicated wholesale services for all ETF product types and index construction.

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O’Leary of Shark Tank Brands Bigger Pool of ETF Products

The summer interns at MarketsMuse had already voted “Shark Tank” as their favorite TV show,  so it was no surprise that our senior curators took their cue to advance the latest news from Kevin O’Leary, the celeb entrepreneur and more recently, an ETF aficionado who has extended his brand to the world of exchange-traded fund (ETF) products under the O’Shares Investment umbrella.

(Bloomberg) — Kevin O’Leary is out to carve a niche for himself in the world of exchange-traded funds.

The chairman of O’Shares Investments and Shark Tank personality has filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch 17 ETFs. All the proposed offerings have “quality” in the name and would employ a passive investing approach. The investable universe of these funds includes emerging-market equities, small-cap U.S. stocks, preferred shares, and even corporate credit.

“It’s rare for an indie shop like this to put this many funds on one filing,” said Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

O’Leary’s celebrity status and the application of smart-beta strategies to fixed income could help the Canadian businessman differentiate himself and attract assets in what’s becoming a crowded ETF space, with roughly 60 issuers in the U.S. The “quality” designation suggests O’Leary’s ETFs will put a priority on conservative factors, which are in vogue as the bull market enters its eighth year.

O’Shares’ most popular current offering, the FTSE U.S. Quality Dividend ETF (NYSE ARCA: OUSA), has $240.5-million in assets and has outperformed the S&P 500 so far this year:

Details on expense ratios or fees for O’Shares‘ proposed ETFs weren’t included in the preliminary prospectus. The FTSE U.S. Quality Dividend ETF has an expense ratio of 0.48 percent, which is roughly in line with that of other smart beta offerings.

Earlier this year, O’Leary indicated that he was considering a run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada after former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories lost the 2015 federal election to the Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau.

bitcoin-etf-marketsmuse

Bitcoin ETF: Navigating SEC Spider Web: Spider Woman

Call it a Rat’s Nest, a Rabbit Hole, or a Rubik’s Cube, but no certified marketsmuse can dispute the fact the ETF industry has become a Spider’s Web of complexity when it comes to the assortment of products being promoted. And, who more qualified to advocate on behalf of a Bitcoin ETF than Kathleen Moriarty, who is often referred to as the Spider Woman of the ETF marketplace for her long history of traversing the SEC in the course of championing innovative products.

(Reuters) –When one of the first exchange-traded funds launched in 1993, securities lawyer Kathleen Moriarty received a gift from her legal assistant: a Spider-Man comic-book cover altered to depict the superhero facing off against a hulking Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Kathleen Moriarty, Esq. (photo courtesy of Reuters)

Twenty-three years later, Ms. Moriarty’s ability to navigate the arcane rules that govern financial markets and products has built her a reputation as a top lawyer in the ETF business and earned her the nickname “Spider Woman.” Her latest challenge is convincing regulators that a bitcoin ETF is appropriate for the market. That isn’t necessarily an easy sell, given the explosion of ETFs across the market and their fraught role in a market meltdown last August.​

“I tend to concentrate on more exotic products,” Ms. Moriarty said. “Zero of my plans include retirement.”

ETFs have grown to become one of Wall Street’s most popular product categories by offering investors low-fee access to wide swaths of the market.​Investors had close to $3 trillion in assets across nearly 4,500 ETFs globally as of March, according to London-based research firm ETFGI.

“I don’t think anyone would have thought it was going to be this big,” said Ms. Moriarty, a partner at Kaye Scholer LLP, in an interview this year at her Midtown Manhattan office, which was adorned with decorative arachnids and the framed comic.

Ms. Moriarty, who turned 63 Tuesday, helped launch what is still the largest U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund—the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, or SPY—paving the way in 1993 for a booming industry.

“If you’re going to try to do something unique and novel in that space, you’re going to call Kathleen,” said Jim Ross, who heads State Street Global Advisors’ line of SPDR ETFs.

ast year, the agency proposed new rules that could limit ETFs’ growth and even slim down the current lineup, such as curbing the use of derivatives by mutual funds and ETFs and limiting their holdings of assets that are illiquid, or tough to buy and sell.

An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment for this article.

Ms. Moriarty said regulators’ concerns about the products’ proliferation is “extreme.”

“How many more mutual funds do we need? Nobody ever asks that question,” said Ms. Moriarty. (There are more than 8,100 mutual funds and about 1,600 ETFs in the U.S. as of February, according to the Investment Company Institute, a fund industry group.)

Ms. Moriarty cited bitcoin’s volatility as a risk in the filing she co-wrote. She said her proposed ETF’s structure is similar to that of the $32 billion exchange-traded gold product, the SPDR Gold Trust, that she helped launch in 2004 because it aims to give investors access to the commodity without having to hold it. The fund, GLD, has risen sharply along with gold prices this year.

“I’m optimistic,” Ms. Moriarty said about the bitcoin application.

ETP-3-trillion-dollar industry

ETF and ETP: Now a $3 Trillion Industry

Back in the day, when “trillion dollar” was a phrase not even contemplated by film writers, and barely envisioned by financial industry wonks (other than in context of US government deficit), and when even being a billionaire was limited to a universe of less than two dozen people, (e.g. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates 25 years ago), few would have predicted that a category of financial vehicle known as exchanged-traded products (ETP), with a sub-sect comprised of exchanged-traded fund (ETF) would become mainstream. Well, ETPs and ETFs are so mainstream now, assets invested in these products have surpassed $3trillion in each of the past two years.

(Traders Magazine) Assets invested in Exchange traded funds and ETPs listed globally have broken through the $3 trillion milestone for the second time at the end of Q1. At the end of May 2015 the assets in ETFs/ETPs listed globally first exceeded the $3 trillion milestone.

During March 2016, ETFs/ETPs listed globally gathered $45.30 in net new assets, according to research from ETFGI, a London-based market research firm. This marks the 26th consecutive month of net inflows. The Global ETF/ETP industry had 6,240 ETFs/ETPs, with 12,042 listings, assets of $3.07 trillion, from 277 providers listed on 64 exchanges in 51 countries, according to preliminary data from ETFGI’s March 2016 global ETF and ETP industry insights report.

U.S. equities rebounded in March ending the month up 7 percent. Emerging markets and Developed ex US markets also had a strong March ending up 12.5 percent and 7.2 percent respectively. Based on comments from the Fed there is a growing belief that interest rates will be held lower for longer than previously anticipated. The European Central Bank cut rates and announced additional stimulus will begin in April, accelerating the rate of bond purchases from 60 to 80 billion euros per month,” according to Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.

Some ETF numbers, via ETFGI:

In March 2016, ETFs/ETPs saw net inflows of $45.30 Bn. Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with $26.30 Bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with $14.80 Bn, and commodity  ETFs/ETPs with $2.42 Bn.

In March 2016, 71 new ETFs/ETPs were launched by 27 providers and 30 ETFs/ETPs were closed.

iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in March with US$20.97 Bn, followed by Vanguard with US$9.74 Bn and SPDR ETFs with US$6.25 Bn in net inflows.

YTD, iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows YTD with US$24.54 Bn, followed by Vanguard with US$17.82 Bn and SPDR ETFs with US$8.78 Bn net inflows.

S&P Dow Jones has the largest amount of ETF/ETP assets tracking its benchmarks with 27.5 percent market share; MSCI is second with 14.6% market share, followed by FTSERussell with 12.4 percent market share.

Keep reading Traders Magazine story via this link

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Canadian Exchanges Face-Off Over ETF Listings

Last week, Canadian upstart exchange Aequitas NEO announced its first ETF listing, and in response to that PR promotion, Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), a subsidiary of TMX Group fired back with a slapshot, thanks to TD Asset Management (TDAM) listing and launching six new ETFs.

(TradersMagazine) Executives from TD Asset Management opened trading of its new exchange traded fund business at the Toronto Stock Exchange. Last week, TDAM’s six new passive ETFs began trading on TSX, including products designed to track the performance of Canadian fixed income markets as well as Canadian, U.S. and international equities.

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Lou Eccleston, CEO TMX Group (photo via Bloomberg)

“TSX is proud to welcome TD Asset Management ETFs to our Exchange. TDAM has been a great sponsor of the industry and our firm for many years,” said Nick Thadaney, president & CEO, Global Equity Capital Markets, TMX Group.

He added, “We have a rich history in supporting the successful growth of the ETF marketplace and we remain committed to serving this segment into the future. ETFs have become a vital part of Canada’s markets and a great example of the dynamic and diverse products we offer to investors.”

To celebrate the listing on TSX, Tim Wiggan, CEO, TDAM, joined Thadaney to open trading this morning.

As of February 29, 2016, there were 384 ETFs and exchange traded notes listed on TSX with a combined market capitalization of over $98 billion.

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Only Idiots Use USO ETF to Trade Oil-It Can’t Tango!

For those who are confused as to the near-term, or even longer-term price direction of Oil, even J.R. Ewing would tell you there isn’t an oil man in Texas, including Boone Pickens, who can see far beyond the prices posted at the pump. Especially when one gas station in Oklahoma is now selling one gallon for .99 –a price that has been seen in certain spots, but not since 1993 has oil been so ‘cheap.’ For those who try to express a bet on price direction via a financial instrument, one leading markets muse is going so far as to infer that “..Only idiots use the ETF $USO to make a bet with.” Why? It Can’t Tango!  Well…that’s perhaps a poetic license pun on words, but..

Courtesy of the universally-known ETF Professor Todd Shriber, who pens for financial news site Benzinga, the markets muse in question turns out to be one of the global macro world’s more eloquent and most thoughtful gurus.. Here’s the extract from Shriber’s early a.m. column:

To say the United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSE: USO), which tracks West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, is a flawed product is accurate and fair. Over the past three years, USO is down 77.1 percent, but the exchange-traded product remains a favorite, on both sides of the oil trade, of professional traders.

Inflows to USO confirm as much. After adding nearly $3.1 billion in new assets last year, USO has seen year-to-date inflows of almost $900 million. USO’s 2016 inflows put it just outside of the year’s top 10 asset-gathering ETFs.

USO And Contango

Perhaps the greatest source of criticism against USO comes from the fact that the ETF is frequently in contango. As it pertains to USO, contango occurs when the West Texas intermediate futures currently held by the ETF trade at higher prices than the market expects that contract to trade at for the months ahead.

“Oil traders should be aware that USO tracks front-month WTI future contracts and the underlying oil market is currently in a state of contango. Consequently, USO could experience a negative roll yield when rolling a maturing futures contract, or selling a contract that is about to expire in exchange for the next month contract,” according to ETF Trends.

WTI And Negative Yield Rolls

Speaking of negative yield roll, West Texas Intermediate futures are currently facing an epic negative yield roll.

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Neil Azous, Rareview Macro

“The widening in the ‘contango’ between the first and second futures contracts, or the March-April spread (CLH6-CLJ6), has exploded to ~8 percent in negative roll yield,” said Rareview Macro founder Neil Azous in a note out Wednesday evening.

As Azous noted, West Texas Intermediate’s current level of contango is quadruple that of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark contract, on a percentage basis.

The problem for any trader, professional or retail, who is long USO is that instances of exaggerated West Texas Intermediate have previously given way to savage declines for that contract and USO.

“The extrapolation that the market will likely make into next week’s crude oil futures roll and options expiration is that the next leg lower in the barrel has started and this CLH6-CLJ6 spread can widen out dramatically as evidenced by the extreme widening to 25 percent back in the winter of 2008-2009 when the barrel finally bottomed out for that cycle,” added Azous.

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/news/16/02/6246307/how-contango-could-affect-a-popular-oil-etf#ixzz3zt6Cpp2D

 

HYG v VIX

High-Yield Credit Spreads, HYG and VIX-Reading The Tea Leaves

MarketsMuse followers have been reminded more than a few times that conventional wisdom requires investors to keep their eyes on corporate bond spreads so as to have a clear lens when considering the outlook for equity prices on a medium-to-longer time frame. The relationship between high-yield debt,most-often measured by HYG (the high-yield bond exchanged-traded fund) and VIX–the latter of which is an often misunderstood metric, is a telling indicator for stock investors. And, those who are experts at reading the tea leaves are pointing to red flags on the horizon..

Courtesy of CNBC, Neil Azous of Rareview Macro and Andrew Burkly of Oppenheimer, two of the industry’s most sensible pundits discuss the cause and ramifications of the recent junk bond sell-off, pointing to high yield bond ETF $HYG as a meter benchmark to in the video below..

Is an ETF for Equity Crowdfunding Far Off?-Global Directory Announces Launch

For followers of the global equity crowdfund movement and fintech aficionados who are fluent in ‘what’s next?’, this is a big news week from the crowdfund world. Yesterday, MarketsMuse curators spotlighted a just-launched trading exchange that brings billions of dollars worth of private shares into the wacky world of secondary market trading. While there are rumored to be various efforts to package equity-crowdfunded ‘equity stakes’ into exchange-traded fund structures, which is arguably the “next great idea, “the first ETF for Equity Crowdfunding” has yet to be formally announced.

Before that announcement actually happens, today’s announcement from the multi-billion crowdfunding space (see link below) might be the data foundation such an initiative. and could very well be the vision spearheaded by this new portal, RaiseMoney.com.

MarketsMuse editor note: fully-disclosed, one of our favorite staff members was cited in this news story with the following comment

“Noted Pete Hoegler, senior analyst for financial industry blog, MarketsMuse.com, “The RaiseMoney.com platform has three critical elements in its favor. Firstly, they have a really compelling domain name that inspires immediate brand recognition.” Added Hoegler, “Secondly, this group has the benefit of not having “first-mover disadvantage” and most important, RaiseMoney.com is providing a much-needed service for a still nascent industry that is capturing the attention of millions of people and billions of dollars.”

Click below for the formal announcement distributed by NASDAQ’s GlobeNewswire

Wall St Ex-Pats Launch Global Directory for Crowdfunding Industry”

Global Macro Rareview: ETF Investors and The Ivy Portfolio

If the second shoe is actually falling as US (and all other) equities markets appear to indicate this morning, MarketsMuse ETF and Global Macro editors were stimulated by having Sight Beyond Sight with this morning’s coffee, courtesy of Rareview Macro’s Neil Azous. Of particular interest, Azous points to Mebane Faber’s The Ivy Portfolio for those who have defaulted to using exchange-traded funds and to the reference to Occam’s Razor, a principle that global macro enthusiasts will appreciate.

Without further ado, please find an extract from this morning’s edition of Sight Beyond Sight…

Corporate Buybacks Not Strong Enough to Save Stocks Today…Retest of the Lows Now Underway

  • Negative Statistical Analogs
  • No September First of the Month Inflows
  • China Quantitative Tightening (QT)
  • Trends Switch to Medium- from Short-Term
  • Correlation Breakdown
Neil Azous, Rareview Macro
Neil Azous, Rareview Macro

The key takeaways to start September are invisible to the naked eye; a little sight beyond sight is required this morning in order to see them clearly.

Firstly, we are not sure who the source was, but the following S&P 500 analog was sent to us:

In the 11 times the S&P 500 fell by more than 5% in August it declined in 80% of the subsequent Septembers; the average decline in September in those years was 4%.Now, there are many statistics with similar odds of success being circulated out there, but in aggregate these one-liners miss the bigger picture, in our opinion.

The message is that the higher volatility witnessed during August has carried over into September. It took eight hours of the overnight session for S&P futures (ESU5) to confirm 65% of the above analog, as the index was -2.6% at one point.

Secondly, the first of the month inflows into risk assets that professionals are accustomed to relying on to support their long equity positions has gone missing this year. Inflows into equities are generally expected to follow the simultaneous release of PMI manufacturing data, especially when the data historically points to a stronger global growth profile. However, the data released this morning was uniformly weak, and serves as a reminder of the regional synchronicity – that is, Japan’s consumption-led recovery is faltering, the US has a second half of the year inventory overhang to work through, Europe’s inflation profile is reverting back to pre-“QECB” profile, and China remains an unknown.

Thirdly, given the overall weakness in risk assets the sell-off in the German Bund (RXU5) over the last 24-hours is confounding professionals. Occam’s Razor, a principle that states that among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected, suggests that the Chinese central bank is once again selling dollars and foreign fixed income reserves to buy yuan. As a reminder, FX intervention means foreign reserves have to shrink. The mechanics are as follows: sell foreign sovereign bonds > receive US dollars (USD), euro (EUR), yen (JPY) > use USD/EUR/JPY proceeds to buy CNY = no impact to private economy.

The Chinese Yuan, both the onshore (USD/CNY) and offshore (USD/CNH) versions, is trading at its strongest level since the devaluation. The key difference today however is that the central bank is not defending yuan weakness. Instead, in the spirit of managing volatility, it appears it is proactively reminding speculators who their daddy is and doing a good job of crushing their souls at the same time.

Next.. Continue reading

News Alert: SEC Set To Hit Pimco With Wells Notice in Probe of Bond ETF

Bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co. aka Pimco said Monday that it received a Wells Notice from the SEC and the firm could be sued by the country’s top securities regulator over how it valued assets in ETF $BOND, one of its most popular exchange-traded bond funds aimed at small investors.

MarketsMuse Flash News courtesy of WSJ; photo image courtesy of Bloomberg LP.

The Pimco Total Return ETF, previously managed by star investor Bill Gross, has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for at least a year for artificially boosting returns, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Pimco disclosed Monday that it received a so-called Wells notice from the SEC, an indication that the agency intends to file a civil enforcement action against the firm related to its investigation. The notice isn’t a formal allegation of wrongdoing and it doesn’t mean the agency has found that any laws were violated.

The original story from WSJ is available via this link

Swimming With New Sharks: Kevin O’Leary Jumps into ETF Biz

How big are ETFs these days? Even Kevin O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful” of ABC’s “Shark Tank” is getting into the game. On Tuesday, O’Leary was on the NYSE floor to launch the O’Shares FTSE US Quality Dividend ETF, (ARCA NYSE:OUSA): a basket of high-dividend stocks.

But he’s not doing this just to enter the crowded ETF space, which already has 1,700 ETFs and more than 50 ETF providers.

As noted by the coverage from CNBC, “Mr. Wonderful” is entering the exchange-traded fund world as an Issuer because he needed an investment vehicle for the equity portion of his family trust, which he started in 1997. O’Leary claims he wanted an investment vehicle that was rule-based, first and foremost, so no one would tinker with it.

And he wanted dividends. Why dividends? As O’Leary accurately opines, 70 percent of the returns in the stock market over the past decade or so have come from dividends.

But O’Leary did not just want to buy a basket of the highest-yielding ETFs. You can get that already with Vanguard High Dividend Yield, and you can get variations, like the iShares Select Dividend, that screen by dividend-per-share growth rate, or the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF, which focuses on companies that have steadily increased dividends. O’Leary’s rule-based system is predicated on the following:

  1. A total yield close to 3 percent
  2. with 20 percent less volatility than the market
  3. with stocks that all had strong balance sheets

OUSA is therefore comprised of 140 stocks selected from the FTSE USA Index, comprised of 600 of the largest U.S. publicly-listed equities.

Given the high-profile presence and PR power of O’Leary, O’Shares made its debut on Tuesday in heavy volume. It’s the latest in a flurry of new ETF launches this month; now with 28 new funds, July is already tied for the most ETF launches of any month this year.

 

 

John Hancock Selects Dimensional to Manage Smart Beta ETFs

Marketsmuse updates that fund giant John Hancock Investments will partner with Dimensional Fund Advisors on six “smart-beta” exchange-traded funds, according to paperwork filed with regulators early on Monday.

Dimensional, based in Austin, Texas, is one of the earliest proponents of factor investing. They blend elements of index-based investing and active investing in order to predictably exploit market returns and minimize trading costs. Many of today’s smart beta products — from index providers including FTSE Russell, WisdomTree, Research Affiliates — are based on a similar premise.

John Hancock unveiled in its preliminary prospectuses for the factor-based ETFs that DFA, the market-beating investment firm that adheres to the academic work of Eugene Fama and Kenneth French, will be the sub-advisor for its ETFs. John Hancock has worked with DFA on mutual funds and asset-allocation strategies since 2006.

John Hancock initially filed plans for ETFs nearly four years ago, but has yet to bring an ETF to market. However, a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicates the firm is getting closer to launching its first ETFs.

The new filing provides details and expense ratios on the proposed ETFs. For example, the John Hancock Multifactor ETF, which is expected to charge 0.35% per year, will track an index comprised a subset of securities in the U.S. Universe issued by companies whose market capitalizations are larger than that of the 801st largest U.S. company at the time of reconstitution. In selecting and weighting securities in the Index, the Index Service Provider uses a rules-based process that incorporates sources of expected returns. This rules-based approach to index investing may sometimes be referred to as multifactor investing, factor-based investing, strategic beta, or smart beta.

John Hancock manages nearly $130 billion in mutual funds and money-market funds. Dimensional manages $406 billion. Dimensional already advises on John Hancock-branded mutual funds that have $3.2 billion in assets.

Currency Hedging On the Loose in ETF World

Do you hear that?  That stampeding sound you hear is coming from fund managers scurrying to get into the currency-hedging trade.

Currency hedging ETFs have been in vogue this year given the ultra-lose monetary policy across the globe and a strong U.S. dollar against a basket of other currencies. The bullish trend in the dollar is likely to continue as the Fed is primed to increase interest rates for the first time since 2006 later this year, as the U.S. economy roars back to life.

While cheap money flows are making international investment a compelling opportunity for U.S. investors this year, a strong dollar could wipe out the gains when repatriated in U.S. dollar terms, pushing international investment into the red in spite of well performing stocks. As a result, investors are flocking to currency hedged ETFs. This has a double benefit. While these ETFs tap bullish international fundamentals, they dodge the effect of a strong greenback.

As is often the case on Wall Street, the natural worry is whether the rush might come too late. Foreign exchange dynamics present earlier this year have abated somewhat, making the need to protect against currency movements less urgent for the moment.

With the race to the bottom heating up among global central banks, it’s no wonder fund managers are looking to capitalize.